Help with bug identification?

[Don and Marcy]

Hi Everyone,

There are zillions of these bugs in our yard under bricks and stones and also next to concrete walls and the sidewalk. Can you help us identify them and control them? Any help would be very much appreciated. The bug is about 1/4" long with between 10 and 20 legs. We are in Pittsburgh, PA in the US. Here are links to two pictures:

Thanks,

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) Hi Everyone, :) :) There are zillions of these bugs in our yard under bricks and stones and also next to concrete walls and the sidewalk. :) Can you help us identify them and control them? Any help would be very much appreciated. The bug is about 1/4" long :) with between 10 and 20 legs. We are in Pittsburgh, PA in the US. Here are links to two pictures: :) :)

:) Thanks, :) :) Sow bugs and probably have a lot of pill bugs too. When I get calls like your description in the average yard it is usually traced back to a build up grass clippings along with too much moisture. Another scenario could be if your property is surrounded by "woods" and you have been hit with day after day of excessive heat, they may be migrating to find more moist areas. If they are traced back to specific areas you can treat the area with any general insecticide, but that will only stop them there, chances are there are numerous locations that would have to be found...if it is the case of them migrating from outside the yard treating for them would not be practical. Anything you used would only be effective for a short period of time and chances are by the time you reapplied several weeks in a row the conditions that caused them would be over and they will of taken care of themselves on their own anyway. A treatment around the foundation and entry ways to the home along with making sure you have good weather stripping on the doors may reduce them being found inside.

[Cereus-validus.......]

Are people in Pittsburgh really that dumb?

If the critter has between 10 and 20 legs, it most certainly isn't a "bug".

Insects always have six legs. No more, no less.

Run for the hills, its a crustacean!!!

Its commonly incorrectly called a "sow bug" or a "pill bug", probably by someone from Pittsburgh.

There are zillions of these bugs in our yard under bricks and stones and also next to concrete walls and the sidewalk. Can you help us identify them and control them? Any help would be very much appreciated. The bug is about 1/4" long with between 10 and 20 legs. We are in Pittsburgh, PA in the US. Here are links to two pictures:

Thanks,

[Don and Marcy]

Thanks Lar and Cereus-validus for the good information. We appreciate it.

[paghat]

Don't you mean Pittsbug?

-paghat the ratgirl

[Mark Herbert]

Are you implying that all insects are bugs? Where are you from? Only insects of the order Hemiptera are classified as true bugs.

[Cereus-validus.......]

So what part of Pittsburgh are you from Marky Mark, you stink bugger?

True bugs are a group of insects but not the other way around.

Cockroaches are not bugs.

[bamboo]

Well Biff and Muffin, killing everything that moves is best left to the government, after all the only thing they seem very good at is violence. Is this your first venture below the fifth floor of your condo? Life as we know it is not yet extinct on this planet, you can help keep it that way. As for controlling them good luck, they won't sit, stay ,come, or heel when ordered about. And they won't harm you any either.

[G Henslee]

Looks like a Kanter bug. If it breeds it will destroy your crops, home, and life as you know it. There is no controlling it.

[Cereus-validus.......]

Don't go crying to Cheech and Chong, you Big Bamboo.

That's what happens when you Bogart all the doobies, dude.

May some Chinaman piss all over your rug.

[Cereus-validus.......]

What's that, Ben Dover?

[G Henslee]

That's a little red ball, ya leg humpin' bitch. Chase it some more.

[Mark Herbert]

I live in Albuguerque.

[Tom Jaszewski]

Hey why aren't you in AZ?

tomski Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel.

-- Aldo Leopold

[Cereus-validus.......]

Only two people from our area went and I wasn't one of them.

Soaring costs and the "usual suspects" as speakers didn't seem to make the long trip worth all the trouble.

[Bourne Identity]

Thump.

(me dying)

one need only own a shovel.

[G Henslee]

translated: "I'm a cheap shit who already knows everything"

[Cereus-validus.......]

If only it had been that AFLAC duck instead of private Ryan!!!