Pill bugs eat decaying organic matter. Simple as that.

The peat and probably other stuff in your planting mix is decaying organic matter.

You could choose any product where spinosad is the active ingredient to try to control them.

Alternately, start using insect screen over the drainage holes to keep them out. If they are so numerous and problematic that they climb up the containers to get inside re-evaluate your potting mix.

I know that pill bugs eat decaying OM. I'm just asking what anyone would do if that was happening to them. I did spray spinosad last week but I can't tell if it's working or it's just taking a while for it to work. Can I use insect screen inside the container?

What do you mean re-evaluate my potting mix? I follow Al's guideline on the container mix.

Yes, you can use the insect screen inside the container, although it will be difficult to do now that they are filled. Its just to block the drain holes so critters can't crawl in.

The comment about reevaluating your potting mix is only if the pill bugs are so problematic that they find and get into the container even with screening over the drain holes. It would be an extreme case where I would look at using a mix with little to no organic matter in it. Not likely to be necessary.

You could try sprinkling DE around the containers. It will surely kill them, but you might need to apply it after each rain. It prolly won't work unless your containers are resting on a hard surface (concrete, deck, etc), however.

Al

Apparently, spinosad did the trick. Thanks everybody!

Thanks for posting back, Lou. This will help others in the future deal with a similar issue.