Pill bugs eating starts in high tunnel…

I’ve never had any issues with pill bugs and we have loads of them here in western Wa, but just in the last week I’ve been getting clusters of babies around the base of the stems of my cucumber and zucchini starts. They eat the entire start down to the base. I meticulously collected as many as I could find and then covered all the rows with diatomaceous earth. Hoping this takes care of it. The interwebs assured me this was the best course of action. But I’m here to see if any of you intelligent beings may know something we don’t! Thanks in advance!

I'm having the same problem in my greenhouse, they wiped out all my kiwano seedlings!!!
I've never had problems with pill bugs before, I suspected a hidden slug (or three) but only saw pill bugs, lots of them.
Only when I read your post, I understood they were the pest...incredible but true.
So now I'm trying to get them out of the greenhouse, easier said than done.
Suggestions are very welcome!

Glad I’m not alone but sorry you’re dealing with it as well! I just checked this morning and found zero pill babies since putting diatomaceous down. I mean, I really went for it. Used almost an enter 4lb bag and got it under all the starts, then flicked it off the tops so they still get light (also flicked some of my own cucumber starts right off, oops). I think the main thing so far has been gathering them all up before treatment and getting rid of them.

A neighbor helped me with this issue. He said to take orange peels and face them pulp-side down onto the soil and come back the next morning and the pillbugs would be congregated underneath. He was absolutely correct and after a few days of doing this I was able to lessen the rolypoly threat enough for the seedlings to survive. I have also tried protecting seedlings by cutting toilet paper rolls to create small protective collars around the seedlings and I haven't lost a seedling yet by using the collars. I imagine you can use other types of fruit to lure the pillbugs, either way it is a great feeling picking up the piece of fruit covered in pillbugs and throwing it really far away from the garden.

Thanks! I’m an avid orange eater so that I’ll do that today. The diatomaceous seems to be working as well, but I want to definitely have an arsenal of tricks. The toilet paper rings are a great idea. Although I don’t think I have enough available for my dozens of cucumber starts. Appreciate the advice!

This sounds like a job for insecticidal vinegar though plain vinegar will work probaly.  Put the vinegar in a spray bottle to make getting on the pill bugs easier.

Unfortunately that would run the risk of killing my starts as well since the bugs are in the dirt at the base of the stem. I never use vinegar near live plants since it both kills established growth and also makes the soil too acidic.

In my observations, pill bugs are much more interested in dead and decaying plant material.  When they have been a problem on seedlings, it has been because the seedlings are already weak and stressed for some other reason.  Make sure you are giving your seedlings the best conditions possible.  Of course, after a certain point there is no recovery and protection is the only course of action.

Well that's exactly the reason I didn't suspect them to begin with, they are "cleaners of dead matter". But they wiped out the succulent, very vital kiwano and melon seedlings in one night!

My seedlings were doing amazing and they were all healthy. It wasn’t the full grown pill bugs that were eating them. It was the babies. There were loads of them around many of the stem bases and they would eat them from the bottom up. I’ve never seen this before so it was quite a surprise to do some research and find that it’s fairly common. I’ve never had any problems with these little guys before.