Woodlice, most of which live in water and only about 250 species of crustaceans have been able to evolve and adapt to life on land, however, they need a large amount of moisture for a normal life.
So only the most unpretentious species take root in residential premises, since this is far from the best habitat for them. Consider what types of wood lice are most often found in apartments.
A photo
Below you can see a close-up photo of a domestic woodlice, where you can see what an insect looks like, which is found in an apartment and other residential premises.
Armadillo
It is found primarily in damp basements, pantries.
Rough
Prefers residential and wet areas. It is very fast, therefore it is able to cover long distances in a short period of time, it often moves from the basement to the apartment. She likes to live in the bathroom, especially in the corners where mold appears, this is her favorite treat. Periodically, she sheds either the upper or the lower shell, which is interesting, it is also food for the wood lice.
White
It has a small size (about 6 mm). Prefers to settle in the bathroom, in dark corners.
You can learn more about white wood lice.
body size
The body is convex, the size varies from 1 mm in length to 10 cm, covered with hard chitinous bristles that protect against numerous predators.
Description
Considering the appearance of wood lice, we can distinguish the following characteristic features for them:
- On the back of some species of crustaceans there are ornate patterns.
- The head is clearly expressed, passing into the chest, on which there are two antennae and eyes.
- How many legs do insects have? The legs are well adapted for walking - seven pairs (the last pair of limbs of the abdomen performs tactile, supporting or protective functions, or serves to absorb water).
- At the end of the body are tactile organs, similar to two small appendage tails.
- The respiratory organs resemble gills, allowing them to survive in difficult conditions.
Attention! Small representatives of this species initially have twelve legs, not fourteen.
What are there?
Today, woodlice are divided depending on their size.
small
They live mainly in dwellings and damp places. plant waste, mold, moss. Small bifurcated tubules on the last pair of limbs absorb moisture. Due to the presence of pores in the shell, the secretions leave the body as ammonia vapor, and not in the form of liquid urine.
The color of the body depends on the environment, so they can be blue, yellow, pink. The sizes of small wood lice are from 1 mm to 1 centimeter.
Large
The appearance of large woodlice is identical to small ones, but sizes can reach 4 centimeters. An example of such woodlice is the language.
Giant
There are nine types of giant woodlice, some of them larger than a man's palm., and the largest "sea cockroach" - up to ten centimeters. In addition, a huge individual, like ordinary crayfish, does not live on land, but in the water depths, referring to deep-sea inhabitants. How do they look? Outwardly, they are the same as the usual woodlice, only much larger.
Who can you mess with?
Among insects that resemble woodlice in their appearance, the following are distinguished:
- Kivsyak Crimean - centipede, which lives in southern Russia, usually disguises itself as wood lice and lives in cellars.
- silverfish, with it is often confused with wood lice. These insects have an elongated body that tapers from head to tail. Behind you can see three ponytails, similar to thin hairs. Looking closely, it is easy to catch the resemblance to a fish fry.
Silverfish are nocturnal, feed on organic substances: mold, wet paper, food waste, synthetic fiber, and even in times of famine do not disdain dead brothers. They reproduce very slowly, unlike wood lice.
Attention! Woodlice recycle all sorts of waste like earthworms, benefiting the environment. They are also food for lizards, spiders, and toads.
Occasionally, at home, colonies of woodlice are specially grown, and then used as food for exotic animals.
According to all the known facts about wood lice, we can conclude that they are not carriers of infections, do not spoil furniture, do not eat food, are completely safe, but rather try to stay as far away as possible. Of course, living in an apartment, they do not cause sympathy. But before you start the fight, you should think about the benefits and harms of them. Perhaps the cause of their occurrence should be eliminated than trying.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
Woodlice as a whole are an integral and rather important part of many natural communities. With the advent of human settlements and cities, they were quite successfully able to integrate into the urban landscape and found quite comfortable conditions for their life here. Moreover, woodlice eat a very diverse diet and can feel provided with food almost everywhere.
Food habits played an important role in the rapid adaptation of wood lice to human settlements: we can say that these creatures can almost always and everywhere find something edible for themselves. Suitable food for them is available on agricultural lands, and in parks and city squares, and directly near city houses, in basements, attics, or even in our bathrooms and toilets.
