woodlice, the menaces :(
sanjy67
Posts: 1,007
Does anyone have any tips on getting rid of woodlice? i have been in the garden again today and they are everywhere, every time i move a pot, there's tons of the pesky blighters under the pots and inside the holes in the bottom & this is every pot in the garden!
They are in the strawberry beds and last year they were eating the strawberries, they also ate all the petals on my plant (i forget the name but had silvery green leaves with daisy like flowers)
now, i know woodlice are supposed to live on dead and rotting things but these monsters do eat my strawberries, believe me i have tested them giving them the option of dead material and a perfect strawberry and they munched a hole in the strawberry, time after time i tested them so i know it is them lol, the plant they decimated the flowers of, i used to go out last summer with a torch and catch them at it, i even posted the photo on here as proof, so i need to do something about them now before the strawberries come out (they are planted in a planter made from untreated sea defence wood (used for groynes) and a metre off the ground & i don't like them when i turn a plant out and there are loads of them dropping out.
I keep the garden pretty tidy with dead matter cleared away apart from the rock piles & insect piles, any tips to help please?
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they have areas/piles of dead wood and an old dead tree that i cut down and left in the garden for insects
eww after clearing a few weeds today out of an unused pot i topped it up with compost & john innes and was happily using my hands to mix it all in as you do when i spotted the white grubs urhhh i nearly freaked out 
and tossed a few on the ground but was really annoyed i'd wasted all that new compost etc, i think they must be vine weevil grubs although i didn't notice the brown head bit as i was alternately freaking and lobbing them from the pot, i'll have to have a look tomo when i'm feeling brave, will i have to throw the lot away?
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=723
Woodlice - very useful critters in the garden, and very good mothers ... apparently
http://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk/wildlife/other-invertebrates/woodlouse.aspx
http://earthlife.net/INSECTS/woodcare.html
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Are Woodlice really a problem?
I have them under most pots, but they don't seem to cause problems.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
No, you are quite right, Sanjy when the numbers get really high they DO eat your plants. I'm too squeamish to stamp them to death but I sometimes sweep them into a bucket and tip them into the woodpile at the bottom of the garden. One year a duck came to live in my garden. She would follow me about and get really excited when I turned over the stones for her. She ate hundreds of the things. Unfortunately, I do not know where you can borrow a duck!
thanks everyone, replies always appreciated !! i shall read the links from dove and hosta later as have to go out in a minute
tetley i have been out this morning and emptied said tub and squashed them, i went through it carefully and found four & they were indeed vine weevil grubs urhhh
i shall tip them into the compost bin in future instead of the brown bin.
it's not i don't like them in the garden as such it's the damage they inflict on my strawberry plants as they seem to be everywhere in that bed once the strawberries get going and eat them and other plant damage to soft petals
posy i'm envious of your duck, but my dog probably bring it in his mouth as a gift like he did when he found a young ring neck dove that had fallen out of it's nest, there he was wagging his tail at the patio doors with the poor thing in his mouth and i screamed, that's terriers for you
Could they be trained to kill slugs with the help of a chair and a whip.like lion taming