Local Harvest Gardening

Hello,

Has anyone had any success in deterring pill bugs from munching on radishes? We think the wood chips in our pathways may be drawing them in.

Pill bugs can be challenging for no-tillers using lots of woodchips but in our experience they're only a threat in early spring.

We experience them on the farm here as well but their population seems to be balanced quite well. They do some munching on radishes but nothing serious.

Are they eating other plants?

You can try baiting them with potato's cut in half and shaking off the pill bugs a few times a day.

Their importance as chewers and shredders cannot be overstated so eliminating them would be to remove an important player on the soil food web team.

Pill Bugs and Sow bugs are the same critter I believe, and they surely ate their way through a crop of early radishes. I followed Dan’s advice to my post and placed half lemon and a banana peel (most popular) and transported a great many of them to a better location. Radishes are looking much better now. Good luck with yours.