Sowbugs

Let’s say you have followed our advice and laid down a nice bed of organic wood chip mulch around your trees. They love it, no question! Who, or what else is loving that space? Many small critters find a mulch bed to be perfect habitat. Don’t worry, these little guys are not a threat to you or your property.

Sowbugs, also known as roly-poly’s, are one of the most common “bugs” living in a nice wood chip mulch. These little guys are actually crustaceans (more precisely, isopods), more closely related to lobsters and shrimp than to insects! Their very hard shells, combined with their habit of rolling up in a ball, protects them from many predators (though not the sow-bug killer spider – see picture above).

Isopods have an important role to play in the ecosystem, especially around soil development. They are generalist omnivorous detritivores – a fancy way to say they will eat any little organic matter lying around, mostly dead stuff but also fungal strands and tender vegetable seedlings. Leave a half-eaten apple lying on the mulch, and they will mob it.

This kind of feeding releases a lot of well broken-down organic stuff to the soil surface, where other smaller organisms can finish decomposing it. The mineral nutrients are then available to tree roots to take up in the new growing season. New leaves, new twigs, new flowers and fruit – all with the help of decomposers like the lowly sow bug!

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