The wonder of woodlice
It says a lot that when you search for ‘woodlice’ on the internet you get plenty of pages about ‘pest control’. Scroll down a bit and you reach some lovely wildlife pages explaining their merits. I rather think it should be the other way around! Perhaps it’s time we all changed our perceptions of where to draw the line between pest and wildlife?
I’ve got a soft spot for woodlice – there they are each time you pick up a pot or a pebble, huddled together, often with a worm or a small centipede for company. It’s a fascinating underworld that congregates anywhere you leave a pot or a sack of compost for longer than a day! A woodlouse’s armadillo armour protects its softer undersides, much like their cousins the shrimp and the crab – yes, woodlice are actually crustaceans.
The damage they do to plants is little – occasionally they nibble a seedling or part of a strawberry, but the majority of the nibbling will likely have been done by something else – slug, snail or insect. The woodlice just drop by and take a small share.
Actually woodlice are wonderful recyclers. They feed mostly on decaying plant matter, turning it into useful nutrients for our soil, and they particularly love a compost heap. There are about 30 species of them in the UK and they can be seen all year round. Pop them on your friends list; if you’ve got a lot of them it means your garden is in rude health, so there’s no need to be rid!
Woodlice love damp spots to keep themselves nice and moist – dry weather will dry them out so they like to hide out in sheltered, soggy nooks and crannies. This time of year signals clear-up time and this week I’ve stacked up lots of my pots and cut down some plant stems to pile up in corners; the perfect habitats for my friendly woodlice.