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urgent!! pill bugs- problem or friend? lots of them!!
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:11 pm
by veggielover
so tonight, I went out to dust the garden with diatomaceous earth, and noticed coming out from under my compost bit (its a pallet bin set up on cinderblocks) were dozens of pill bugs. it kind of scared me after I noticed it!! there were so many! and they all seemed headed straight for my raised bed!! I've read so many conflicting things about these bugs- some say they are good and others say they are bad. what should I do about them? I dusted a little diatomaceous around the perimeter of the garden just in case, but that doesn't seem to be stopping them.
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:34 pm
by hendi_alex
Pill bugs don't generallly cause any trouble, they will come in after some other critter has caused some damage. I don't do anything to control the pill bugs, have many of them, and they seem to do little if any damage to my wide variety of crops.
Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 9:43 pm
by veggielover
thank you so much for responding. I watered the compost and I think that sent them marching out. it was pretty scary, but I think everything is okay now. thank you
pill bugs
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:11 am
by rainbowgardener
Pill bugs are detritovores... they don't eat living things, they are part of the process of breaking down dead things. They are always in my compost pile, in the active working part where stuff is being broken down. They are gone out of the finished compost because there's nothing left for them to eat. They won't hurt your plants.
Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:41 pm
by annafaie
Mine didn't leave my compost
In fact I have hundreds and hundres of them in compost and in my raised beds. I was worried as well but the experts here told me not to worry about them and to be honest I haven't seen any damage so far.
I DID use some neem oil on cabbage worms and that seemed to shrink my pill bug population...not sure if that was the reason but I was happy to see less of them. When I say I have hundreds, I mean HUNDREDS!!!!
Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:04 pm
by applestar
Did a quick search for natural predators of pill bugs: Spiders, of course, frogs, toads, lizards, and small mammals that hunt at night -- I bet my polite friends the moles eat them too!
Time to dig that pond, veggielover and annafaie! Landscape it with nice sunny rocks for the lizards to bask on, and you're in business!