Sow Bugs
A Quick Guide to Sow Bugs
Sow bugs are otherwise known as pill bugs, also called by roly-poly, and are actually not an insect at all. Sow bugs are relatively hapless, meandering about beneath the moist, dark cover of dense decomposing natural materials. They may enjoy the cool base of your home’s foundation, but are prone to absolutely no damage or pest like tendencies. A sow bug or two have gotten themselves into trouble by munching from over-ripened tomatoes within a garden setting, but for the most part make no attempt to alter the products, profits, or property of the human species. In fact, a few pieces of information regarding sow bugs may even lead you to understand the service that he provides during his lifetime.
Sow bugs, as mentioned above, are not actually bugs at all, but are actually land dwelling crustaceans. The balance that he has been made to achieve in order to survive on land has been some four million years in the making. His lungs and all important moisture absorbing skins are at his underneath and rear. Being built this way, sow bugs both absorb and maintain the moisture that they need through the bottoms of their bodies. In order to actually ingest water, for instance, sows bugs will back up to a small pool of standing water, such a droplet collected on a rock after a rain shower, and dip his rear end into it. The water travels up to his mouth via an intricate network of hairs on his seven pair of legs, and reaches the mouth in miniscule droplets for consumption.
Sow bugs are nocturnal, for the most part, though being uncovered during the sunlight hours will wake them quickly. Also, his ideal living conditions are conducive to darkness, which is to say that he avoids the sun as often as possible. The delicate balance of moisture within him can be easily and quickly depleted by the warmth of the sun, and death will most certainly follow severe dehydration. When he is caught in the garden, you may notice that it is during the late evening or early morning hours, when the sun is not beating for down on the over-ripened or decomposing plant materials. The sow bugs hunting habits kick in at night, when other nocturnal arthropods and insects are in search of food as well. With the absence of the adult spiders, spider eggs are ripe for the picking, and the sow bug will have his fill whenever possible.
Sow bugs are able to roll their multi-tiered armor into a tight, little gray ball, which is their most formidable form of protection. Second only to this is his bitter taste, which turns most enemies off before it’s too late for the little guy. He mustn’t stay balled up for too long, however, as his life-giving moisture will quickly evaporate if he doesn’t get his belly back to earth.