Not surprisingly, wood lice can be found almost everywhere. But at the same time, they do not particularly catch the eye - their nocturnal lifestyle, secrecy and love for dampness affect. Sometimes, even where there are a lot of wood lice, you can not suspect their existence for a long time.
The owners of the same garages or cellars, as a rule, discover "strange insects" by chance, with surprise finding their whole clusters under various objects standing on the floor or ground. Here, woodlice eat, breed and lead their active, albeit inconspicuous life.
On a note
Woodlice are not insects - they belong to the class of crustaceans.
The diet of wood lice: simplicity and a minimum of calories
The vast majority of woodlice eat plant foods. However, it is also worth mentioning large deep-sea decapod crayfish: they, strictly speaking, do not even belong to woodlice, but are very similar to them and are often referred to as giant woodlice. These creatures also eat mainly algae, benthos, the remains of various dead animals, but they can also eat living holothurians, sea anemones, and other marine life with a soft body, unable to move.
Most woodlice are typical processors of dying and rotting plants. In forests, fields, plantings and even deserts, they feed on parts of withering plants, their roots, rotting fruits, seeds and falling leaves. Given that there are a lot of such organic matter in nature, wood lice, as a rule, have no problems finding food.
Most often, wood lice find their food under stones, under old snags or under fallen leaves. Here, away from the sun's rays, plant materials are available and rot more easily, while the crustaceans themselves are safer and less accessible to predators.
On a note
Bacteria that can digest cellulose fibers live in the digestive tract of woodlice. They are not as versatile as termite symbiont bacteria, but still ensure the normal assimilation of rather coarse parts of plants.
Generally speaking, by the type of their food, wood lice are real minimalists. Their food is quite low in calories and contains very little fat.
As a rule, woodlice feed, practically without harming living plants and usually content with the fact that it itself falls and begins to rot (however, there are exceptions when these creatures, picky in food, still damage the living parts of garden plants, harming them).
Thanks to this way of feeding, woodlice turn out to be very useful organisms for biocenoses, processing and utilizing large amounts of decaying plant residues.
How about abroad?
Interestingly, the woodlice that inhabit the tropical regions of the globe are no different from domestic "watermelons" in their food preferences. They also crawl under the forest floor, old stumps and stones, and at night they crawl along the damp ground, looking for fallen fruits and seeds.
In the tropics, due to greater biodiversity, woodlice have a much wider food base: here decaying plant organic matter is found in abundance, and requires more "scavengers". Accordingly, woodlice in tropical forests are more numerous, represented by a greater number of species, and are generally larger in size. Although, they still do not grow more than 5-6 centimeters.
There are also several species of woodlice that have returned to their original element of crustaceans - to fresh and salt water bodies. Staying close to the coast, these species eat decaying remains of plant and animal origin.
Enemies of wood lice: for whom "watermelons" are a delicacy
But the wood lice themselves are good food for a large number of animals. Even though their body, it would seem, is reliably protected by a hard chitinous shell, and in case of danger they can curl up into a ball, protecting a softer abdomen, they are caught and eaten with pleasure by the following living organisms:
- Large insects - predatory beetles, flies, wasps.
- Spiders - there is even a species of spider Dysdera crocata, which specializes in feeding on wood lice. It has elongated chelicerae, and is able to bite even a curled up "watermelon" between the shields of the shell.
- Amphibians and reptiles. Perhaps only newts and salamanders do not eat terrestrial crustaceans very often. Frogs, toads, lizards and small snakes are happy to eat wood lice, especially young and soft ones, and for some species these creatures are even the basis of the diet.
- Birds are especially small owls, feeding just when wood lice are actively crawling on the soil surface.
- Mammals - shrews, hedgehogs, rats.
Many terrariumists (amateurs and professionals who keep lizards, snakes, spiders at home) keep wood lice in special cages, breeding them as a source of food for their pets. Compared to crickets, cockroaches and mealworms, shelled crustaceans are of course less attractive food, but they are quite suitable as an additional dietary variety.
There are even techniques for breeding wood lice together with their natural enemies in the same terrarium. These crustaceans are very convenient to keep, because they do not impose special requirements on the microclimate, and feed on any food waste of plant origin.
