BS: What do you call woodlice?

Subject: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: *Laura*
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:22 PM

Apparently the different nicknames for woodlice is one of the biggest dialect variations there is.
Im from Somerset, England and I always knew them as Billy Bakers.

Where do you come from and what was your nickname for woodlice?

xLx

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:36 PM

I don't know any other name for them but here is something to do with them:

"These recipes have been provided by a "Wild Foods" enthusiast. I couldn't bring myself to eat these creatures, however for those interested in survivalist foods here are the details. Apparently they smell of fish as they cook and add a crunchy texture and a slight fishy taste to the food. - Perhaps they should be mixed in a blender after killing and before cooking?

"Woodlice are raised on clean paper and fed with potato for a number of days before cooking. Before cooking they must be killed. This occurs instantly by placing in a sieve and dropping it into a pot of boiling water.

"In view of the size of woodlice I would suggest that it wouldn't be a profitable exercise to rely on them to provide enough food to survive on.

Woodlouse fritters Woodlouse sushi Woodlouse scones
Woodlouse fry-up "

Oh, Yum

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:39 PM

Are we talking about the little grey land crustaceans? If so, how about...

sow bugs

sow beetles

pill bugs

roly polies

potato bugs

potato beetles

All are used here in eastern USA

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:42 PM

sowbugs or pillbugs

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: *Laura*
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:43 PM

yup - the 'little grey land crustaceans'
pill bugs! I love it!

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Metchosin
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:48 PM

wood bugs, sow bugs and pill bugs are terms used here on the westcoast of Canada. Jeez, I think if I were really hungry I would eat the potato myself, rather than feed it to a wood bug.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:51 PM

sowbugs and pillbugs mate throughout the year, with most activity in the spring. The female carries the eggs, numbering from 7 to 200, in a brood pouch on the underside of her body. Eggs hatch in three to seven weeks and the young are white-colored. They remain in the brood pouch for six to eight weeks until they are able to take care of themselves. There may be one to two generations per year, with individuals living up to three years depending on weather conditions.

These creatures live outdoors, feeding on decaying organic matter and occasionally young plants and their roots

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:52 PM

Well, let's see. There's Alice, Mary, George, Fred, Jose...

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Jim McLean
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:03 PM

In the West of Scotland we call them slaters.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:07 PM

Poor body hygene

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:26 PM

If I remember correctly, the dipping in boiling water is not just to kill them. They are loaded with urea. Would taste like...well exactly what you think...if not boiled first.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:43 PM

Yep Jim slaters is what we used to call them too, but you and I are from a similar background. My live-in housekepper calls them Monkey Peas, but she's from Kent so you have to make allowances.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,The Shambles
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:45 PM

Her in Dorset - Chiggi-Pigs.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Hamish
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:47 PM

Slaters in Dundee, too.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Fergie
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:57 PM

In Ireland we call them slaters also
Fergie

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 03:08 PM

"All are used here in eastern USA " TIA

Used in what way and to what purpose, Tia? I've lived in Virginia and in Michigan and I've never heard of it.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 03:20 PM

"Pea bugs" is what you will mostly hear from children in Kent, UK.

Little girls tend to say "Yeeuucchh!, but they do that with anything that has six or more legs, so I guess it doesn't count.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 03:29 PM

All these terms are used. I heard 'em all growing up in NJ, PA and RI

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: *Laura*
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 04:11 PM

no more billy-bakers?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 03:10 AM

On the council estates around here. Wayne, Craig, Dean etc for the lads and for the ladettes Kelly, Chantelle and jailbait.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Sooz
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 04:52 AM

I've heard them called bibblebugs or coffin cutters.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: JennyO
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 06:09 AM

They're known as slaters here in Oz too. When my brother and I were kids, we used to call them piggies. We stopped short of giving them nicknames though. Then again, Sally Slater or Sammy Slater do have a nice ring about them :-)

I think they're kinda cute. Anyway, I don't have any plans to get rid of them. I've never seen them doing anything to my plants - I only occasionally see them hiding in dark damp corners minding their own business. So I'll live and let live.

