Pill Bugs!!!

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indysun
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Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2019 11:23 pm
Location: Brownsburg, IN.

Pill Bugs!!!

#1

Post: # 20285Unread post indysun
Tue May 19, 2020 2:18 am

There are so many pill bugs in my raised bed they are crawling up the stalks of newly planted seedlings and eating leaves. When I turn the soil over to plant, there are bunches of them. Not so bad last year - had to plant larger transplants because they were eating the roots, and killing the plants. What to do??

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Shule
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Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2019 3:29 pm
Location: SW Idaho, USA

Re: Pill Bugs!!!

#2

Post: # 20288Unread post Shule
Tue May 19, 2020 4:56 am

I like to remove uncomposted organic matter from the soil surface (it attracts pill bugs), and just pick up all of the pill bugs I can find and toss them elsewhere. It seems to work. I don't have to get 100% of them, necessarily.

Another thing I do as insurance against such scenarios is overseed my plants and wait until they're settled in and no longer bothered by cutworms, pill bugs, or ants before I thin them to one plant, with scissors. That way, if they kill a few, I still have other plants in the same spot. They usually don't bother them after they've been there a week, two, or so.

If your plants are already established and they're being eaten, I might recommend giving them some potassium to toughen them up a bit, or put something down to deter the pill bugs.

I had pill bugs eating an established pepper plant's leaves once. I guess I just let them do it and they eventually stopped. They seemed to come out around 9, 10, or 11am to feed. So, had I been vigilant, I could have caught them all.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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Growing Coastal
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Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2019 4:49 pm
Location: Vancouver Island Canada

Re: Pill Bugs!!!

#3

Post: # 20298Unread post Growing Coastal
Tue May 19, 2020 8:58 am

indysun wrote: Tue May 19, 2020 2:18 am There are so many pill bugs in my raised bed they are crawling up the stalks of newly planted seedlings and eating leaves. When I turn the soil over to plant, there are bunches of them. Not so bad last year - had to plant larger transplants because they were eating the roots, and killing the plants. What to do??
If this has not been experienced it is hard to believe or understand just how bad pill bugs can be. I have more of them here than I have had in any other garden and that was before there was much growing here. There just are more of them than elsewhere. I thought it was slugs eating the hostas down to their growing tips and beyond until they died. Marigolds - same. Polyanthus ditto. Nope. Pill bugs.
To get my pole beans to grow I would use large pop bottles with their bottoms cut off over pre-started plants, bury the wide end and leave the cap off to allow air circulation and leave them there until the beans were large enough to withstand the bugs when the bottle would be removed. Now, I use large pots for my beans due to tree roots and don't have the problem with pill bugs nearly as bad.

indysun, It sounds like you have it even worse than I do. I tried using the suggested cornmeal but there are just waaaaay too many of the bugs for that to work at all well. They eat it and then, apparently, explode. (I used to be more ruthless.) You can try baiting them and then scooping them up or see if your garden center has something that will work.
Good Luck! You have my sympathies over this one.

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MissS
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Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2019 4:55 am
Location: SE Wisconsin Zone 5b

Re: Pill Bugs!!!

#4

Post: # 20302Unread post MissS
Tue May 19, 2020 9:21 am

You need to encourage a few toads to your gardens. Place a few clay flower pots on their sides or use some half circles of bark as a toad tent. Toads can eat hundreds of these every day. I used to have a koi pond and my young daughter would search out the pill bugs and toss them in for the frogs to eat. The frogs actually came to expect to be fed when they saw you come near.
~ Patti ~

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Shule
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Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2019 3:29 pm
Location: SW Idaho, USA

Re: Pill Bugs!!!

#5

Post: # 20343Unread post Shule
Tue May 19, 2020 5:45 pm

I've seen plenty of pill bugs in toad droppings, I believe. I've never tried feeding any to a toad before.

Our most visible abundant toads look and I believe sound a lot like Woodhouse's toads (Anaxyrus woodhousii), but they're possibly a related species.

If you catch a bunch of this kind of toad and put some in your yard, they likely won't go far. We caught some for a frog jumping contest over 30 years ago, probably, and released them in our backyard afterward. We've had toads in the neighborhood ever since. We even get babies, somehow, with the nearest constant water source being a creek a few streets away (but I think that's not the water source they use; it's pretty much in a ravine, and they'd have to climb a lot to get out of there). I hear toad calls from far in the opposite direction, however, nearer our local river (which isn't terribly close to my house). The baby toads don't appear to be the sort to travel long distances just to get to our house. You never know, though. Maybe they breed in my neighbor's well, or maybe the tadpoles can be fossorial (which seems more likely to me, honestly; Indian dancing frog tadpoles are).

We found our original toads while driving around at night on the less-frequented roads.

Our toads like to sit under bug zappers, street lights and such. We don't use a bug zapper anymore, though, but we still have our old one from the 1980's in our storage room.

Toads like to dig and live in holes. Sometimes when I'm digging to transplant a plant a toad comes out. Same for watering. They enjoy living in our concrete blocks that we use as borders for things. Some go under our black plastic in the spring, at least. So, I have to watch out for them. They make a cry to let me know where they are, sometimes, when I'm transplanting near them, or pulling weeds out of the planting holes in the black plastic with my hands.

They come out on our patio and sidewalks at night. There's usually one sitting under where our air conditioner drops water.
Location: SW Idaho, USA
Climate: BSk
USDA hardiness zone: 6
Elevation: 2,260 feet

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worth1
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Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2019 12:32 pm
Location: 25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas

Re: Pill Bugs!!!

#6

Post: # 20349Unread post worth1
Tue May 19, 2020 7:07 pm

I dont weed eat at certain times of the year because killing a frog lizard or toad is not an option.
Neighbors be damned if they dont like it.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

You can't argue with a closed mind.
You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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