pill bugs eating my plant?

[linlaoboo]

Should I use some products to kill the pill bugs that roll in the ball? I'm seeing more of them in my grow bed where I have ficuses, a chinese elm and some junies. We had some rain yesterday and this morning I find a lot of babies and some are eating away at my ficus retusa leaves.

[rainbowgardener]

Pill bugs are mostly detritovores, eating dead stuff and helping break it down. So they usually aren't bad in your garden. You could always just throw them in your compost pile which is where they belong. They would likely be so happy there they wouldn't leave.

They will eat living plants if you have an infestation of them. I have heard that beer traps work on them like they do on slugs/snails. Take an open, empty, cleaned out tuna can, bury it in the ground near where you have seen the pill bugs, so the rim is at ground level, and fill it with beer. The pill bugs will come and drown themselves in the beer and die happy!

[linlaoboo]

Thanks. I will give it a go. It's good they don't enjoy the taste of older plants. It's just a young tender one that was eaten.

[kdodds]

Maybe a silly question, but are you sure that they're pill bugs? Scale insects can look quite similar, though smaller.

[linlaoboo]

these roll up like large pepper corns, I confirmed with pictures online.

[rainbowgardener]

Right, the scale insects do not roll up and they do not move around. They attach themselves to the plant and just sit there looking like part of the plant.