And I won't be eating any either, no matter how you dress 'em up.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 08:58 AM

Leatherjackets.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 09:22 AM

Yup. "Pill Bugs" here in Texas. Eat them???!!! eeeeeee-ooooooooooooooooo grossssssssss.   Tw

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 10:39 AM

So what are silverfish? Not sure if it is wood lice, but we (in Montana) call a grey crawly bug "silverfish".

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Alice
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 10:41 AM

Nope, did a search and silverfish eat paper and books and glue, not wood. I guess we call them woodlice.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: JennyO
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 11:24 AM

Here's a site showing the difference. If you scroll down to the bottom, the woodlice/slater/pillbug (Armadillidum vulgare) is second from the bottom, and the silverfish (Lepisma saccharina L.) is at the bottom right underneath it.

BTW the only place I've seen silverfish is occasionally in the bath. They don't seem interested in my books, so they can stay too.

Does anybody eat those?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 11:47 AM

Leatherjackets are the larvae of the crane fly, which I also know as the 'daddy long legs', though some people confuse matters by calling long-legged spiders 'dady long legses'.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 01:10 PM

How about "earwigs". Do those things on their tails actually pinch? Why the ear in earwig?

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Megan L
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 01:41 PM

slaters in orkney too, not to be confused with the slaters of yarpha dashed fine familly and not a bit of armour plating in sight

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Matt R
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 01:51 PM

Rollypollies in Philly, or at least my family

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 02:29 PM

Earwigs: yes, those tail pinchers actually do pinch,doesn't hurt, but it is a firm pinch!

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 02:31 PM

Hey if you put pill bugs in the microwave and cook them for 3 minutes they are totally unharmed. They have great armor against microwave frequencies.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: *Laura*
Date: 03 Jul 05 - 11:12 AM

in SOmerset also - Bakers. on it's own without the billy.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jul 05 - 12:58 PM

I grew up in Peterborough (Cambridgeshire, UK) and I was always told, from childhood, that it was boring (perhaps that's why I like watching traffic lights change?).
Anyway, in terms of woodlice it probably is quite boring ... because we always called them ... woodlice.

I'll get me coat then...

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 05 - 08:08 PM

I calls 'em "Those little thingies."

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 05 - 08:13 PM

And yet MORE about this little darlin'.

Here

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,Jack the Sailor
Date: 03 Jul 05 - 11:22 PM

Where I grew up in Newfoundland, we called them "carpenters".

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: *Laura*
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 11:54 AM

I found another one at Trowbridge - along the same lines as mine though -
Bakermen.

xLx

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 12:07 PM

Spot, Fido, Rover, and Fang.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 12:29 PM

Jenny O

I'll let the woodlice stay, since they're a principal "digester" of the woody yard waste that you'd otherwise have to clean up occasionally. They will occasionally chew the paper off of plasterboard, especially if there's a little dampness. "Termite inspectors" have been known to point out what they do as evidence of termite infestation - in order to sell a treatment contract; but the difference in kind of damage done is very apparent, and the woodlice don't generally eat anything that wasn't about to fall off anyway. They seem to require a certain consistent level of moisture, which is why they are seldom seen indoors.

The silverfish, at least in my area, usually are the actual culprit when people find their clothing or linens "moth eaten." They do attack and devour little holes in cotton, wool, linen, paper, and even silk, and can be very destructive. They are pretty secretive, so if you're seeing even a few you probably have a lot of them and should make sure that any fabric/fiber stuff in storage is securely sealed and/or treated to repel them. Relying just on tight seals is iffy, since they can get through very tiny cracks when small, and grow up in the stuff they're eating.

John

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: JennyO
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 12:53 PM

I hear what you're saying about the silverfish, John. So far I have not seen any evidence of them anywhere near my clothes or blankets or anything - only a couple in the bath, as I said. But I'll keep an eye out for them. You mentioned treating fabrics against them. What would you treat them with?

Jenny

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Pistachio
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 02:18 PM

I'm with Jim and Eric - slaters and leatherjackets. I've found a few crossing my lounge carpet recently. They don't worry me BUT silverfish I'll kill! I had a 'colony' that appeared in my upstairs toilet a few years ago and slowly but surely I decreased the headcount...and 'touch wood' they've not returned (at least where I can see them). Such fast creatures - sorry for bug lovers - Please be assured I take spiders and other bugs out to the garden when my daughter screams having located them (19 yrs old)!
Regards, H

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 05:37 PM

JennyO -

I don't know of a treatment for the fabric itself. Of course if you wear it occasionally the silverfish tend to fall off and look for someplace dark.

