Potato Bugs = Pill bugs?

scoloclown

Arachnopeon
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Sorry, I've searched this forum and couldn't find the answer to this question. Are these Pill bugs the same thing as what we call "potato" bugs or "roly poly's" under flipped rocks and other things around the house? Can I place these in the cage with cents or milli's?
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
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those are both roly polies to me :)


and THIS is why i always try to use taxonomical names as much as possible!


if i was talking in the hobby i would call both those things isopods... ZERO confusion




i think my grandma calls isopods potato bugs, too. she grew up in MI or WI or someplace close to you. she has told me about how she had to go into the root cellar and pull of all the "potato bugs" from the foodstuffs they were storing in there and then drop the bugs in kerosene :)
oh, and she is 89 and did the kerosene thing when she was like... 9 or something, so the local common name could be more than 80 years old :)







edit:
you call the isopods that can roll into a ball roly polies and the isopods that can't potato bugs?
 

Ritzman

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edit:
you call the isopods that can roll into a ball roly polies and the isopods that can't potato bugs?
Yep.:rolleyes: Or woodlice
At least did all throughout my childhood. For the past year and a half they have all been isopods though. And everybody(outside the hobby) thinks that name for them is hodge-podge.

I wonder how many different species there are in my neck of the woods?

Edit: I find it rather amusing what one area commonly refers to something as, another calls it something totally different.
It can totally screw things up.
 

agama

Arachnosquire
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hi,
a wood louse looks like a rolypoly

in fact they lok like they are the same thing:?
 

Ritzman

Arachnobaron
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and to add more confusion... there are millipedes that look like your roly polies!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pill_millipede

read the first paragraph, it might make you laugh :)
Madness. :} A pill mili.
I'll stick to the term isopods.

Well I know we have at least two, if not more, families of Isopoda here.
One species can roll into a ball, while another can't.

Thanks for the read cacoseraph. :)
 

scoloclown

Arachnopeon
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Mar 9, 2006
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Those roly poly's are known as potato bugs here in N. Utah as well. So these ARE pill bugs, then! I'm glad I know that. So, I can go outside and throw a couple of these in my cents and milli's cages to take care of leftovers then? Is there any kind of disease or bacteria thing going on between CB cents and milli's and wild caught pill bugs? Thanks everybody for the replies and the pics of the...isopods.
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
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I've read that potato bugs is the common name given to Jerusalem crickets in CA and much of the southwest where they are common since they often attack potatos.
Usually pillbugs refers to the species that roll into balls while sowbug are the others.
 

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Travis K

TravIsGinger
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But like Caco said earlier the common names you are all using are Crap!

aside from a few exceptions most the arthropods linked about are ISOPODS.
 

zonbonzovi

Creeping beneath you
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LOL- yes, these are great for your tanks. Do grab a microscope or your grandmother's reading glasses and check for stowaways. Or better yet, and if you can collect them locally, get a handful and put them into their own container. They breed readily, in my experience. If successful, put the nymphs in your tank. Mine readily eat the remains of my 'pedes snacks- cricket, roach, whatever. The nymphs even use cleaned out roach husks as shelter. I know I'm going to catch hell for saying that I leave dead prey items in tanks, so I'll clarify: If the residual remains aren't eaten within 24 hours so there is ONLY exoskeleton left, I'll remove them.

Regarding the varied isopods- here in the NW, the kind that rolls into a ball and the kind that are referred to as wood lice are often found together, adding to the confusion. The only difference in habitat that I can see is that the ahem, roly-pollies, seem to inhabit dark places with more space and under direct sunlight, whereas wood lice are more apt to hide in tighter spaces away from direct sunlight. And their good on toast...
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
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They're fine in low numbers or in "community terraria" but aren't a good idea for rearing or breeding cages.
 

zonbonzovi

Creeping beneath you
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Thanks for the clarification, O. I didn't even consider that the OP might be breeding- I'd feel terrible if his eggs were eaten because of my hasty reply:(
 
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