What do wood lice eat in houses and apartments
It should be understood that in and around a person’s dwelling, wood lice do not change their “food addictions”. Here they also find rotting plant remains, and sometimes those that the owners of the dwelling are not even aware of.
There are no problems with food for wood lice that live in cellars with leaking pipes. Here, seeds flying through the cracks constantly germinate, mold and lichens grow. And although this is not a very plentiful and nutritious food, it is enough for wood lice. Moreover, sometimes this allows them to breed in huge numbers, after which they begin to occupy the lower apartments.
On a note
There are cases when the residents of the lower apartments, due to the constant penetration of wood lice from the basement, had to wage a long struggle with these arthropods - no less intense than, for example, with cockroaches.
Do not confuse wood lice with silverfish. The latter, on the contrary, like dryness, and feed on sugar and groceries in the dust. Correct identification of arthropods in the apartment will help make the fight against them more effective.
Woodlice live more luxuriously in rural cellars: here they constantly feed on wilted potatoes, sprouting onions, and carrots. Sometimes they are content with the same feed on the balconies of apartments.
In toilets and bathrooms, wood lice can live well only if these rooms always maintain a high level of humidity (poor ventilation, leaking pipes, mold in the corners). Therefore, remember: if there are wood lice in the house, the sanitary situation in it requires urgent intervention.
It also happens that wood lice multiply en masse in the attics of houses with a leaky roof, and then through cracks and ventilation ducts they penetrate toilets, bathrooms, and the kitchen. Even if your apartment is relatively dry, but the attic is already overpopulated with crustaceans, then in this case, wait for the “guests”.
A useful video on how to deal with wood lice in an apartment: some effective recipes
An example of how residents of a house suffer from an invasion of wood lice
Woodlice are called insects conditionally. Woodlouse belongs to the class of crustaceans, the order of isopods. In nature, lives near water bodies under stones, troughs, old stumps. In urban areas, it lives in sewers, near garbage cans, in damp basements. Periodically, a person's home in the presence of favorable conditions for the existence of insects.
Appearance description
The woodlouse is a crustacean creature that lives in damp areas. A ground creature located in a place with high humidity.
- The oblong body of a convex shape is divided into segments. Adults have 7.
- There are two pairs of antennae on the head. The first whiskers are short, poorly developed, the second whiskers are long. This is the main organ that helps the insect navigate in space, look for a source of food.
- The structure of wood lice is simple. On the sides there are 7 pairs of straight legs, providing fast movement. The sixth pair of limbs is turned back, helping the insect to quickly change direction. How many legs a woodlice has depends on age. In adults, there are 7 pairs of them, in larvae, only 6.
The first 5 segments of the body are free, overlap each other like tiles. Their inner part plays the role of gills - respiratory organs. The upper part protects the body, is a hard shell. Insects breathe with the middle part of the body, the respiratory organs are simplified. The last segment ends with a long tail. In some species, the whiskers and tail look the same, it is difficult to determine where the beginning and where the end of the body is.
The size of wood lice is not more than 18 mm. Body color may vary depending on the species, age. The color is present gray, ashy, white, brown. The larvae are always lighter than the adults and are born with a white shell. A photo of wood lice is presented below. You can carefully examine each part of the body.
Interesting!
In appearance it is difficult to determine whether it is an insect or not. Some call the crustacean a harmful beetle. Experts, answering the question of who wood lice are, attribute them to crustaceans. In everyday life, they are accustomed to call them insects, not really peering into the structure of the body, the features of life.
Where live
Habitat - area near water sources. It can be both natural reservoirs and sewerage, barrels of water, damp rooms. Different types of wood lice prefer their places - stones on the river bank, old stumps, troughs, garbage cans, abandoned buildings, sewers, pipelines, basements, cellars, damp houses. An insect often settles in greenhouses, hotbeds, and a compost pit.
They enter a person’s house when the weather conditions worsen, with the onset of cold weather. , toilet, pantries, damp corridors. Favorable living conditions:
- high humidity;
- open access to water;
- lack of direct sunlight;
- the presence of food.
Taste preferences
What woodlice eat is interesting not only for nature lovers. The question arises for everyone who notices an incomprehensible creature in their bath, sink, toilet. What attracts the insect, how long can it live in the house.
