Spray the inner and outer perimeter of a greenhouse and plants. Pesticides and Natural Controlsįor a serious infestation, some growers recommend Malathion, Diazinon or Sevin. Sometimes, when they are still soft during molting, they can be eaten by their own kind. Natural predators include frogs, toads, newts, lizards, spiders and small mammals. Several methods exist for eradicating sow bugs and pill bugs. As they consume their desired food source, a certain amount of root tissue also gets chewed up. The damage caused to the roots of orchids and other plants by these pests comes from their munching on the fungi and microorganisms that inhabit the root surfaces. Pill bugs and sow bugs are generally herbivores, feeding on the fungi and bacteria that infest dead and rotting vegetation. These creatures are very vulnerable during molting, and often stay isolated for the duration of the shedding. A few day later, it sheds the front half. First, the skin splits at the middle and the back half is shed. Molting occurs in two stages, as pill bugs shed only half their skin at a time. After leaving the pouch, juveniles molt four or five times at regular intervals until they reach sexual maturity, usually within a year, when they become adults. She may have two to three broods each year. The young spend three to nine days in the mother’s pouch, which is composed of plates on her underside. The female produces eggs that take from three to nine weeks to hatch out about two dozen offspring. Life CycleĪlthough a male is usually involved, these creatures can reproduce by parthenogenesis as well. Pill Bugs can roll up into a ball to protect their vulnerable undersides. They prefer to live in humid sheltered areas that have plentiful decaying vegetation, such as under logs, stones, boards, leaves and leaf litter, under pots or bricks or even in damp basements. Most crustaceans live in or near water, and as dry-land crustaceans, pill bugs and sow bugs still require damp habitats due to the delicate gill-like breathing organs on their undersides, which must be kept moist to work. Their color varies, but is usually grayish brown, and they reach less than 1 inch (2.5 cm) in length at maturity.Īs members of the Class Crustacea, they are closely related to lobsters, crabs and shrimp. The pill bug, on the other hand, has a rounder back from side to side, and a deeper body from back to legs. Most are grayish, and grow to about 9/16 inch (15 mm) long and 5/16 inch (8 mm) wide. Their antennae reach about half the length of their bodies. Their backs consist of a number of overlapping articulating plates. Sow bugs have oval bodies when viewed from above. People often confuse pill bugs and sow bugs, but, to protect their soft undersides when disturbed or to keep their gills from drying out, pill bugs can roll into a ball with their legs tucked inside sowbugs cannot do this. Their many common names include pill bugs, sow bugs, potato bugs, rolypolys and woodlice. They are scavengers, feeding on both dead and live plant and animal debris. Both creatures are nocturnal, and each has seven pairs of legs at maturity. In Hungary, a statue commemorates the arrival of this difficult to control pest.Pill bugs and Sow Bugs of the Order Arthropoda (arthropod means segmented body and jointed appendages), Class Crustacea, Order Isopoda (isos meaning equal and podes meaning feet), and have a hard armored exoskeleton and jointed limbs. In 2014, to call a pro-Russian separatist of the Ukraine a ‘koloradi’, a nickname given to the invasive Colorado potato beetle, was an insult directed at their similar orange and black stripes. During the Cold War, the CIA was accused of releasing Colorado potato beetles in Russia, in an effort to threaten the Soviet Union’s food supply. Exports of potatoes (and the Colorado potato beetle) to France and Germany inspired the world’s first plant quarantine laws. Initially, this dome-shaped beetle preferred wild members of the nightshade family, but, by 1840, the domesticated potato became its favorite food, followed closely by tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. First identified in 1824, this pest is native to southwest North America. The Colorado potato beetle ( Leptinotarsa decemlineata ) is also known as the ten-lined potato beetle, ten-striped spearman, or simply the Colorado beetle.
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