Common Pillbug

How do pillbugs typically enter a home?

• Through open windows and doors only.
• Through foundation cracks, gaps under doors, and around ground-level windows. ✓
• They are carried inside via indoor potted plants.
• They emerge from within the home's floorboards.

Answer: They gather in damp organic litter around foundations and slip indoors through foundation cracks, gaps under doors, and around ground-level windows.

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In a residential setting, what is the recommended first course of action for managing pillbugs?

• Apply broad-spectrum pesticides to all ground-level windows.
• Apply insecticides to the perimeter of the foundation immediately.
• Implement moisture management and exclusion by sealing cracks and reducing irrigation. ✓
• Remove all organic matter from the yard to eliminate their food source.

Answer: Lead with moisture management, since trimming irrigation and keeping organic matter back from the structure strips away the damp conditions pillbugs need... Start with sanitation and exclusion: strip decaying vegetation and clippings from the soil near the foundation and caulk entry points.

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When distinguishing a pillbug from a sowbug in the field, what is the primary diagnostic physical difference?

• The pillbug has a flatter back and small appendages on its rear.
• The pillbug has a seven-segmented mid-body (pereon) and a single pair of antennae.
• The pillbug has the ability to roll into a closed ball when disturbed, whereas the sowbug cannot. ✓
• The sowbug is a crustacean while the pillbug is an insect.

Answer: A simple field test settles it: poke the animal, and if it scurries away flat instead of curling, it is a sowbug, not a pillbug.

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What is the typical lifespan of an adult pillbug?

• A few days to one week.
• Three to four weeks.
• Two to five years. ✓
• Ten to twelve years.

Answer: A female may raise one to three broods a year, and adults are long-lived for their size, surviving two to five years.

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Which of the following best describes the pillbug's role in the ecosystem?

• A primary pest of garden crops like lettuce and peas.
• A medical threat that can bite humans in damp environments.
• A beneficial decomposer that recycles nutrients into the soil. ✓
• An invasive species that provides no benefit to the soil.

Answer: It feeds chiefly on decaying plant material and other decomposing matter, recycling those nutrients back into the soil... Extension specialists count this nutrient recycling as the reason pillbugs are deemed beneficial.

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In what scenario is the pillbug considered to be in 'pest territory'?

• When they enter basements and damp ground-floor corners.
• When they damage crops such as tomato, radish, lettuce, pea, and bean in the garden. ✓
• When they consume household furniture and clothing.
• When they infest stored food in pantries.

Answer: They cross into pest territory only in the garden, where they have been documented damaging crops such as tomato, radish, lettuce, pea, and bean.

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Which statement best describes the pillbug's biological relationship to common marine animals?

• It is an insect closely related to terrestrial snails.
• It is a land-dwelling relative of shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. ✓
• It is a type of terrestrial crab that has lost its claws.
• It is a member of the insect class that mimics crustaceans.

Answer: Despite the name, it is no insect but a land-dwelling relative of shrimp, crabs, and lobsters.

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A female pillbug's reproductive cycle involves which of the following characteristics?

• She carries 100 to 200 eggs in a marsupium on her underside. ✓
• The eggs hatch immediately upon being laid in decaying leaf litter.
• The young, known as mancas, hatch and immediately leave the pouch.
• She produces one brood every year throughout her life.

Answer: A female pillbug carries her eggs in a fluid-filled brood pouch, the marsupium, on her underside; each batch holds roughly 100 to 200 eggs that hatch in about three to four weeks.

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