Are rollie pollies and sow bugs the same thing?
No, “rollie pollies” (pill bugs) and sow bugs may look similar at a glance, but they are different in shape and appendages. They tend to haunt the same places where there is high moisture, and both eat rotting organic matter. Sow bugs and pill bugs are small land crustaceans (think shrimp and crayfish). They even have gills, but sow bugs do not roll into a ball like pill bugs do (very tightly in a ball, reason for their name “pill” = round), but they do curl up. Sow bugs have two rear projections, where the pill bug has no rear projections. It is very easy to mistake these as the same because of their shape, ability to curl up when threatened, share the same environment, and eat the same things. Pretty cool, huh? Maybe not.
