Consider a dehumidifier: If your basement is chronically damp, a dehumidifier will help reduce the likelihood of mold and mildew as well as make your basement less hospitable to roly-polies.Consider extending your downspout or adding a splash block to divert the water farther from your foundation. Check Your Downspouts: If your downspouts dump their contents close to your home’s foundation, you’ll be making a nice moist area for pill bugs to prosper.Check Your Gutters: Are they blocked or clogged? Leaf debris in your gutters is a haven for roly-polies.Reducing moisture around your home will send pill bugs packing. To get rid of pill bugs, you’ll have to address how your home and yard are hospitable to them. Additionally, heavy rains can drive pill bugs inside your home to protect them from the pelting rain and the flooding of their common areas. If your outside population is large, some enterprising rolly-pollies may seek out the inside of your home for an additional food source and shelter. If your yard has excessive moisture or your gutters and downspouts drain close to your foundation, you could be making a haven for pill bugs. They’re most common in damp basements and first-floor bathrooms. They’ve found their way inside via cracks in your walls, your doors, windows, or ill-fitting screens. If pill bugs are in your home, it’s likely because they are already rampant around your home’s foundation. However, if they can find a nice moist corner of your basement or a leaking pipe that provides them with a water source, they may decide to take up residence and even raise a family. They rarely live long after coming indoors because it’s too dry for them. Pill bugs don’t carry any diseases, nor do they sting or bite. Roly-polies a little prehistoric-looking and creepy, but they pose no harm to you, your family, or your pets. They prefer to be left alone, but you may prefer for them to be somewhere besides in or around your home. If you turn over a rock or log and uncover roly-polies, they will usually form a circle to protect themselves and not move until you go away. They typically stay hidden during the day and are more active at night. Roly-poly bugs’ bodies do not hold water, which is why they need a moist environment. You may also find roly-polies in your storage building, basement, shed, or garage. You will most often find them hiding under logs, leaf piles, stepping stones, landscape timbers, rocks, trash cans, garden debris, flower pots, mulch, compost, or other dark, damp areas. They will also eat living plants and can damage the roots of your flowers or vegetables. Pill bugs are tiny scavengers who eat decaying plant material. Both enjoy similar diets and habits, so you might have one, the other, or both.Īlso Read: Secret Bug Breeding Grounds in Your Home This Winter Sowbugs also cannot roll into a ball as a roly-poly can. Sowbugs are slightly smaller than pill bugs and have two small tail-like structures protruded from their back end that pill bugs lack. Many people confuse sow bugs and pill bugs since they look similar at first glance. ![]() What is the Difference between a Pill Bug and a Sowbug? Pill bugs get their nickname of “roly-poly” because of the way they curl up into a ball when startled or disturbed. They are purplish-gray and have seven pairs of legs as well as two jointed antennae. ![]() Pill bugs, and their cousins, the sowbug, are land-dwelling (terrestrial) crustaceans more similar to a lobster than an ant. Their shell has seven hard plates, similar to a crayfish.Īlthough they are called a bug, they aren’t an insect at all. They are about ¾-inch long, oval-shaped, and with an armor-like shell. These isopods are found across the U.S., typically in moist areas and around some decaying plant matter. Check out these facts while you’re dealing with evicting your roly-poly family.Īrmadillidiidae (the scientific name for pill bugs) have so many different names to choose from. Pill bugs and sowbugs are quite fascinating and can serve as a proper science lesson for your kids or satisfy your curiosity. Whether you have pill bugs or sow bugs-or any different kind of critter that belongs outside, we can identify the problem and implement a solution. We’re your friend for dealing with unwanted insects, arachnids, rodents, and other pests. If you’ve come across new and unusual insects or other pests in your home, contact Environmental Pest Management for advice and assistance in treating them. If you’ve been working in your yard, garage, or basement and have discovered a pile of creepy-crawlies reminiscent of the bug-slurping scene in “The Lion King,” then you probably have stumbled upon a family of pill bugs. The warm weather is the perfect time for them to start breeding, which makes even more bugs. As the weather begins to get warmer, roly-poly bugs start to come out of hiding.
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