Skip navigation.

Active members

Invasion of chunky woodlice

Last post 10-08-2012 7:28 PM by chrissyd. 4 replies.

Page 1 of 1 (5 items)

  • 06/08/2012 10:59 PM
    • chrissyd
    • Cornwall
    • 29 May 2008
    • 82
    Top 100 Contributor
    Reply | Contact

    Is it me or are there an abnormal number of woodlice this year? If I turn the back light on at night, there are hoards of them scuttling back and forth across the paving slabs and climbing the house walls. If I put anything down on the slabs for five minutes, a colony moves in underneath. I'm even finding them indoors and some are huge. I don't normally mind woodlice but this is getting a bit too much. Could it be the very wet weather we've had?

    Conversely, I haven't seen that many slugs this year and they are usually the bane and blight of our garden.

    Any thoughts or musings gratefully received.

     
  • 07/08/2012 07:49 AM
    In reply to
    • Pesty
    • At a desk
    • 24 Nov 2005
    • 324
    Top 50 Contributor
    Reply | Contact

    Hi Chrissyd 

     

    Woodlice are crustaceans that require damp conditions – just like slugs they are prone to drying out/dehydration – so yes they do very well in damp conditions. Another factor is that they feed on wet decomposing organic matter again the weather has provided plenty of that! There are 37 species of woodlice in the UK – but only five of these are very common. The biggest likely to be found in gardens is the Common pill woodlouse which can reach 18mm in length. However there is also a millipede which looks very similar to a woodlouse (the pill millipede) which can be about the same size.

     

    'Trying is the first step to failure' H.J.Simpson
  • 07/08/2012 08:43 PM
    In reply to
    • chrissyd
    • Cornwall
    • 29 May 2008
    • 82
    Top 100 Contributor
    Reply | Contact

    Thanks, Pesty. Difficult to tell whether I have the common pill woodlouse or pill millipede. They do look similar. And both roll into a ball (although mine have attitude and don't do that - they front you out or run off when you try to catch them - which seems odd for such a usually laid-back creature).

    They do seem to breed quite freely, too: lots of small ones running about. I dread to think where it will all end.

    I have been told that, being in the same family as prawns and shrimps, they may well taste the same - and so perhaps I should fire up the barbie (that I don't have).
  • 08/08/2012 10:54 AM
    In reply to
    • Pesty
    • At a desk
    • 24 Nov 2005
    • 324
    Top 50 Contributor
    Reply | Contact

    Hi Chrissyd

    Some interesting recipes in this book – and the western culture is the only one not to eat a wide variety of invertebrates.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Not-Insects-Vincent-Holt/dp/0946014124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344412239&sr=8-1

    'Trying is the first step to failure' H.J.Simpson
  • 10/08/2012 07:28 PM
    In reply to
    • chrissyd
    • Cornwall
    • 29 May 2008
    • 82
    Top 100 Contributor
    Reply | Contact

    I see that this book was published first in 1885 and is bought frequently with 'Eat-a-bug Cookbook' and 'Creepy Crawly Cuisine'. Perhaps I am missing a trick. Perhaps I have been blessed with a nourishing food source previously overlooked.

    Interesting book review: "I was a little disappointed in the content of this book. I was expecting some new and fresh food ideas, but the author spends most of his time promoting insect eating as a solution to rural hunger."