Pill Bugs

 

Who else loved Pill Bugs growing up?  I mean what isn’t there to love about them? They can roll up into a ball.

Now most of you probably always thought that a pill bug is an insect but it isn’t. Pill bugs are crustaceans and they are related to crabs and crayfish. Most crustaceans live in water but not a pill bug which loves land.

There are more than 3,500 kinds of pill bugs.

 

Pill Bug Anatomy

 

Majority of pill bugs body is known as a thorax. A thorax is located right after its head. The thorax has seven parts and it looks like the pill bug has put on an armor. The abdomen is much smaller and is found right after to the thorax. A pill bug has two tail looking body parts known as uropods.

The pill bugs we have seen have always been grayish but pill bugs can also be green, red, orange, brown, cream, and even spotted or stripped.

A pill bug can drink water from both their mouth and their uropods : opposite side of their mouth.

Pill bugs have fourteen legs.

A pill bug hatches dozen of eggs inside its pouch. They stay inside that pouch and continue to grow. We actually had a few female pill bugs with pouches of baby pill bugs.

To make a pill bug cake simply bake a cake and put fondant on top. Use tape or paper and write out all of the different parts of a pill bug. Place on toothpicks and then put on the cake.

 

Testing Garden Soil for Copper

Pill Bugs need copper in order to live because copper gives them the blue blood color.

Copper is in the soil and plants absorb the copper. The pH of the soil must be between 5.5 and 6.5. Pill bugs get copper by eating rotting leaves.

When they can’t find rotting leaves they will recycle their waste by eating it. YUCK !

We ordered a soil test kit and tested the different parts of our soil. We even tested our pill bug habitat soil which had a pH of 6.5.

You can order your kit here : Soil Test Kit .

Exoskeleton

Pill bugs have an exoskeleton which means it doesn’t have any bones. It has to molt a few times. It molts in two parts. The first part that molts is the rear part. After a few days the exoskeleton that covers the head molts. We found the head molt and were able to magnify it. It looks so neat.

We decided to make a Guess Who game out of different insects and crustaceans that have an exoskeleton.

To make your own Guess Who you’ll need:

• Wide Craft Sticks 2 packs : cut them in half
• Flat wood clothespin: you need 2 of them. One for each plywood.
• 2 craft plywood for the bases
• super glue
• dollhouse hinges

We super glued the wide craft to the plywood and the dollhouse hinges. It was just easier this way.

Pill Bug Habitat

 

Make your own pill bug habitat.

You’ll need a plastic container with a lid. Make sure that there is air. Pill bugs don’t crawl up so most likely they won’t escape.

Put soil in the container first. Add wet paper towels.

Collect dead leaves since pill bugs need copper.

Pill bugs love potatoes so cut up a few slices.

If you can find moss or rotting wood then add it to the habitat. We also added a few small rocks. You can sprinkle a tiny bit of water in the habitat if you see it is becoming dry.

 

Get your FREE Pill BUG HABITAT Printable HERE !

 

Pill Bug Science

This is a great way to see what Pill Bugs are attracted to or avoid. You’ll want to set up the environments and put at least ten pill bugs in each. You’ll then want to give them one hour and then observe them.

Do they prefer dampness? In a plastic container put a wet paper towel in half of the container. The other half could be empty or add sand paper.

Do they like the light? Cover the first half of the container with black construction paper. Pill bugs are more active at night. If you keep them as pets you’ll see when it is dark and you turn on the lights that they are very active at night. They are not as active during the day.

How about heat? Put a candle on one side of the container. You’ll see they don’t like heat.

Will Pill bugs bunch together when they are put in a dry environment in order to reduce water loss? Put some sand paper or simply place pill bugs in a plastic container with nothing. You’ll notice that they will bunch together.

Do Pill bugs like crevices? If you bunch together a wet paper towel (you don’t want it to be too wet) you’ll notice that they will seek crevices out. They like to hide during the day.

How about rough textures?  Here you can put out some egg shells, wax paper, wool, other fabrics, avocado peel, and anything else you can think of. Pill bugs prefer bumpy texture that they can hide in.

 

You can get your FREE PRINTABLE HERE!

 

 

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