The presence of these pests in the house usually points to an outdoor infestation, as large populations may move indoors looking for alternative food and shelter. Yards with excessive moisture and debris often harbor pill bugs. Heavy rainfall during spring and early summer can also drive them inside.
Rolly pollies get into your house through any gaps they can find. Usually, they come in under doors or through rips in your screens. Unlike most pests, pillbugs aren’t coming into your home because you’ve left food out or anything like that. Pillbugs need a lot of moisture and they live off decaying plant matter.
Pill bugs are important for ridding the soil of heavy metal ions by taking in copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, and cadmium, which they crystallize in their midgut. Thus, they can survive in contaminated soil where other species can’t.
If you uncover a bunch of rolly pollies under a log, you don’t expect to find a bright blue one crawling among all the usual grays and browns. But it turns out your fun surprise is some very bad luck for that terrestrial isopod.
Pill bugs are drawn to moist areas. Since their bodies can’t hold in water, they rely on damp areas with high moisture content to survive. If you have discovered pill bugs inside your home, it is most likely due to a broken or leaky pipe or faucet where the pill bug is drawn to the moisture.
Roly-polies a little prehistoric-looking and creepy, but they pose no harm to you, your family, or your pets. Pill bugs don’t carry any diseases, nor do they sting or bite. They rarely live long after coming indoors because it’s too dry for them.
The pillbug, Armadillidium vulgare (Latreille), is an isopod, a type of non-insect arthropod also known as a terrestrial crustacean. It is sometimes called a roly-poly due to its ability to roll into ball when disturbed (Figure 1).
In many cultures, the iconic ladybug, with its spotted red wings, is thought to bring good luck. In the United States, it’s a fortuitous sign if a ladybug lands on you.
“The butterflies released at Wings of Hope are an important symbol of hope and healing,” said Kristy Caradori, Spartanburg Regional Foundation executive director.
Major Factors of Attraction
The human skin emits many odors, and scientists are still learning exactly which ones attract insects to us. Scientists do know that pesky bugs such as mosquitoes and no-see-ums are attracted to humans mainly because we emit carbon dioxide and heat.
Life Cycle
In approximately two months, the young roly-polies emerge. They look like small roly-poly bugs, and if it is a species that can roll, it can do so at birth. These isopods molt up to a dozen times in their lifetime, and the average lifespan of a roly-poly is between two and five years.
Female rolly pollies lay eggs, and plenty of them. They can produce as many as 150 eggs in a year, in three different broods. It takes about 2 months for the eggs to hatch.
What are Pill Bugs? The pill bug, sometimes referred to as “rollie pollies”, is the only crustacean that has become completely adapted to spending its life on land. This pest earned its nickname due to the fact that the pill bug can roll up into a tight ball when disturbed.
Pill bugs are part of nature’s garbage disposal system. Consuming mostly decaying plant matter, and eat rotting vegetation, a pill bug or several are wonderful in a compost pile. In a perfect world, the seven pairs of legs of pill bugs and sow bugs would only touch dead plant parts.
The pill bug is often considered a pest when it gains entry into a home. Although they sometimes enter in large numbers, they do not bite, sting, or transmit diseases, nor do they infest food, clothing or wood. They do not spread diseases or contaminate food and are a nuisance simply by their presence.
Houseflies LOVE the scent of food, garbage, feces, and other smelly things like your pet’s food bowl. They’re also attracted to your body if you have a layer of natural oils and salt or dead skin cells built up.
Since ancient times, the cicada has been seen as a symbol of resurrection, an association that owes to its fascinating life cycle. Newly hatched insects drop from branches to burrow into the ground, where they nourish themselves on tree roots for as long as seventeen years before emerging into the sunlight.
If the pill bug dries out, its gills won’t function properly and the pill bug can suffocate. That’s why you usually only find them in damp areas, like under a dead log. If they start to overheat and dry out, pill bugs will even roll into a ball to protect the remaining moisture on their gills.
Coffee Grounds
This is more of a way of deterring the bugs rather than killing them. Additionally, coffee grounds contain caffeine that repels ants and other pests. Use saucers or bowls of coffee grounds near an indoor pill bug infestation to repel them.
They’re known as pill bugs. Pill bugs are nocturnal crustaceans. They’re active during the night, and during the day, they hide. The look-alike of pill bugs is the sow bug.
Diatomaceous earth is a safe way to desiccate or dry out pill bugs, therefore killing them. Spread Diatomaceous along the edges of your planting beds where pill bugs like to live.
Pill bugs don’t have a typical brain.
Rather than a single complex brain, the neural ganglia in each of the 7 thorax sections exerts independent control over the different body parts.
Instead of stalks, pill bugs have eyes on each side of the head. These eyes consist of only a few simple cells capable of light detection. Other than that, they really can’t see.
The gender of the roly poly is only apparent to themselves, but they can be either male or female. The crustacean’s life begins as a tiny egg, several dozen of which are laid by the female. She carries the eggs on her underside, between her legs, in a brood pouch called a marsupium.