Sow bugs are my favorite “insects,” mainly because they are not insects. They are actually crustaceans, like lobster and shrimp. Here’s what they look like, just in case you don’t know what a sow bug is.
Sow bug is the name I learned, but in science we learned there lots of other names for the same non-insect: roly-poly, pill bug, woodlouse, etc. If you have other names or know something really interesting about them, please comment below.
I did a report on sow bugs. Here it is.
pill bugs
I live in Illinois and my whole class calls them roly-polies. I hunt for them with my friends at recess and put them in a Fiji water bottle.
I hope you let them go…
I call them roly-poly’s and used to hunt for them with my little sister….
i call them “Wood Louse/lice” cuz thats what Illinois residents call them, I guess.
Yep…I’ve heard that.
Actually, Cheesie. I’m pretty sure that sow bugs and pill bugs are two different types of isopods!
I don’t think they are. I think they are just different names for the same isopod.
I know sherman is another name for sow bugs
“Sherman”? You know the first name of the bug?
i call them “ant n shell”
I call them armabugos
Roly polys
I call them yuck-a-roos.
I never heard of that name before.
I have 2 names for them: Ball bugs and Shell bugs.
I call them pill bugs.
another name is wood bug. thats what i call them.
Hi Cheesie! you should look at this website. It’s about dollar bills. http://www.wheresgeorge.com/report.php?key=0a549c6b77cc95679cbbd517a34bb721848fe3bee8b2d4c6
Very cool site, Allison. I told my Granpa and he marked up lots of dollar bills and logged them onto wheresgeorge.com. He likes doing it. Thanks.
another name is armadillidium vulgare
I had NO idea how many names for sowbugs there are, here are a handful I found: Boat Builder, Carpenter, Cafner, Doodlebug, Roll Up Bug, Chuggypig, Chucky Pig, and 2 names I think you will enjoy, Cheeselog and Cheesy bug. (Nice job on your report! And your teacher let you bring to class a box of Sow Bugs?!?!?!)
And if you want to see white sow bugs, look at dwarf white sow bugs.
Wow, Elena! You did a lot of good research. (And I love the Cheesie ones.)
Wow.
another name for them is a scud.
🙂
I call sow bugs ‘roly- polys’
We always called them potato bugs. My fear and/or revulsion at any particular kind of crawly thing is usually in direct proportion to the number of legs it has. Anything with 4 to 6 legs, common bug spray will do. Up to 8 legs, I need hairspray so that I don’t have to remove the corpse until it’s safely encased in shellac. Regardless of the size of the bug, if it has over 10 legs, I require an army boot, two clothes pins, and a complex system of weights and pulleys.
Haha! You are hysterical. My mom hates crawlies, too. But she won’t kill them. She just screams for Dad.
i call them bugs
My family calls them potato bugs. I have no idea whatsoever, why.
P.S I love Cheesie Mack!!!! Great Story.
Lots of people call them potato bugs. I don’t know why either. They certainly do NOT look like little potatoes…and they do not eat potatoes or live inside them. It’s a mystery.
small black crabbies.
i found a nest of littile baby sow bugs under a steping stone 🙂 i love sow bugs , they are so cute !
we call sow bugs rolly-polly bugs
I call them balled up bugs
Good name.
I call them rolly balls
Chessie I wanted to tell you something I made up. Sow bugs
are the sisters of sows [pigs]
I tried to keep sow bugs as a pet when I was 5. They lasted 16 days. Pretty good for a sow bug!
I never heard of anyone having sow bugs as a pet. Very cool!
I found a brown roly-poly and named him roly. I still have his dead body in my room!
thats grose
ROLY POLY!!!!
Potato bugs
another name for “sow bugs” is rollie polly
I’ve called them WOOD BUGS for my whole life
I call sow bugs roly-polies and another name for them can be shield bugs because thier shell is like a shield.
Yep! I know people who call them that, too.
My mom says that she used to call them potato bugs. Another thing to call them are pill bugs. They are my FAVORITE kind of bug! 🙂
Me, too!
ya, my mom calls them pill bugs
I used to call them armor bugs
another word my mom uses for sow bugs is silver roll worms!
I never heard that one before!
Sometimes I call it a potatoe bug. But I mainly use rollypolly.
By the way I LOVE your book I picked it up last night and I am on pg 145. My goal’s to finish it tonight!
Thanks, JS!
rounders
Very good name.
Did you know Rounders is the name of a very old game that was one of the games that baseball was based on?
a another name could be sphere bug and a ball crawler.
I like both!
I call “sow bugs” roly-polies and I have a funny story about them.
When I was little, I saw a mother roly poly and when she was crawling she was leaving behind white, little baby roly-polies. I showed my mom and she got all excited about how the roly-poly was giving “live birth”. Well, we looked it up and found out about the mothers carrying around their babies in pouches. My mom was very embarrassed.
That is really interesting. I wish I’d seen that.
@Noelle me too! i just call them roly polies!!
What is the big deal about sow bugs? Thanks for the report cheesie. [I put your name on it]
I’ve actually never heard the term, sow bug, but I usualy just call em’ rolly pollys!
I know another name for sow bugs and it is a ball bug.
Yep. I’ve heard that, too.
I call them potato bugs or rolypolys rock’n’rollys in Ohio near Cleveland. Do u have special names where u come from
Most kids here call them pill bugs, but I call them sow bugs because that’s what Granpa taught me when I was little.
i live in south carolina and i usually call them ‘roly poly’ or ‘pill bug’. i have never heard of the saying ‘sow bugs’.
I am coming to South Carolina next year to visit schools. Have your teacher contact me. Maybe I’ll could come to your school!
Here’s the link to contact me.
http://bit.ly/La0ka6
At Wines Elementary School, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, we call them armadillo bugs!
BBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another name I use is Wood Bug, a Clitter, and a wood Eater.