Bugs That Roll Up When Touched

These insects have a hard layered shell which looks something like armadillo skin and 14 legs.

Bugs that roll up when touched.

This name is due to the fact that the pill bug can roll up into a tight ball when disturbed. Pill bugs roll into a ball for defense or to avoid drying out. Pill bugs live around the world. Dead or dying insects assume a familiar pose.

These flat 1 4 or smaller insects usually live under rocks or logs. Most kids have poked a pill bug to watch it roll up into a tight ball. When harassed they ball up to protect themselves. They have many common names and although often referred to as terrestrial isopods some species live semiterrestrially or have.

The first woodlice were marine isopods which are presumed to have colonised land in the carboniferous. With winter rains bay area pill bugs are out in force. Bug rolling in when touched. This ability gives woodlice in this family their common names of pill bugs or roly polies.

Roly poly pillbugs aren t bugs and neither are a lot of other things for that matter duration. Their ability to curl up distinguishes the pill bug from another close relative the sowbug. In fact many people call them roly polies for just this reason. This tell tale position is actually a symptom of an ailing bug s decreased coordination and failing.

If you have an infestation read below to find out how to get rid of pill bugs. They feed on vegetation and rotting matter and can be seen scurrying toward cover under rocks or leaves. Lying on their back legs sticking up in the air. Roly poly bug facts.

Armadillidiidae is a family of woodlice a terrestrial crustacean group in the order isopoda unlike members of other woodlouse families members of this family can roll into a ball an ability they share with the outwardly similar but unrelated pill millipedes and other animals. Video by josh cassidy kqed. Pill bugs eat their own poop. Pill bugs are sometimes referred to as rollie pollies.