What woodlice eat in nature - decaying plants, mold. In damp places such food is present in great abundance. Insects live quietly on the street, in basements, without attracting attention, without causing harm.
With the onset of cold weather, the crustacean sneaks into human housing. Food wood lice in the apartment - mold, which remains on the walls, water pipes, pipes in case of violation of sanitary and hygienic requirements, high humidity. And also wet toilet paper, dirt in the corners, on the pipes.
Life cycle
The peculiarities of the life of crustaceans make them hide during the day, crawl out of shelters at night. You can notice an insect in the evening or during the day in a dark room. Reproduction of wood lice in nature begins in April-May. Females mate with males, seminal fluid enters a special segment on the body. How wood lice breed in the future is a rather interesting process.
The seminal fluid is consumed gradually, the female does not need to be re-fertilized to reproduce offspring, but mating a second time can occur. From the fertilized eggs in the body of the female, larvae are formed. They are born a copy of the female, but differ in size and color.
Woodlice larvae are born white, the shell gradually darkens. The larva looks the same as the adult, but there are some differences in the structure. There are only 6 segments on the body, the same number of pairs of legs, short whiskers. In 3 months, the larva completes its development, undergoes several molts, and constantly increases in size. How many wood lice live depends on the living conditions. In a favorable environment, the insect lives for about a year.
In search of food, the insect comes out at night, in case of danger either quickly runs away or curls up into a ball. At first, the larvae live with the female, then they switch to independent provision.
Interesting!
The characterization of wood lice as a slow creature is incorrect. In one night, the family is able to migrate to the 7th-10th floor of a multi-storey building. Initially, it settles in basements, from there it rises up along water pipes and walls. Chooses a damp room with an abundance of food. Such conditions allow the crustaceans to stay in the house for a long time.
Benefit and harm
In nature, wood lice in large quantities are not called pests. Their significance in nature lies in the processing of rotting, decaying grass. Healthy plants, insect cultures do not attract. Woodlice, settling in greenhouses, greenhouses do not violate the growing season of the plant, but save it from fungi and mold. And also loosen the soil, enriching it with oxygen. Assessing the ratio - benefit and harm, the beneficial properties of insects prevail.
What are the dangers of wood lice for humans, some experts say - the spread of pathogenic fungi, lichen. In most cases, these creatures are called pests only for the fact that they make their way into the apartment, scare the tenants with their appearance. In addition to a disorder of the nervous system, fright, stress, wood lice do no harm to anyone. Insects do not bite, do not spread dangerous diseases.
On a note!
With unsanitary conditions in the apartment, wood lice live not only in the bathroom, toilet, they crawl into the kitchen. In this case, their presence in the house is even more unpleasant. Insects crawl on tables, food, dishes, sinks. In this case, the risk of transferring the infection increases, but the person himself is more to blame.
Varieties of wood lice
Land crustaceans are classified as pests conditionally. The appearance of wood lice in the apartment is a signal for the owners - it's time to do repairs, put things in order in the bathroom, toilet, and overcome dampness. In a room where there is no dampness, there is no mold, dirt, wood lice will never live. If you put things in order in the house, you won’t have to fight insects, they themselves will gradually disappear.
Preventive measures
To prevent the appearance of insects in the bathroom, toilet, you must:
- Repair faucets, pipes.
- Get rid of moisture, dampness.
- To clean up.
- Wipe pipes, pipelines, floors in hard-to-reach places.
- Get rid of wet rags, napkins, washcloths.
- Wash the floor every week with the addition of a chlorinated product.
- Put the grate on the ventilation hole, seal the cracks in the wall, floor.
Insecticides are used to control insects only if other measures do not give the desired result.
Woodlouse is a small representative of the crustacean family, reaching a size of 10-18 mm. She has an oval body of dark gray or brown color, covered with scaly armor. In an adult, one can notice thin antennae that can be compared with crayfish. They perform a tactile function. The creature also has seven pairs of legs that allow it to move quickly.
pictured wood lice
Despite the fact that this species belongs to crustaceans, woodlice are the most terrestrial representative of this family. But she still needs moisture, so she chooses damp and dark places as her habitat.
