Roly Poly, Are They Bugs in Jasper?

Welcome again to the Faith Pest Control podcast. Hi, I’m Mike Stewart, your host and we’re here today with pest expert Fred Talley of Faith Pest Control, Faith Pest Control services all the fine folks in Jasper, Georgia, Blue Ridge, Georgia Ellijay, Georgia and pretty much anywhere in the North Georgia mountains. If you have a pest problem, Fred Talley is the man to take care of those problems. And now here’s Fred Talley.

So Roly polies. What officially I guess known as pill bug is not actually an insect. Although it may look like one. It’s actually a crustacean that lives on the land. And for those that don’t know are unaware, most crustaceans live primarily in the water. They have a hard shell segment and body and joint jointed legs, crustaceans that you would recognize a big crabs, lobsters and shrimp. And now the pill bug. So since Roly polies live on the land and not in the water, that makes them actually a very unique crustacean rolly pollies or oval shape, and they have a hard outer shell segmented shell as we said before. One of the things that distinguish Roly polies from being classified as an insect is the fact that they have seven six sets of legs. Insects have only three pairs of legs. Rolie polies, are probably best known for their ability to roll themselves into a ball when they become threatened. They are native to the Mediterranean. However, they can be found all over the north Georgia mountains. Roly polys go by several different names. Officially, they’re called pillbugs. But in the United States, they’re commonly referred to as Roly. polies doodlebugs. Woods, shrimp and wood lies here in the southeast. The only term I’ve ever heard for him is Rolie polies. In the UK, they’re called chiggy, pigs, penny sales and cheesy bugs. I thought that was kind of ironic. As Roly polies will and may or may and will eat some of your plants. They’re not harmful to humans as they do not buy nor do they staying there primarily just can be just a nuisance. As I said earlier, their proper name is pill bug. And they look like a bug but but they’re not insects at all their land living crustaceans, more closely related to lobsters, crabs and shrimp than the ants and bees. And they’re the only crustaceans that have adapted to the living completely on the land. There’s they’re very small, only range in length from a quarter to a half inch long. As we’ve already said, they’re classified as crustaceans that live on the land not in the water, but they breathe with gills. Therefore, in order to preserve their moisture and to keep them from drying their bodies out. Roly polies are only active or primarily active at night, while spending the daylight hours in wet damp areas like under rocks, logs, and limbs that are laying on the ground and under the mulch in your flower beds, where there have an opportunity to roll into a bowl and protect whatever moisture they have on their gills. pill bugs are referred to as Roly polies because when they get disturbed or feel threatened, they roll themselves and then this tight little ball. The school of thought is that this is a defect defense mechanism that has evolved over time to protect their soft underbelly from their predators and to maintain the moisture on their gills. Roly polys do not urinate due to their high tolerance for ammonia gas. Instead, they is excrete their waste fluids through their shells. Now this is somewhat disgusting, but a lot of animals do this. But as for their solid waste, they eat their own feces. Ironically enough, recycling their own fecal deposits allows them to obtain some of the nutrients they may have missed during their first digestive cycle for drinking, Roly polys had two choices. They can drink from their mouse, like most other creatures, or they can use these tube shaped structures that jet out from their rear ends. Doesn’t sound to me like Roly polies have much regard for sanitation. Their preferred food source is dead organic plant matter. If you’re looking for a great composting partner in your garden or flower beds Rolie polies are your friend by chewing up the rotting vegetation and returning it back to the soul. They are actually helping to speed up decomposition and as a result provide a free service to you the gardener because of the bacteria in their gut, they’re able to process dead fruits leaves, in other forms of vegetation, returning it back to the earth or in your compost pile, to be digested by more fungi and bacteria. Strangely, though Roly polies play another important part in our environment. And actually, I didn’t even realize this until doing some research for this podcast. They can take in heavy metals such as copper, zinc, and lead, and then crystallize those heavy metals in their bodies. This quality or this the quality alone has has made them ideal, I guess test subjects in studies about pollution, and other environmental research. Their unique ability remove the heavy metal from the contaminate souls allows them to thrive in polluted locations where other species cannot survive. Just like crustaceans. Female Roly polies have a brood pouch called a marsupium on the underside of their belly, the females carry their eggs in their pants for two three months until they hatch. And even after hatching, the young Roly polies sometimes returned to the pouch and continue to grow and receive nourishment from their mothers marsupial fluids. before they head out into the into the real world. I was somewhat shocked by this I didn’t. I didn’t realize any of the bugs we dealt with had a marsupium. At any rate, here at fates pest control, we offer a free consultation, as well as a 100% make you happy money back guarantee. If you hire faith pest control, to get rid of your bug problem. At the end of 30 days, you’re not 100% Happy, we’ll come back and retreat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it for free until you tell us that you are happy. If that still doesn’t make you happy. We’ll give you back every penny you spent on the original treatment. Plus, we’ll pay you an additional $25 Just for your for your time and trouble just for fooling with us. The bottom line is this. I want you to be happy with the service we provide or you won’t owe us a penny period. If you feel like what I’ve said makes sense, please call fetes pest control today at 770-823-9202 and asked to speak to me, Fred tally. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions that you may have.

Well, Fred, that’s great information. Hey, if you’re in the north Georgia mountains in Jasper, Blue Ridge, Ellijay, Georgia, or anywhere in the north Georgia mountains and you have problems with bugs, just listen to this podcast over and over again and share it with your friends, so you’ll know what to do. And then of course, if you’re like me, and you just don’t want to deal with it, call Fred. Fred will take care of you and make sure you get the problem solved. We do this podcast as a community service for all the fine folks in Jasper, Georgia, Blue Ridge, Georgia, Ellijay, Georgia, and anywhere in the north Georgia mountains. You can get this podcast from our website, or you can get it from any of the fun podcast services like Apple, Google podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon. Even if you just ask your Alexa Hey, play the faith pest control podcast latest episode, it will start playing and you can listen right there on your speaker devices. So until next time, this is Mike Stewart for the faith pest control podcast.

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