The old fashioned treatment was to store the stuff in cedar boxes and/or add a few mothballs. Neither of these is a particularly good solution, especially with newer clothing items. Elastic materials stored in cedar often decompose fairly rapidly, and either of the common kinds of mothballs will decompose several of the synthetic fabrics.

If you're not opposed to modern chemical warfare, there are several "kitchen insect" products that generally rely on leaving a surface film that's toxic to anything small that creeps across it. You wouldn't put it on the stored stuff, but use it on floors, counters, and shelves where the stuff is stored. These products are generally less hazardous to the rest of the household than the general purpose bugjuices, and may retain effectiveness for a bit longer than the gp aerosols.

Several people here have favorite herbal repellants, but my experience has been that you do have to refresh them fairly frequently to get any consistent effect. I don't have a favorite to recommend.

Avoiding moisture, including high humidity, will do a lot to reduce bug populations; and avoiding accumulated dust and crumbs will help.

You can just stomp them when you see one, but silverfish are pretty fast once you've startled them ...

John

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 06:22 PM

What do you call woodlice? / Pet peeves

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 08:27 PM

my wodlouse is called Dave.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Gurney
Date: 27 Jul 05 - 08:57 PM

Woodpigs, when I was growing up in Warwickshire.

I've only ever seen Silverfish in bathrooms. Quick little fellows.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 10:20 AM

As a kid, I called them "armoured cars", if they're the ones I think you mean. Some of them could roll up in a ball to protect themselves. Interesting little things.

I only saw silverfish rarely, and found them even more interesting.

As for cockroaches, I knew one family who were housing at least 7 million of the little bastards. They were everywhere. You'd turn the light on, and watch the frantic scramble! Amazing and disgusting.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,crazy little woman
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 11:09 AM

In Kansas City, we call them roly-polies, from the way they curl up when threatened.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 03:45 PM

As children, on my street in NJ, we called them armor bugs or sometimes armadillo bugs.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 05:47 PM

I think I can beat any other localisation - To just our house! When me and Mrs G were first wed we saw loads of the little buggers in our toilet which was originaly outside but, due to development, became off the kitchen extension.

They were unknown to us before so they became 'wurgies' and because they were in the toilet, or 'loo', they were loo wurgies. They are still the same some 30 odd years later:-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Fibula Mattock
Date: 28 Jul 05 - 06:00 PM

Slaters in Norn Iron too.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 29 Jul 05 - 01:09 AM

I call this one Ralph. I call that on Alemida. I call the one on your arm...

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Jul 05 - 02:12 AM

Although ways to kill silverfish and why one should seem a lot more interesting, I suppose that in deference to the original subject of the thread I should confirm that in my area of the US (Kansas):

Children universally called them "rolypolies" - when I was a child.

Virtually all of the adults of older generations that I've known called them "sowbugs."

I can recall a couple of kids that I knew in gradeschool days that called them "pillbugs" but most of us kids figured "they wuz furriners, sort of" and hadn't learned the local linguistic subtleties. I think they were Adventists or somethin' like that, and came from "back east." Maybe Kansas City or somethin'. That's about as far as East went in those days.

I can't really say that the "old-timers" had all that much knowledge of these bugs' placement in the ecological function of things, but I do remember one day when granddad caught me teasin' some with a stick to make them roll in a ball up so I could flip them like marbles, and objected that I ought to "leave them alone and let 'em work."

I think that was the time that he told me that when a horse hair falls in the water trough and soaks long enough it turns into a water snake, so I think I spent the rest of the week watching the hair I pulled out of old Fannie's mane float around in the stock tank.

Never did get a snake out of it, but grandpa said I just didn't wait long enough. Grandpas are strange sometimes.

John

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,Alix graa parot
Date: 29 Jul 05 - 02:14 AM

mmmmm good in me

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Splott Man
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 04:44 AM

We called them Cheesebugs at home in Surrey.

My friend from Berkshire calls them Cheeselogs.

Here in South Wales they call them Slateys.

I'm surprised Cheesbugs hasn't come up before, shows how local it may be.
Hope that's helpful.


