Organic Pest Control – Pill Bug

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to control garden pests without the use of chemicals and synthetic substances. How do you control organic pests without chemical pesticides? How do you control organic pests such as pill bugs?

Pill Bug Organic Pest Control

Pill bugs, gray or brown in color, are said to be relatives of shrimp. A terrestrial isopod of less than 1 inch length, a pill bug has a convex, segmented body. It can roll that body into a tight, round ball. Cute trick, but pill bugs are pests, and call for organic pest control.

Pill bug organic pest control can begin with the importation of a common spider. Actually, it has no common name, but it does have a scientific name: Dysdera crocata. This spider eats almost nothing other than pill bugs! About one-half inch long, the spider’s body is reddish in front and brown in back. These spiders live under stones where pill bugs live. It’s hard to miss their long fangs! They are harmless to humans, though. The fangs are one of the best methods of pill bug organic pest control.

Pill bug organic pest control will also require that you remove hiding places. Clean up piles of plant material and leaf debris. Pick up pieces of building material under which pill bugs can hide. Clear away large rocks.

Another form of organic pest control for pill bugs is to lay out a few corncobs. Or place half of a cantaloupe upside down where pill bugs are a problem. These will act as bait to trap the pests.

Harmless Pill Bugs?

For the most part, pill bugs are harmless in the garden. In fact, they work to break down compost and mulch into smaller bits, thereby benefiting the organic garden. They can chew only very tender plant shoots, so they will not harm more mature plants. They may, however, chew tiny seedlings or red, juicy strawberries.

Pill bug organic pest control in such cases calls for a sprinkling of diatomaceous earth around the affected plants. If they are seedlings, split drinking straws and place them around your plant stems for organic pest control.

Helpful Tip

Since pill bugs make a valuable contribution to the decomposition process in your compost and mulch, you will want to leave them alone unless they are an obvious threat to seedlings or crops.