Where does the wood lice live
This insect (we will call it that for convenience, although, as noted above, this is a crustacean) lives everywhere, but almost never catches the eye. This is due to the creature's nocturnal lifestyle. If you pick up a stone, brick, log or any other lying object from the ground, then under them you can often see a cluster of wood lice.
Some owners of apartments, garages, private houses do not even suspect that they have such “guests” and only accidentally discover the places of their settlement, where they breed, feed and lead an active, but invisible life for people. The most preferred habitats are attics, wells, basements, outdoor and domestic toilets, bathrooms, parks, squares and farmlands, and any other place where it is constantly damp and dark. It is here that comfortable conditions for existence are created for them, especially since this insect feeds on almost any organic food.
What does it eat in nature?
In nature, these insects prefer to eat plant foods. Bacteria live in their digestive tract, which are able to easily digest and assimilate cellulose. Thanks to this, wood lice completely assimilate even coarse and low-juicy parts of plants.
In the fields, in forest plantations and vegetable gardens, wood lice eat the remains and withering roots of plants, seeds, rotting and overripe fruits, and falling leaves. Since there are a large number of such organic residues in nature, there is never a lack of nutrition.
Most often, these representatives of crustaceans find their food under stones, in heaps of garbage, under old snags, or under leaves that have fallen in autumn. Here, where the rays of the sun cannot penetrate, plant materials rot well, and even in such conditions they are relatively safe from birds, animals and predatory insects.
Woodlice food is almost always low-calorie, as it contains a minimum amount of fat. Most often, during nutrition, they almost do not cause any harm to plants, because it is enough for them that it itself begins to rot and fall to the ground. But there are exceptions when these crustaceans harm living plants, damaging their roots or green shoots.
In fact, due to their nutrition, they are beneficial to people and nature, as they eat rotting and spoiled organic remains.
What do they eat at home
Regardless of where they live, wood lice will never change their tastes and preferences. Even in residential buildings, they find a large amount of plant remains, the existence of which many people do not even know.
Woodlice living in damp basements can feed on mold that comes from dampness. And although this is not a very nutritious food, it will be enough for them.
But in rural cellars or cellars, wood lice are a real expanse, because here you can easily find stored vegetables and other supplies. Sometimes the same food is easy to find on the balconies of apartments.
Because of what wood lice settle indoors
The main condition for the appearance of these crustaceans in apartments and other premises is an increased level of humidity. This may be due to damp pipes and poor ventilation.
Woodlice can live in damp attics or basements of a multi-storey building and penetrate from there into apartments through ventilation or cracks. If potato peelings or other organic matter constantly sour in the trash can of the apartment, and it is humid around it, the owners will soon have to think about how to get rid of uninvited guests.
And who eats wood lice
Since the woodlice is a rather slow creature, it is an easy prey for predators. For example, these:
- Birds (especially small owls), leading, like these crustaceans, are nocturnal.
- Large insects, which include wasps and predatory beetles.
- Spiders - there is even one species of these insects that eats only wood lice. Spiders can bite even a woodlice curled up in a ball between the shields of the shell, thereby providing themselves with food.
- Mammals - rats, shrews, hedgehogs.
- Reptiles and amphibians - toads, small snakes and lizards are happy to eat wood lice, especially younger and softer ones. For certain species of animals, wood lice form the basis of their diet.
Therefore, wood lice can be specially bred to feed their pets, such as budgerigars or lizards. It is quite simple to do this - they are not dangerous, they do not require difficult conditions for maintenance and reproduction. They can be fed with any food waste of vegetable origin.
Harm inflicted
Although woodlice love to eat plant debris, when their colony size becomes significant, they develop new territories and switch to a varied diet.
- They eat indoor flowers - they love plants with delicate thin leaves and roots. If heaps of earth often appear in the pan, it is likely that the plant has managed to become infected with wood lice, which hide in the ground, compact it and disrupt air exchange.
- They damage the green parts of vegetable crops, which will immediately be noticeable by the holes that appear on the flowers and sprouts.
- They cause significant damage to the crop lying in the cellar.
- They leave dirt and feces on food and utensils. They are also able to carry dangerous pathogens of lichen, mold and fungus on their paws.
