Even the pages I find claiming pillbugs are totally innocent, mentions they eat "new" plants and that they are totally harmless "except in large numbers." Both of those are clearly issues for me.

The most useful page I found linked so far on 5 threads (via search) repeated so many times that this could only happen if you were a poisoner cretin (I'm kidding, but it amounted to that) so if you'd just quit using all those nasty chems your problems would go away.

Well I garden organically and I always have from the inception of the garden beds. I don't even use pepper spray and that's organic! Until now I have always felt that bugs had to eat too, and usually didn't too much if your plants and soil were decently healthy, and I should just plant enough that there's plenty left over for me.

My (standing) garden beds are 24" high made of cinderblock, 24"high x 4' wide x 16' long (two of those) and 32"H x 4' x 4' (two of those) and 4'x6'x24"h (two of those). And I have a couple dozen 22gal and 32gal, 24" high containers.

The beds are not open to the ground, they have heavy black landscape fabric (does let some moisture through but nothing else technically...) plus 1/4" steel hardware cloth mesh under them (to prevent moles). Inside at bottom there is a few inches of small rock, then a bunch of topsoil, and usually I re-fill the beds with about 14" of compost (which is still kinda hot, but insanely 'clean' compared to most compost, aside from occasional mushroom spore) that we get from the local mushroom plant, prior to spring (2 months from planting, more in some areas).

I have two 4'x4' compost bins at the back of the yard, about 10' from one of the beds. That's far enough isn't it?

Here's the thing. Although all the beds have a ridiculous number of sow/pillbugs, ONE of the beds (a 4x16 one)is not just infested. Last year when I saw it, while in the season, it looked like there was no soil at ALL. Just thousands, millions, of pillbugs, as if THEY were the entire planting medium in the area we were looking at. My friend and I actually *like* the little critters, but the sight nearly made us vomit, it was like some horror visual from a movie, like a maggot-fest in black pillbug style.

Seedlings seem to have their roots eaten by the things. I will not argue that something else could be mysteriously harming the plant and they are finishing the job, but either way they are so numerous that it's like, one day perfectly healthy plant, next day seriously munched plant, next day GONE. I look for other pests to blame it on, though I admit I haven't tried doing this at 10pm or 2am or whatever. All I find is (in the accent of Carl Sagan, "BYlliuns and BYlliuns" LOL) of the pillbugs.

I can't grow every plant to adulthood in a pot. No need for garden beds if I'm doing THAT.

Two years ago we put a mega quantity of diatomaceous earth (DE) into the bed which is the first thing I have ever done for pest control in 5 years, and only in that bed. Last year I didn't tend the garden my husband did, but he said the population seemed the same.

My concern is that because these are CONTAINERS even though they are big beds, that there just isn't somewhere for these things to "go", so they breed and multiply and then, once there's about 20,000 of the suckers per cubic foot, they will eat anything and everything, while normal quantities seem more finicky.

So for the experience gardeners here -- as I am still for the most degree a wannabe who keeps getting lucky with plants that survive despite me ;-) -- can you answer a few things I'm wondering about?

Many thanks in advance.

When the population density per square foot is so many there's only bugs not soil, is there some emergency remedy??

Are they trapped? I mean, are they there and always increasing because it's their world? Is there any way I could tempt them back over to the compost pile?

I don't necessarily want to annihilate 10,000 lives no matter how small (they don't eat me. I kill things that eat me. But not herbivores. ;-)), but their quantity is so ridiculous that I'm too grossed out to garden! I like them, but I'd like to work with SOIL dominantly, not a gigantic box of nothing but bugs. It literally made me avoid my own garden I've invested a ton of money and time into, in my revulsion.

It doesn't matter how nice your garden is if you're not IN it, so I feel like this year I've just gotta DO something.

Do you think it is that I have always put fairly-hot compost as a thick top layer (giving it 2-3 months before planting) that is the REASON this happened? Should I use topsoil instead? It is probably so much less nutritious, but it wouldn't be decomposing the way the compost is. I have yet to buy compost from any source that is not still somewhat hot.

Usually that bed grows several varieties of peppers and at the far end a few herby-things. The main infestation is not near the herbs. My first thought was, "plant something else there," but my second thought was, "my primary crop is peppers, and I don't want the pillbugs that numerous in the other beds too!"

Is there any plant they are known to not like/avoid?

I considered getting a carniverous plant that attracts ground crawlers, and it sounded like a great idea until what I was reading on one showed its leaves hold water, things crawl in and get digested... and it said one of those who eat what it is digesting is mosquitos. We have a major mosquito issue, to the degree that much of the growing season I can't even walk out there with an old vietnam-era army mosquito hat, thick clothing covering every inch of my body, pants tucked into boots or strapped down, etc. There aren't mosquitos like that in the front yard. Only in the backyard. Neighbor's pools? I don't know. I don't know of any standing water. We suspected a couple home made earthboxes and the rain gutters so we cleaned them. Helped some but not entirely. So I'm not sure I want to have plants that collect water so mosquitos can have food and maybe breed there (if anybody knows more about this I'd like to hear it). Since I use cinderblocks and the leaves lie out a bit I was thinking I could plant them in corner block-holes rather than in the bed proper and they might still be effective. Do such plants die in winter?

Here are my ideas:

1. I'm thinking of having my aunt's landscaping crew dig out the top 24" of all the beds, dump it into the compost bins, and put fresh... either topsoil or compost in. How far down to pillbugs usually live?? Will it help?

2. I try to do square foot gardening sort-of, but that bed has large plants one per foot. I could put landscape mat and then rock mulch or (is it cocoa/coffee-shell or something?) across the bed and just sort of 'cut out' a decent space in every square foot where I would plant something. Would this be bad (most soil not exposed to real world, aside from incoming water; would rocks be a disaster I was sorry for I wonder...) or would it eliminate most the issue except right in the area where there's no mat?

3. I could surround every plant with about a six inch circle of edging (it's about 6" high, used to edge lawns) so to reach the plant roots you'd have to come from below or above but not at soil level. That won't help with the pillbugs, might help with other pests I don't see.

4. If I used 2-litre bottles, bottom cut off, long pointed thing with holes attached to top, turned upside down in the soil, to 'fill' those in the morning for water for the plants, RATHER than watering with a hose, would this help, given their need for moisture? Or would it have the opposite effect, and drive them into living in the plants' roots??

I'm sorry I have so many questions. I know nobody gets paid to answer this kind of thing. I am all excited about my garden (doing winter sowing this year for the first time) and worried about finding a solution before end of December when my landscaping crew comes to help me and I need to instruct them in what I want to do.

Best,

Red (PJ)