Sow bugs are often found outside hiding beneath a flower pot or under a stone. Although they are harmless, once sow bugs find their way inside your home they become a nuisance. When that happens, it’s time to call Adam’s.
Adam’s exterminates sowbugs and pillbugs by applying an EPA-approved residual insecticide treatment to the foundation and exterior perimeter of your home to keep sowbugs and pillbugs from entering. Particular attention is given to all cracks, crevices, and possible entry sites. Your Adam’s Pest Management Professional may also recommend non-chemical treatment techniques such as raking mulch back from the foundation to create a natural barrier, sealing cracks in the foundation, and reducing moisture indoors and around your foundation.
Adam’s Pest Control has a dedicated team of representatives who are driven to protect your home or business and can answer any questions that you may have.
Sowbugs (and pillbugs) are night prowlers and tend to hide under objects such as flower pots, rocks, and trash cans; or in grass edging near pavement during the day. Sowbugs and pillbugs are actually crustaceans and more similar to shrimp and crayfish than to insects.
Sowbugs and pillbugs are easily seen. They are often found when moving a flower pot or other item on the floor.
Sowbugs and pillbugs need moisture in order to survive, therefore, they are typically found in moist, often dark, areas.
Sowbugs can enter buildings through thresholds, expansion joints, and voids in walls.
Sowbugs that are spotted indoors often means there are also large numbers breeding outdoors near the building foundation.
Sowbugs and pillbugs are typically between ¼ to ½ inches in length.
Sowbugs vary slightly in color from dark to slate gray with oval convex upper bodies and concave lower bodies.
Sowbugs have seven pairs of legs and two pairs of antennae (one visible and one difficult to see).
Sowbugs and pillbugs are similar in appearance, however, sowbugs have two tail-like appendages projecting from the rear and pillbugs do not have posterior appendages.
Sowbugs also cannot roll up like pillbugs when they are disturbed.
• No. Sowbugs are nuisance pests and don’t bite, sting, or cause damage to humans, homes, or household furnishings.
No. Sowbugs and pillbug often get blamed for greater damage to plants than they actually cause.
Other pests often cause the initial damage. As opportunists, sowbugs take advantage by feeding off the damage caused by other pests.
If sowbugs enter homes, it means they have found a source of moisture that they need to survive, therefore, sowbugs can be controlled by eliminating moisture near foundations or crawl spaces.
In gardens, sowbugs are attracted to sources of water in the yard.
Sowbugs eat many different organisms such as fungus, algae, moss, and bark.
Sowbugs also feed on the debris left by other pests. They eat dead plants and animals that are in the process of
decaying.The average lifespan of a sowbug is two years, however, they have been known to live up to five years.
Female sowbugs can reproduce by parthenogenesis (reproduction without fertilization) as well as reproduction with a male.
Sowbug eggs take about three to nine weeks to hatch.
In March and April, sowbugs and pillbugs begin reproduction raising two to three broods of offspring during the summer.
Broods consist of about 30-40 babies that are incubated for 34 days in the female’s brood pouch which is located under the mother’s body.
Male and female sowbugs and pillbugs are active parents. Males guard the family’s burrow and help gather food for the young.
After leaving the brood pouch, sowbug nymphs molt four or five times and reach adulthood within a year.
As adults, sowbugs continue to molt (about every 28 days).
Sowbugs are from the crustacean family and are closely related to lobsters, crabs, and shrimp.
Unlike other crustaceans that live in or near water, sowbugs and pillbug live on dry land but still need damp habitats because of their delicate gill-like organs on their underside which need moisture to work.
Sowbugs and pillbugs are the only dry-land crustaceans.
Sowbugs also feed on the debris left by other pests. They eat dead plants and animals that are in the process of decaying.