Mokrits is not called so for nothing, they love rooms with high humidity., dampness, no fresh air supply. Therefore, the bathroom for them is a great place to live. Here, their favorite food is slime and dirt accumulated in the corners of the room and in the crevices of tiles, pieces of toilet paper, as well as soap scum and mold under important rugs.
In the kitchen
In the kitchen, woodlice can take root near water pipes with an abundance of condensate and a trash can under the sink, where leftover food will be an excellent meal for these crustaceans.
In the apartment
Woodlice can find their own food on loggias and balconies, in pantries and closets for storing vegetables and fruits.
Fallen leaves, onion skins, potato "eyes" and other rubbish - all this is a wonderful delicacy.
Often wood lice can be found in apartments with a large number of indoor plants. Young shoots and leaves of indoor plants, moist soil in flower pots create a favorable environment for nutrition and reproduction.
Especially often woodlice are added to indoor orchids., the substrate of which contains wet woody pieces.
Bookshelves with damp books, closets with dry linens, as well as a toilet and a pet feeder will make an excellent dining room for wood lice in the apartment.
In a private house
Greenhouses and hotbeds on a personal plot are an ideal place for wood lice to live. If the soil is not disinfected in a timely manner, then they will feed on young shoots and gnaw the roots, which will lead to the death of horticultural crops. Own well also attracts the attention of these crustaceans. Mold appears in the puddles, and the place turns into an oasis for wood lice.
In cellars and attics
Woodlice find food in abundance here too. During rains, the cellar often floods with water. Moisture settles on the walls of the room, and crustaceans immediately start up. They eat potatoes, carrots and other vegetables that we store for the winter.
In the cellars, where communications often flow, the walls are covered with moss and mold, seeds of plants accidentally brought here germinate. Woodlice often enter an apartment from attics, where there are minor gaps through which water flows during rain. Summer showers are especially conducive to the reproduction of crustaceans, after which the sun heats the air, and a warm and humid climate, as you know, attracts wood lice.
Mold and mildew often grow in garages, which attract. As soon as the food is over, the animals move to another place.
About where wood lice come from in an apartment or a private house, read in e.
In the wild
Suitable for feeding wood lice:
- and plant remains damaged by moisture;
- and moss;
- and rotten bark;
- leaves and branches of trees;
- and even the remains of living organisms.
Woodlice feed mainly at night.
What can poison an insect?
Cohabitation with wood lice is at least unpleasant. You can fight wood lice with folk or chemical means..
If wood lice appeared at home, then this indicates high humidity in the apartment. The easiest way is to dry the room. But when this is not enough, then you have to resort to proven methods to get rid of adversity.
Woodlice do not like acids and alkalis, dryness and high temperatures. At home, you can use the following chemicals on your own:
The use of an insecticidal preparation begins with the study of the instructions and strict adherence to its points in order to prevent a threat to the health of humans and pets.
Among the folk methods of dealing with wood lice, the following are widely used (for surface treatment in places where wood lice accumulate):
- a mixture of boric acid (10 g) with 500 ml of water;
- a mixture of hot pepper, soda and tobacco in a ratio of 1:1:1 (3 g of each component per liter of boiling water);
- dry kvass powder (100g), diluted in 500 ml of water.
Woodlice die almost immediately when treated with steam or hot air.(above 70°C). Therefore, if it is possible to use a steam cleaner, then this method can be a good substitute for chemical preparations.
If, after self-baiting, wood lice have not disappeared anywhere, then it's time to turn to professional pest control.
Who are they food for?
Many animals and insects feed on wood lice. Shrews, hedgehogs, toads, rats - they all love to feast on them. The larvae of carrion flies gnaw holes in the carapace of woodlice and eat the animal from the inside.
Birds of prey hunting at night will also not refuse to diversify their diet with crustaceans. The Dysdera crocata spider feeds exclusively on wood lice: its teeth are specially adapted to pierce the shell of these crustaceans.
Sometimes at home, woodlice are bred specifically as live food for exotic pets.
Thus, rather unpleasant, but almost harmless to humans animals. To prevent their occurrence, it is enough to monitor the proper operation of the water supply and sewerage system, get rid of garbage in time, prevent excessive moisture in the garden, ventilate the premises and pay more attention to indoor plants. Woodlice are attracted to dampness, and knowing this fact will help avoid infection.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
