Pill Bugs and Sow Bugs

Pill bugs, sometimes known as “roly-polies” because they roll up into a tight ball when disturbed. They have a thicker exoskeleton to keep their soft under belly safer in a ball. Though their exoskeleton cannot protect them from a human foot.

Pill Bug Lifecycle

Pill bugs are kind of like the kangaroos of bugs. The eggs are deposited and hatch within what is called the brood pouch or marsupiam on the underside of the body. Pill bug eggs take around 45 days to develop and hatch. Up to 28 are born with each hatching, and one mama pill bug can produce one to three broods per year. The young molt 24 hours after birth and then again between two to three weeks later. Adults, living up to two years or more, molt on and off again depending on food availability.

Pill bugs can hide under objects during the day so they don’t lose water. They can be found around buildings, by trash, boards, rocks, flower pots, piles of grass clippings, mulches, and other decaying vegetation.

Pill Bug Treatments

Treatments should include reducing or eliminating the moist areas in which they are found. Indoors they can be removed with a vacuum. Outside they can be treated with a couple residuals targeting crawling insects, specifically wettable powder, microencapsulated formulas, and dusts can be used around foundations, crawl spaces, and other areas of concern.

You’ve probably seen them before outside or in your basement. Paffy’s Pest Control has a couple different treatment options that could help reduce or eliminate the population that enter you home. We don’t want you to have to be startled by a colony of these pests.

Source: NPCA Field Guide to Structural Pests