Woodlice, Sowbugs or Slaters: Friend or Foe?

Woodlouse, wood lice, sowbugs, slaters - it doesn't matter what you call them we're all talking about the same bug. Lift a piece of rotting wood and 10,000 of them scurry off to the safety of another dark abode. Yet their reason for existence is not widely known and some gardeners will reach for the spray-can to rid themselves of this seemingly tyrannical pest quicker that you can say "I think they may beneficial".

My 5yo daughter is enamoured with them, befriending any that she can catch and always asking the question "Can I keep it, Daddy?" As a bug, woodlice are peculiarly un-buggish. They don't slime like snails, nor nip like millipedes. They're not hairy, nor slithery and they don't look frightening like spiders. They just scoot around on their tiny legs with antennae waving about at a million miles a second.

Do they have a place in our gardens?

Regardless of whether we like them or not, if your garden is healthy - that is, it contains composts, leaf litter, mulch and any other rotting natural ingredient - then chances are that a few million have taken up residence. Wherever you find worms you're likely to find woodlice and even where you don't find worms, you'll find woodlice.

Woodlice are an important bug for our gardens. Their favoured habitat is one where it's dark, full of decaying material and usually very moist. Often when I turn the compost pile I find millions of them scurrying back into the dark recesses of the heap. They remain in the pile churning through all the refuse and turning it into rich humus, a readily prepared resource for my plants.

So why the different names? I'm unsure as to how they came to be called "slaters" but the other two names are easy to understand. Woodlice are as the name assumes - lice-like bugs that are often found in rotting wood. Woodlice that roll themselves into a ball when frightened are part of the Armadillidiidae family while those that don't belong to the Porcellionidae family - (porcelli = little pig; sow = female pig, hence sowbugs). Make sense? I knew it would.

So before you reach for the Baygon® when you next see a small population of these, consider whether you would do the same if you came across a bunch of earthworms? They may look different, but they primarily do the same task in your garden. Consider them a friend.

Posted by Stuart on January 8, 2009 6:58 AM | Permalink | Check to Subscribe to this Comment:

Comments

My husband's family (from Berkshire, England) call them cheeselogs. According to the OED that word is 'of uncertain origin', although it seems to come from an earlier word, chestlock. None the wiser about that one!

Posted by: Amanda | January 8, 2009 7:55 AM

That is an interesting perspective, comparing them to earthworms!
Thanks,
Philip

Posted by: Philip | January 8, 2009 7:59 AM

@Amanda - Cheeselogs, huh! My mum always served cheeselogs for Christmas dinner - basically a soft cheese rolled in nuts and flavoured with fruit.

@Philip - according to James Nardi the only difference seems to be that the woodlice also consume their own dung to extract the much required copper. Apart from that, woodlice perform a very similar task.

Posted by: Stuart | January 8, 2009 11:42 AM

We always called them "rollie pollies" growing up. I collected them and stored them in empty tic-tac containers.

Posted by: Fern @ Life on the Balcony | January 8, 2009 4:15 PM

Stuart - I'm sorry if I'm being a bit picky, but years hunched over a microscope studying the taxonomy of various invertebrates has made me so :)

I know in the gardening world we use the term bug to mean pretty much any creepy crawly, but bugs are in fact one particular creature related to the beetles.

Woodlice aren't even a close relative to bugs. In the garden centipedes and millipedes are their close cousins and more widely shrimps and prawns are close relatives too. I suspect you won't be throwing any woodlice on the barbie though ;) One of our TV cooks reckons they do taste a little like prawns - I'm not going to try them to find out!

As for the term slater, it's more widely used nowadays for the marine version of the woodlouse, but I think the name could be older than woodlouse and was used as a generic name for the similar land, freshwater and marine creatures. Woodlice are still commonly called slaters in and around Glasgow today.

Hope I've not wittered on too much!

Posted by: VP | January 8, 2009 6:04 PM

Stuart, the local name for them here is "billy buttons". I like VP's comment, always interesting to learn more.

Best wishes Sylvia (England)

Posted by: Sylvia (England) | January 8, 2009 7:33 PM

My Gram would have us gather rolly pollies all day at my great grams and take them to HER garden at the end of the day , I dont know if it was busy work , or there really was a reason.

Posted by: Mrs.Flam | January 8, 2009 11:50 PM

My son and his mates always called them Boodgie Boys! Not sure why but all the kids at Coburg primary called them that!

Posted by: Serena | January 9, 2009 9:06 AM

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