Pest Organisms / Common Pillbug
Overview
for Common Pillbug
The common pillbug is a small, armored, land-living crustacean that curls into a ball when poked and spends its life chewing rotting leaves rather than bothering you. It is one of the few "pests" that mostly does free yard work. Source: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/pillbugs-and-sowbugs/ It earned the nickname "roly-poly" by tucking into a tidy sphere when it feels threatened. Source: https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN1099 Despite the name, it is no insect but a land-dwelling relative of shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. So if one turns up in your basement, think of it less as an invader and more as a tiny, very lost beach crab. Source: https://extension.umn.edu/insect-relatives/sowbugs-millipedes-and-centipedes