Make Your Own Roly Poly Trap

Roly poly. 

Pill bug. 

Funny little creature that rolls into a ball if you pick it up.

It goes by many names but I’m sure  we’re all familiar with it. 

Roly polies can be found basically wherever you can find dirt. So, everywhere. They are a type of terrestrial isopod that is commonly seen in the garden, usually in dark tucked away places. 

And moist places, they really like moisture.

Roly polies are not often considered a garden pest in my books, simply because nature has a way with balancing itself out. Birds and other insects like to snack on these guys and keep their population in check. But during the wet, rainy seasons and if you have an overactive population, you might start seeing some issues with having them in your garden. 

I grew up “collecting” bugs of all types, roly polies being at the top of the list. I’ve never seen them and had the “ick” factor, and they honestly kind of bring me joy. Ah nostalgia. 

But last summer I was noticing my freshly planted beets weren’t doing so well. I noticed the leaves were very droopy on some, so I went in to investigate and found ants covering them.

I thought huh, that weird. Ants aren’t usually a pest in the garden. If anything they are a garden helper! So I looked closer and realized something: the ants were congregating at small bite marks that had been made by roly polies early in the morning. I was only seeing them in the heat of the day, so the roly polies were long gone and hidden from the heat while the ants came out to play and got the blame for the nibbles.

I thought it was odd that I was having roly poly issues because like I said, I have never known them to be a pest. They typically just munch on decaying organic material and can be found within leaves, under stumps, woodchips, you name it. I realized though that early that spring, we had made a run to our local city mulch pile and refreshed our beds with new woodchips. What must have happened is these roly polies came with the chips, 

Anywho, long story short, we had a roly poly overpopulation and they were not only eating up my beets, but eating my freshly germinated bean sprouts I was trying to grow in an area close by. 

But thankfully I came up with a quick and easy trick to keep the population in check and harvest my beets for myself. 

Want to know the secret?

Drumroll please…

…A potato.

WHAT? A potato?

Hear me out.

The roly polies are attracted to the sugary starchy veggies inI’m growing. They come out to eat when it’s dewy and dark and they have a good place to hide. 

I couldn’t bring myself to squishing them when I found them – I loved these little beasts.

There was no way I wanted to buy a commercial pesticide to deal with the issue. 1) I didn’t want to destroy the population completely or harm other beneficial bugs. And 2) I was planning on eating these plants. Why would I use a harmful pesticide if I’m going to eat them?!

A few people I know use beer traps for these guys and slugs, but we don’t drink beer in this house, so that option didn’t make sense. Plus there’s something about making them drown that unsettles me. I generally like these bugs after all!

So I got to thinking about trap crops like nasturtiums. They are often interplanted with veggies to attract things like aphids away from the crop and towards the trap crop. Taking one for the team if you will. I couldn’t think of something I could grow right now to trap these guys and relocate them, but I could think of a pantry staple I had on hand..

Yep. A potato.

A plain ole russet potato. Think about it: they’re starchy, moist, and who doesn’t love them? 

Turns out I was so right, so here’s what I did.

Cut the potato in half length wise. You want to scoop out a little bit of the middle in order to create a cave of sorts for the roly polies to crawl into.

Right before you head inside for the night, go place your potatoes cut side down next to the crops you’re having trouble with. Make sure they’re flat on the soil. 

The next morning, come back out and check your catch. You might have to wait a day or two for the population to discover your potato treat, but once they do… be prepared to collect dozens and dozens of roly polies off of each slice. Then go pull yourself a beet to eat – you deserve it! 

You may ask, so what do you do with the lil bugs after you trap them if you don’t like squishing them? I usually do one of three things:

1. throw them to the chickens
2. Put them in my bird feeder
3. Throw them over the fence 😬

Don’t tell my neighbors! 

Thanks for growing with me,

Becca