Pest Organisms / Common Pillbug
Lookalikes
for Common Pillbug
The pillbug is most often confused with the sowbug, a close isopod relative that cannot roll up. A sowbug has a flatter back and bears small appendages projecting off its rear, which keep it from closing into a complete ball. Source: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/pillbugs-and-sowbugs/ A simple field test settles it: poke the animal, and if it scurries away flat instead of curling, it is a sowbug, not a pillbug. Source: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/pillbugs-and-sowbugs/