Keep your basement and garden roly-poly free with these tips
Roly-poly might sound like a cute name for a bug, but it’s not so adorable when they’re taking over your vegetable garden or basement. Luckily, learning how to get rid of pill bugs is easy, and there are multiple ways to control these little pests.
While they can be beneficial to a healthy garden, if their population gets too big, they’ll feast on vegetable plants. The pill bug control methods below will help you get them out of your home or garden.
Although the pill bug’s penchant for rolling into a ball makes them popular with kids, there’s nothing endearing about finding these nuisances hanging out in your basement or under a leaky kitchen sink.
If you have pill bugs inside your house, you might also have moisture issues. Hire a plumbing repair company near you to help fix any leaks or other issues in your home. Roly-polys are actually crustaceans, like crabs, shrimp, and lobsters, so they need water in order to breathe.
That requirement is why you often see them in, around, or under the following places:
Compost
Mulch
Wood piles
Rotting boards
Flower pots
Stone pavers
Roly-polys start to become a problem when they gather in damp places around your home’s foundation. From there, they can access your home via doorway thresholds or cracks around windows. Once inside, they like to take up residence in damp basements or crawl spaces.
While pill bugs can be a gardener’s friend by helping to break down dead plant material to create compost, if there are too many of them, they can cause problems. They will eat the leaves and tender roots of vegetable plants, causing them to wither and die. They’ll even snack on the vegetables themselves, cutting into your garden’s yield.
There are several reasons why pill bugs are multiplying in your garden, including the following:
Decaying material: Pill bugs love feasting on wet leaves, fallen fruit, and other dead plant material in your garden.
Lack of predators: If there aren’t enough birds, spiders, toads, and lizards in your yard, roly-polys could begin to overpopulate your garden, forcing them to find more than just dead plant matter for food.
Too much mulch: An overly thick layer of mulch (more than 4 inches deep) can create a wet environment that invites large numbers of roly-polys to take up residence, where they’ll munch on your vegetable plants.
Unhealthy plants: If your plants are sickly and struggling to survive, they may become a target for many pests, including the pill bug. Stressed plants have more concentrated levels of sugars and nitrogen, which makes it easier for bugs to obtain usable nutrients from them. Hire a local gardener to help you revive your garden if needed.
Luckily, pill bugs rarely infest homes. Unless there is a basement or other part of your house that’s very damp, most pill bugs become dehydrated and die within a few days after entering. But if you’re at the point where you need to take action, there are some steps you can take to control them.
If your pill bug problem is in the garden, however, take non-lethal approaches first. Remember, pill bugs can actually be very beneficial due to their ability to help turn plant waste into compost. They would much rather eat dead plant matter than sink their teeth into your precious live ones.
From sealing cracks in your basement to using a pesticide, here’s how to get rid of pill bugs in your home.
Since pill bugs require a damp environment to survive, drying out their new home is a surefire way to take them out.
Fix any leaky pipes that may be adding moisture to your basement. A plumber in your area can help you with this issue.
Seal any cracks in the basement wall that are allowing moisture to get in when it rains using a sealant.
Invest in a dehumidifier to dry out a damp basement. If a wet crawl space is attracting roly-polys, a local crawl space encapsulation company can help you.
You can use pesticide sprays, baits, or granules to kill any pill bugs that have found their way into your home.
When using a store-bought pesticide product, follow the safety instructions and keep it away from children and pets at all times. Wear gloves and a mask when spraying or applying insecticide to avoid breathing it in or getting it on your skin.
Food-grade diatomaceous earth, or DE for short, can be used for pest control. It consists of the fossilized remains of aquatic organisms. These tiny silica particles have razor-sharp edges that can cut through the exoskeleton of pill bugs, causing them to dehydrate and die.
While it’s not considered poisonous, you’ll still want to be safe when using DE, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can cause skin, eye, and respiratory irritation if breathed in or if too much is used. Keep it away from heavily trafficked areas and pets/children.
Buy food-grade diatomaceous earth, not pool- or garden-grade.
Wear an N95 mask, eye protection, gloves, and long clothing when applying DE.
Only apply DE in low-traffic areas where it won’t be kicked up and made airborne.
Sprinkle DE in damp places where there is pill bug activity. The DE will kill any existing roly-polys and soak up excess moisture.
After the DE has done its job, spray it with water so it forms a mud-like consistency and won’t kick up into the air, then wipe it up.
Pill bugs, like many insects, don’t love essential oils. This includes rosemary, oregano, citronella, citrus, cinnamon, tea tree, and peppermint. Spray essential oils mixed with water in roly-poly hot spots—but keep it away from children and pets.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals notes that essential oils can be dangerous to pets, causing unsteadiness, vomiting, and low body temperature.
