Kitchen Garden Forum

In the Plotwatching report in the August Kitchen Garden it is reported that Colin Handley resorted to a insecticide to control wood lice. Our plot is infested with wood lice, can anyone recommend an insecticide which is effective against them

Why would you want to kill woodlice? I thought they only eat decaying matter and not living plants.

, one of their favourites seems to be strawberries

They've had a good go at my cherry tomatoes too.. little blighters. I stamp on them in vain.

as well as our strawberries, they have been hollowing out the tops of our fat juicy carrots

Hi Monica,
I admit that Wood Lice like living amongst decaying vegetation but is quite incorrect to think they eat exclusively decaying vegetation. They can have a devastating effect on young plants and they eat through the stems of seedling at ground level which is very often blamed on slugs. They are night feeders and you really only see them during the day when you have disturbed them from their daytime sleep.
They will enter the pot of a growing plant and chew at the roots and usually if the plant is old enough they are not fatal but to young shrub cuttings they can have a devastating effect. They nibble at the stems of Cucumbers and can be the primary cause of stem rot and they can do the same to Greenhouse Tomatoes. Not the innocent little buggers you think they are!
JB.

I stand corrected and will treat woodlice with less compassion in future!

Bob Flowerdew and Pippa Greenwood have argued this one out on Gardener's Question Time several times. Pippa maintains that the mouthparts of woodlice are not substantial enough to be able to attack living plant material and that the woodlice you see eating plants are only exploiting initial damage by slugs etc.
Having suffered woodlice damage quite frequently I disagree. They seem to particularly prefer the stems of plants such as French beans. They are little b*ggers and I have found that only woodash will deter them.

I agree wood lice are very destructive.
Control them with Ant & Insect Powder based on Bendiocarb - B&Q sell a value version if you search for it for about £1. I now automatically sprinkle benches with this and slug pellets under any seed trays or modules that I sow.

Is the an organic method of controlling them? I too have loads and am having terrible trouble of stuff being eaten this year. help!

The only methods I know of are seek and destroy and barrier methods. I use my trusty woodash as I find they won't cross this.
It may be possible to use derris but I have never used derris myself so I'm not at all sure about this.

Whilst not wanting to hijack this thread, thanks alot Jenny, I have some derris & have sprinkled it about! What is woodash? Literaly ash from wood? I know my stuff where chooks & animals are concerned but am a bit of a novice when it comes to gardening and want to keep it organic.

Yes, it's ash from burning wood, as opposed to coal ash, which isn't supposed to be very good for plants. I use it a lot around plants that might come under attack from slugs, ants, woodlice etc. Nothing can seem to cross it if it's on thickly enough.
It's harmless to plants and in fact supplies one of the major nutrients. However, it does wash away easily so wouldn't be much use in this weather. It's most effective in the greenhouse. Another proviso I should add is that I grow on raised mounds which seem unfavourable to slugs, and that I generally grow things in pots then plant them out so they're less vulnerable.
The only other pesticide I use is an organic fatty acid spray that acts against aphids and red spider mite. It wouldn't work on woodlce though.

I have used Derris Dust & Woodlice gone! But this morning I found some & some ants camping in my greenhouse, soo out with the dd again!

Just so you know, though, I have planted out my Brocolli and after 3 days I only have a third of my plants left. Very little sign of slugs or snails. No more woodlice near the veg patch and I have netted them over. This is so dissapointing