cyndi k
Newly Registered
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:15 am
Location: land o lakes, FL

Pill bugs eating leaves touching ground!

I hand pick and drown them but getting tendonitis and carpal tunnel with new pill bugs every day. Vaseline barrier worked until it rained. They seem to LIKE the hot pepper spray and garlic and chile powder sprinkled on ground!

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rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Yeah the garlic pepper spray works against a lot of insects, but pill bugs aren't insects, they are crustaceans, more related to crabs and lobsters. They 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! :)



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