Here’s how to make a roly-poly controlling spray:
Mix 4 drops of essential oil with 1 gallon of soapy water.
Add the solution to a spray bottle, then spray the mix where you’ve seen the pests.
If you have a pill bug infestation in your garden, you can try various traps and methods to send them packing. Here’s how to get rid of pill bugs in your garden:
Pill bugs love compost, so you can easily trap them by adding it to your garden.
Put a small pile of compost in your garden for a few days. The pill bugs will be attracted to it and start feeding on it.
After a week or so, pick up the waste along with the bugs and transfer it to a location away from your garden, preferably a compost bin.
If pill bugs are making a meal out of your young vegetable plants, get some old toilet paper or paper towel rolls and place them over the seedlings to protect them. You can also use a paper cup with the bottom cut out if you need something with a wider diameter.
If the pests just won’t leave your veggies alone, use diatomaceous earth (DE) for pill bug control. As when using DE inside the home, take precautions when applying it to protect yourself, family, and pets.
Buy food-grade DE (not pool- or garden-grade).
Put on safety glasses, an N95 mask, gloves, and clothing that covers exposed skin.
Apply DE when the soil and plants are dry, as moisture will wash away the powder.
Sprinkle food-grade DE around the base of each plant to create a lethal barrier that stops pill bugs.
You can also apply it directly to leaves and stems to take out bugs that have already reached the plants.
Squeeze puffs of DE powder into cracks and crevices around walkways and garden walls to take out any pill bugs that may be hiding.
Create a trap for your uninvited pill bugs using beer or cornmeal.
Dig a small hole in your garden.
Place a plastic container in it so that the lip of the lid is at the same level as the earth.
Add a small amount of beer to the container. The beer will attract the pill bugs, causing them to fall into the container and drown.
You can also cut a hole in the plastic container, place it on the ground in the garden and fill it with cornmeal. When the pill bugs attempt to eat the cornmeal, they’ll end up with a fatal case of indigestion.
The best way to keep pill bugs from wreaking havoc in your garden or infiltrating your home is to keep up with maintenance.
Since pill bugs love plant debris, one of the best ways to keep them out of your garden and away from your home is to keep it tidy. Don’t allow dead leaves and fallen vegetables to build up on the garden floor and avoid using an excessive amount of mulch.
Remove any debris, such as leaves, dead grass, mulch, or wood, piled up against the foundation, creating the damp environment that pill bugs need to survive.
If you have a compost bin, make sure there is a buffer between it and the garden or any structures. If you happen upon any pill bugs during your efforts, instead of squashing them, put them to work for you by relocating them to the compost bin.
Check around basement windows and door thresholds for gaps and use weather stripping or caulk to seal them. Also, check for any cracks in the foundation that may be serving as an entryway for pill bugs, and use an epoxy sealer to seal them.
One of the best ways to keep pill bugs and other pests from feasting on your plants is to grow a healthy garden. Make sure the soil promotes healthy and strong root structures by adding organic matter to the soil and supplying adequate water.
Plants with stronger cell walls aren’t as appetizing to bugs. Plus, if there’s plenty of organic matter in your spoil, pill bugs won’t need to nosh on your plants as they’ll have plenty of waste to eat.
If you’re having a drainage issue that is causing rainwater to run against the foundation, you may need to clean or repair gutters and downspouts to fix the problem. A gutter cleaning company in your area can help you with this project.
The soil around your home should cause water to flow away from the foundation. If it doesn’t, you may need to regrade the earth around it. If grading is an issue, it’s crucial you tackle it immediately—not just to eliminate your pill bug problem but also to prevent expensive damage to the foundation. Get a quote from a landscape grading company near you to fix this issue.
While ridding your home of pill bugs is usually a job you can tackle on your own, if the roly-polys are persistent or you have an infestation, you’ll want to hire a local exterminator.
The average cost of a pest control service is $200 to $600, depending on location and the size of the problem. If the problem is in your vegetable garden, you’ll likely need to handle it on your own, as most services use chemicals that are not safe for use on food.
No, pill bugs do not bite, and they do not transmit diseases. Pill bugs also don’t infest wood like carpenter ants or termites do, so they don’t pose a threat to your home either. In fact, pill bugs pose no threat to humans beyond stealing your veggies.
There are a broad range of predators that eat pill bugs, including spiders, birds, centipedes, frogs, and toads. The pill bug has even been known to eat other pill bugs when food is scarce.
A roly-poly’s favorite food is dead or decaying plant matter. They particularly like soft plants, including grasses and leaves. They may also eat mulch.
