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Sample questions
How do pillbugs typically enter a home?
- Through open windows and doors only.
- Through foundation cracks, gaps under doors, and around ground-level windows.
- They are carried inside via indoor potted plants.
- They emerge from within the home's floorboards.
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They gather in damp organic litter around foundations and slip indoors through foundation cracks, gaps under doors, and around ground-level windows.🔗 Source
In a residential setting, what is the recommended first course of action for managing pillbugs?
- Apply broad-spectrum pesticides to all ground-level windows.
- Apply insecticides to the perimeter of the foundation immediately.
- Implement moisture management and exclusion by sealing cracks and reducing irrigation.
- Remove all organic matter from the yard to eliminate their food source.
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Lead with moisture management, since trimming irrigation and keeping organic matter back from the structure strips away the damp conditions pillbugs need... Start with sanitation and exclusion: strip decaying vegetation and clippings from the soil near the foundation and caulk entry points.🔗 Source
When distinguishing a pillbug from a sowbug in the field, what is the primary diagnostic physical difference?
- The pillbug has a flatter back and small appendages on its rear.
- The pillbug has a seven-segmented mid-body (pereon) and a single pair of antennae.
- The pillbug has the ability to roll into a closed ball when disturbed, whereas the sowbug cannot.
- The sowbug is a crustacean while the pillbug is an insect.
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A simple field test settles it: poke the animal, and if it scurries away flat instead of curling, it is a sowbug, not a pillbug.🔗 Source
What is the typical lifespan of an adult pillbug?
- A few days to one week.
- Three to four weeks.
- Two to five years.
- Ten to twelve years.
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A female may raise one to three broods a year, and adults are long-lived for their size, surviving two to five years.🔗 Source
Which of the following best describes the pillbug's role in the ecosystem?
- A primary pest of garden crops like lettuce and peas.
- A medical threat that can bite humans in damp environments.
- A beneficial decomposer that recycles nutrients into the soil.
- An invasive species that provides no benefit to the soil.
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It feeds chiefly on decaying plant material and other decomposing matter, recycling those nutrients back into the soil... Extension specialists count this nutrient recycling as the reason pillbugs are deemed beneficial.🔗 Source
In what scenario is the pillbug considered to be in 'pest territory'?
- When they enter basements and damp ground-floor corners.
- When they damage crops such as tomato, radish, lettuce, pea, and bean in the garden.
- When they consume household furniture and clothing.
- When they infest stored food in pantries.
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They cross into pest territory only in the garden, where they have been documented damaging crops such as tomato, radish, lettuce, pea, and bean.🔗 Source
Which statement best describes the pillbug's biological relationship to common marine animals?
- It is an insect closely related to terrestrial snails.
- It is a land-dwelling relative of shrimp, crabs, and lobsters.
- It is a type of terrestrial crab that has lost its claws.
- It is a member of the insect class that mimics crustaceans.
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Despite the name, it is no insect but a land-dwelling relative of shrimp, crabs, and lobsters.🔗 Source
A female pillbug's reproductive cycle involves which of the following characteristics?
- She carries 100 to 200 eggs in a marsupium on her underside.
- The eggs hatch immediately upon being laid in decaying leaf litter.
- The young, known as mancas, hatch and immediately leave the pouch.
- She produces one brood every year throughout her life.
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A female pillbug carries her eggs in a fluid-filled brood pouch, the marsupium, on her underside; each batch holds roughly 100 to 200 eggs that hatch in about three to four weeks.🔗 Source
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