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What is this bug?

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  • 08-06-2018 4:46pm
    #1
    Anakena
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭


    I was trying to save/re-pot 2 roses today and when I took one out of its pot I found these insects in the soil. What are they called and how can I get rid of them?

    Photo attached


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    #2
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 49,526 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    they are woodlice. they do no harm, and you can happily leave them be.


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    #3
    theminstrel
    Registered Users Posts: 172 ✭✭theminstrel


    Woodlice.. Not sure how to get rid, but once you know what they are it'll be a starting point


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    #4
    Anakena
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭Anakena


    Thanks for the replies! Are you sure they're no harm though? Coz I've noticed them before in other plants that weren't doing so well, so I always associate them with damage/rotting. And they make my skin crawl


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    #5
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 49,526 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    they're no harm at all. they're actually beneficial in general.


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    #6
    deletthis
    Registered Users Posts: 68 ✭✭deletthis


    How do you get to be an adult without knowing what a woodlouse is?

    No harm, common enough. breed like mad though.


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    #7
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 49,526 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=723


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    #8
    Anakena
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭Anakena


    Well I've seen them before but just never knew the name of them. I've only recently taken an interest in gardening and Google wasn't giving me the right results either. I'm still a young adult haha... learning :o

    Thanks!


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    #9
    Lumen
    Registered Users Posts: 31,072 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    deletthis wrote: »
    How do you get to be an adult without knowing what a woodlouse is?
    Apartment living? Lots of TV channels?

    In my day we had NOTHIN'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaaat big holes in the roof, and we 'ad to amuse ourselves eating woodlice, and not only were they our food, they were our entertainment, so we had to choose between being hungry or bored. But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor. Aye. BECAUSE we were poor.


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    #10
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,437 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    If you poke at a woodlouse it will roll into a ball, then you can play marbles with them. Hours of fun.


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    #11
    The Diddakoi
    Registered Users Posts: 488 ✭✭The Diddakoi


    looksee wrote: »
    If you poke at a woodlouse it will roll into a ball, then you can play marbles with them. Hours of fun.

    That’s a pill bug, or armadillidiidae which roll into a ball. They are related to woodlice though.

    Woodlice don’t fold in the middle very well :P


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    #12
    GrumpyMe
    Registered Users Posts: 1,195 ✭✭✭GrumpyMe


    diana_micu wrote: »
    I was trying to save/re-pot 2 roses today and when I took one out of its pot I found these insects in the soil. What are they called and how can I get rid of them?

    Photo attached
    https://tinyurl.com/yc8xz4ho


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    #13
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,437 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    alf66 wrote: »
    That’s a pill bug, or armadillidiidae which roll into a ball. They are related to woodlice though.

    Woodlice don’t fold in the middle very well :P

    Whisht, don't be messing up my anecdote. :P


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    #14
    Wheety
    Registered Users Posts: 5,510 ✭✭✭Wheety


    I was digging yesterday and noticed one on his back, legs running like mad but he was never going to flip back over. I offered him the end of a stick and he grabbed it, turned over and ran :D


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    #15
    Jellybaby1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,108 ✭✭✭Jellybaby1


    GrumpyMe wrote: »
    https://tinyurl.com/yc8xz4ho


    I fell into this thread accidentally whilst searching for something else. The above has turned my stomach somewhat. I'll never forgive HF-W for eating the snails in his River Cottage veggie garden in an effort to get rid of some of them. That man will eat almost anything! Loved the series otherwise though. I have tons of wood lice - if I see too many of them I run away, which happens often. :o


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    #16
    gozunda
    Registered Users Posts: 18,996 ✭✭✭✭gozunda


    diana_micu wrote: »
    I was trying to save/re-pot 2 roses today and when I took one out of its pot I found these insects in the soil. What are they called and how can I get rid of them?

    I doubt you will get rid of them. They’ve been around for 160 million years and would have been mates with dinosaurs ...

    Just in case you're wondering a  woodlouse (plural woodlice) "is a terrestrialisopod crustacean with a rigid, segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs" :pac:

    Ref:
    Thomas, Simon. "The many names of the woodlouse". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press.


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