Splott man

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Splott Man
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 04:46 AM

To the tune of I Can Sing A Rainbow...

Grey and grey and grey and grey,
Grey and grey and grey.
I can sing a woodlouse, sing a woodlouse, sing a woodlouse...

Collected from Bill Bailey (British comedian and musician)

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Torctgyd
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 06:36 AM

You can call them anything you like 'cos they ain't got ears (haahaahaahaahaahhaa)

I read somewhere that the Dutch call them piss bugs (in Dutch obviously) due to the smell they can emit (as mentioned above)

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,Cluin
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 06:22 PM

Used to be sowbugs or pillbugs, but now it's slaters, thanks to my friends in Barrhead (not Alberta).

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Les B
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 09:44 PM

cootie decoys ??

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 12:50 AM

FOOD!

Hard pressed to understand why this thread in a Music Forum continues,,,except for messages that are better sent internal.

I was trained to eat them raw - sort of nature's MRE's

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 01:42 AM

You are what you eat. Aptly true in some cases.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,Tom Morgan
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 03:19 PM

We used to call them...infact still do...granchy groovers! LOL

THIS HAS TO BE THE BEST SO FAR!! anyone else heard of this? Just my GF wont believe me.. (pah what a wally!)

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 03:27 PM

I call them by their last names, as I am not interested in a close relationship. If I don't know their last names, I refuse to call them at all.


A

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Peace
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 03:30 PM

Posted without comment.

1 egg
1 carrot
1 cup of rice
3/4 cup of water
seaweed sheet
2 table spoons of vinegar
2 table spoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tables spoons of killed woodlice

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Peace
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 03:33 PM

A feast for the eyes, the palate and the stomach.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: bobad
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 03:39 PM

Terrestrial isopods

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Peace
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 03:42 PM

Extraterrestrial Isopod

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 04:01 PM

My son aged 3 ,upon seeing woodlice for the first time, called them "Busy-boys ".

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: bobad
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 04:03 PM

That ain't no ET Isopod, Peace, that's a double exposure of the front grill of a 1953 Buick Skylark

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Divis Sweeney
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 04:06 PM

Slaters, here in Ireland.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 04:59 PM

It seems that many of them should be called by the euphonius family name Armadillidium, which sounds like prime material for a wandering minstrel's ditty. An arma-dilli-idiom of a derry, derry, down sort of ditty.

A

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 05:34 PM

Uh...woodlice???

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: The PA
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 05:53 PM

Worcestershire - granny pegs. Worcestershire is the place and granny pegs the name, that is.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Joybell
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 09:40 PM

My daughter always called them Teddy Bear Bugs. I never knew why and by the time she was old enough to explain it she'd forgotton. I know them as slaters but pill bugs was a name I heard in Melbourne when I was a child. They can't all curl up though - have you noticed?Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Peace
Date: 17 Jul 06 - 10:15 PM

Houston, we HAVE A problem.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,Jacqui
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 04:11 AM

'We used to call them...infact still do...granchy groovers!'
When I moved to Frome (Somerset) all the kids at nursery called them 'gramphy gravies'... can't get any explanation why, but it does seem to be a very local variant. An elderly friend of mine always called them 'belly buttons', she was from Devon and reckoned they always called them that there.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 04:54 AM

Since they don't bite, sting or attempt to eat my house, I seldom call them anything.

If they did bite, sting or attempt to eat my house I would call them names of which my mother would not approve.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Amos
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 09:12 AM

PEace,

What the hell IS that?

A

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 09:53 AM

It looks like a super-sized relative of the mantis shrimp.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: *Laura*
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 10:03 AM

Thats interesting Jacqui - I'm from Somerset and i've never heard either of them. Must be very local.
I reckon my Billy Bakers is pretty local too as no-one else seems to have heard of it!
Pill bugs and Slaters seem to come up a lot.

Haha I really don't know why this topic interests me so much! I like words I guess...

xLx

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: bobad
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 10:05 AM

"What the hell IS that?"

Cousin to the woodlouse

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 06:00 PM

Growing up in Surrey they were always 'Cheesy Bugs' although I've no idea why!!

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 06:04 PM

Guest Shambles says chiggi pigs in Dorset..in Devon when I were a kid we called them chuggi pigs.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Peace
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 06:10 PM

"What the hell IS that?"

