Now I have a lot of slugs on the allotment when it's wet, but I can cope with them by various (organic) means, but woodlice are something else when it's dry, like at the moment. They hide behind and under anything available to them and sneak out under the cover of darkness and devour every b***dy thing in sight! Seedlings are very popular woodlice chewy things early in the season as well as salad stuff and later rootcrops suffer like swedes and parsnips etc.
So, anybody know of a non-insecticidal way of getting rid of these things? Please!
HealerDave
Watching this one with interest- we have them everywhere!
Don't hold your breath too long Caroline, somebody else posted a similar problem on 21st May and there has not been a reply yet!
OK - you can breathe now.....
found this for you- it's just below the bit on ants...called debug..
www.greengardener.co.uk/repel.htm
hope that's helpful?
:o :o :o
I didn't know that woodlice ate seedlings!!!
yet another thing to watch out for ::)
As far as I am aware woodlice do not eat living plant material. I have never thought of them as a pest and have never bothered to control them. They live on dead plant material. Frequently found under pots etc. where it is damp and dark.
I hope they dont, ive just found them in my hanging basket >:(
Woodlice lived in my celeriac in the autumn/winter. Don't know whether they made the holes or took them over from the slugs, but they looked very cosy!
I think they do eat dead material and break it down, which is a potentially good thing. But if they make a nest and rummage around in your seedlings, then that's when the seedlings can get damaged. One woodlouse is a delicate thing - 40 woodlice is a riot.
give them some old logs to chew on and raise seedlings up off the ground?
Just found this info and it states that woodlice WILL eat fresh newly planted seedlings. Looks a tad expensive though.
www.hdra.org.uk/factsheets/pc15.htm