Are those things bad for my garden?

[gata montes]

I had some of these under my plant pots and didn't have a clue what they were. Its good to know they do little to no harm to our plants. Thanks so much for the information

A pleasure, blueeyes.

 

[Gardener]

I personally have no idea what those things are called, but I see them all the time in my garden. I tend to leave most of the insects in the garden alone and it works out quite well. I spray a mixture of dish soap and water on the leaves to kill weeds and annoy some pests. But almost every time I garden, I see these little critters there and they are usually underground.

 

[Trellum]

Yeah, they seem to be regulars in most gardens I was a bit worried about them before, becaus those little things seem to be every where! I no longer have a garden or plant pots to take care of, but soon I will

 

[Trellum]

They do have one use: they indicate the presence of moisture, so if you have them in an area which needs to be free from damp, they let you know you have a problem.

That's interesting, I've even seen those critters inside my mom's house, and I know my mom has a mold issues in her house! Those critters seem to love humid places, we used to see them a lot in the bathroom, but thankfully nowadays they are no where to be seen My mom still has hold/moisture issues in her place tho.

 

[Trellum]

Pleased to have been of help Trellum, am glad that you are feeling much happier about these critters being around now, especially as you used to play them, which is something, I really don't think I could ever do, and have to agree with Claudine, they give me the creeps.
Out of curiosity, what sort of games,did you used to play with them?
Just to reassure you even further, woodlouse/woodlice are apparently very beneficial to the garden, as apart from all the other names that Zigs has mentioned, are also known as natures garbage collectors.

Zigs, never heard the name coffin cutters before, but love it and that animated smiley too.

Would also agree with Zigs that a cow could seriously devastate your vegetables, much more than a woodlice or coffin cutter.

I just saw this reply now, sorry about the late reply! feel much better about those critters now. I remember there were tons of them in the place where my dad worked. I used to grab just a couple of them and let the walk over my hands and arms

I preferred the slow ones, because it seems there are two types of those critters: one of them is very slow, dark and when you touch it can curl up and there is another one that is very fast, can't curl up and has a lighter colour. So I played mostly with the slow ones, because they just curled up when I touched them, sometimes they didn't. Good times

 

[Pat]

I have seen these bugs in my yard but had no idea of their name or if they hurt my plants. Good to know they are harmless to the plants.

 

[Trellum]

Yeah, pat. For years I thought they might do harm, but it turns out they can't damage plants! Good to know because they're rather common bugs!

 

[Chuck]

You folks are mistaken. Those are pill bugs and they do a lot of damage. For instance, just this year they destroyed a full grown mature tomato plant. I mulch my plants heavily and the pill bugs like it where is is cool and moist so unbeknown to me there were a bunch of them living there and they effectively girdled the base of the plant. It didn't outright kill the plant but it did put the plant into a severe decline and stop production. Pillbugs really like to eat newely sprouted seedlings like spinach, radishes,collards, lettuce etc. They will get into the base of full grown chard and leaf lettuce and make a feast out of it. Ask yourself, if they aren't damaging then why are they shown and listed on pesticides, both organic and chemical?

 

[Trellum]

Chuck, we thought those were harmless because a lot folks, including a mod said so. I wasn't sure about it either, because I always saw a lot of them in my garden, hiding under some plants. I'd have googled them, but had no idea what their name was, I just knew they looked like tiny armadillos! Good to know they indeed are dangerous, they do look like pests.

 

[Chuck]

Chuck, we thought those were harmless because a lot folks, including a mod said so. I wasn't sure about it either, because I always saw a lot of them in my garden, hiding under some plants. I'd have googled them, but had no idea what their name was, I just knew they looked like tiny armadillos! Good to know they indeed are dangerous, they do look like pests.

Most often pill bugs aren't harmful, in fact sometimes they are beneficial but at other times they are harmful. Many times I have seen them in my compost pile helping the decomposing process and other times in the garden I have literally watched them eat emerging seedlings and have actually washed them out of heads of leaf lettuce and seen the area where they are feeding, the damage similar to what caterpillars do. From what I have observed about them is that they are harmful mostly in the spring during cool weather. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give them a 3 on the damage scale with caterpillars a 6 and spider mites a 10. Most of the time I try to ignore them.

 

[Trellum]

Yuck!!!! I had always wondered if they could actually eat the plants, I could swear they could, because they don't look exactly harmless, like let's say a lady bug! Yuck, god to know they do pose a threat, no wonder the plants where most of them were piling up looked so badly!