Amos, you recall that I had a case of crabs back in the 1960s . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 06:11 PM

Having Lobsters on your piano is much better than having crabs on your organ they say.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Dave4Guild
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 06:23 PM

Strictly speaking, Armadillidium is a genus of woodlouse which can roll itself into a ball , hence "pillbug", but there is also a millipede which can do the same thing, and is also called a "pillbug"
There are many different species of woodlouse, e.g., Oniscus sp. in fact, but they are isopod crustaceans (ie all the legs are similar)and there are more marine ones, as you might expect 'cos they are more related to the crabs and prawns and things than they are to insects, which the silverfish is, by the way, since the silverfish is one of a group of primitive insects which are wingless, i.e., they have never had them, as opposed to those insects which may not have wings for some of their life-cycle, but nevertheless have them for at least mating and/or dispersal!

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 06:25 PM

On the subject of millipedes..there were two male millipedes standing on a corner when a female millipede passed and one male said to the other.."That's a nice pair of legs, pair of legs, pair of legs, pair of...............

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Bert
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 06:45 PM

Hey Garg, I was just thinking that it should have a folklore prefix.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,Bee
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 10:03 PM

Called them cellar bugs in Cape Breton, many houses there used to have cellars with earth floors - one area for food storade, another for the coal, lotsa cellar bugs.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Alba
Date: 18 Jul 06 - 10:19 PM

I call them Slaters.

I think you can call them anything you like though because.......
1. They won't answer back.
2. Your bigger than they are so even if they could answer back they wouldn't argue with you.
heehee

Jude

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Jul 06 - 08:12 AM

Woodlice but individully I called them woodlouse

Wednesbury - Staffs.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Jul 06 - 10:27 AM

Ahhh...a pillbug would be a rolly poly or a sow bug

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 19 Jul 06 - 10:41 AM

Martin Gibsons

eric

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: MBSGeorge
Date: 19 Jul 06 - 10:47 AM

We allways just called them woodlice - my sister used to collect them and put them in a tub with grass and leaves and they would all die. (I have heard them called Chuckypigs) Silver fish are horrible - we used to have loads in Germany, not so many in Britain I drown them instantly.

George

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Jul 06 - 11:35 AM

Ugh...I remember silverfish.....not any where I live now.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Pwitz
Date: 19 Jul 06 - 12:43 PM

Like the reply by 'Guest' yesterday, I too was brought up in Surrey, but we called them the slightly different name of 'Cheesy Bobs'.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: woodsie
Date: 19 Jul 06 - 01:13 PM

We've always known them as Charunglepherricksteinerhauseners here in South London. Charunglepherricksteinerhauseners is a fairly easy name to remember Charunglepherricksteinerhauseners is not hard to forget Charunglepherricksteinerhauseners is actually a shortened form of Charunglepherricksteinerhausenerhergisaniforbateshamgoolywinkles whether you use the long or the short it is pronounced "Littlebastards"

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,Rusty Dobro
Date: 19 Jul 06 - 02:05 PM

Cheesy-bugs in 1950's Kent.

Not sure I want to know the answer to this, but how/why did Donuel discover they are microwave-resistant? Did he start with ants, work up through woodlice en route to voles, gibbons, okapis? Is this interest culinary, or the product of a sick mind? Just remember jeff Goldblum and the fly.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,Theoretically G. Finland
Date: 19 Jul 06 - 08:11 PM

Don't know but it sure is worth hitting the '100' for

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: s&r
Date: 20 Jul 06 - 04:22 AM

Earwig is from earwing because that's the shape of their wings

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: Scoville
Date: 20 Jul 06 - 01:15 PM

Roly-polies

Sow bugs

Pill bugs

and one of the kids at meeting calls them "tank bugs". Another kid said they looked like little armadillos.

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: GUEST,Surrey, coulsdon actually!
Date: 19 Apr 08 - 07:37 AM

Another vote for cheesbugs.....definately a Surrey thing, cos my wife, from the UK's south coast knew them as woodlice (pl) or woodlouse (sing)....how educated is THAT!

Subject: RE: BS: What do you call woodlice?
From: gnu
Date: 19 Apr 08 - 11:28 AM

"Squish".