Diatomaceous Earth - Pill Bugs

[the.joy.of.orchids]

Pill Bugs/Sow Bugs/Potato Bugs/Roly-Poly Bugs... one bug with four names, but I hate them enough for four bugs combined! After bringing my orchids back inside for the summer, I shouldn't have been surprised to find that these pesky little critters had made their home in my collection. On the advice of an orchid nursery owner, I've purchased diatomaceous earth. Has anyone used this as a pest prevention method in the past? How effective was it? Do you have any tips or tricks?

Many thanks,

Liva

[sapphirerose]

We used diatomaceous earth for fleas before, and my mother uses it in her chicken coop bedding. I haven't tried it on orchids, but it is a great bug killer in general.

[Leafmite]

After bringing the orchids inside, I noticed that I had a pill bug infestation and they were eating the roots of my orchids. I used Diatomaceous Earth and I still have a few but not nearly as many as I did. I just dusted my other plants with it as I saw some scale and I want to eliminate any spidermite that might be lurking. It does a nice job.

[Tindomul]

Poor pillbugs. They can get to be pests though. I keep them in my terrarium and when they are very numerous they always eat the buds of my plants. I don't keep them in the terrarium with orchids. One time they ate my Phal. wilsonii bud and that was it. I spent the next month picking them out of the tank one by one. That worked. They don't reproduce fast enough.

Diatomaceous earth is basically glass. They are the glass shells of microscopic protists known as diatoms. If you have a microscope handy take a look at them. It is gorgeous!
So I can imagine it would be very effective on the bugs, ripping them up little by little.

[estación seca]

Diatomaceous earth is dangerous to breathe. It does to your lungs the same thing it does to the bugs. Be careful. The cheapest place to buy it here is a swimming pool store; it is used to fill pool filters. But not many gardeners need to buy 50 pounds all at once.

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Diatomaceous earth is dangerous to breathe. It does to your lungs the same thing it does to the bugs. Be careful. The cheapest place to buy it here is a swimming pool store; it is used to fill pool filters. But not many gardeners need to buy 50 pounds all at once.

You should never use the pool grade stuff for anything but the pool. People should always use the food grade Diatomaceous earth which has not been heated.

[estación seca]

Why do you say that?

[the.joy.of.orchids]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

You should never use the pool grade stuff for anything but the pool. People should always use the food grade Diatomaceous earth which has not been heated.

I actually purchased it at a nursery, with the bottle labelling it as specific for pest control. It's still 100% diatomaceous earth, but definitely not pool grade. It may be food grade, but being specific for pest control, I'm not sure. Either way, I've been sure to take care while using it!

[sapphirerose]

The stuff my husband and I used for the fleas under and in the sofa was from the pest control section.

Wear a mask when using it to keep from inhaling it. We also used masks when we vacuumed it back up.

[Tindomul]

At least you don't have this to deal with:

Giant_isopod by R. D. S., on Flickr