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What do YOU call these tiny land crustaceans?

2021-10-14 00:00:00

I grew up in Michigan calling these little creatures "rolly pollies" and I also knew "pill bug." I recently realized that the tiny animals have many, many more names than the two I knew— some as odd as "carpet shrimp" and "cheesy bobs." Here's a non-exhaustive list from the Woodlouse Wikipedia article.

"Jomits" (Cloneganna)

"armadillo bug"

"billy baker" (South Somerset)

Billy Button (Dorset)

Granny grey (Wales)

"boat-builder" (Newfoundland, Canada)

"butcher boy" or "butchy boy" (Australia, mostly around Melbourne)

Bunty Nathans (Western Australia)

"carpenter" or "cafner" (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada)

"carpet shrimp" (Ryedale)

"charlie pig" (Norfolk , England)

"cheeselog" (Reading, England)

"cheesy bobs" (Guildford, England)

"cheesy bug" (North West Kent, Gravesend, England)

"cheesy lou" (Suffolk)

"cheesy papa" (Essex)

"cheesey wig"

"chiggy pig" (Devon, England)

"chucky pig" (Devon, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, England)

"chuggy peg"

"crawley baker" (Dorset)

"daddy grampher" (North Somerset)

"damp beetle" (North East England)

"dandy postman" (Essex and East London)

"doodlebug" (also used for the larva of an antlion)

"Fat Pigs" (Cork, Ireland)

"gramersow" (Cornwall, England)

"Grumper-pig" (Bermuda)

"Mochyn Coed" (meaning "Tree Pig"), "Pryf lludw" (meaning "Ash fly"), "granny grey" in Wales

"granny grunter" (Isle of Man)

"hardback" (Humberside, England)

"hobbling Andrew" (Oxfordshire, England)

"hog-louse"

"horton bug" (Deal, Kent, England)

"humidity bug" (Ontario, Canada)

"menace" (Plymouth, Devon)

"monkey-peas" (Kent, England)

"monk's louse" (transl. "munkelus", Norway)

"parson's pig" (Isle of Man)

"pea bug" or "peasie-bug" (Kent, England)

"pennysow" (Pembrokeshire, Wales)

"piggy wig"

"pill bug" (usually applied only to the genus Armadillidium)

"potato bug"

"roll up bug"

"roly-poly"

"rosary bug" (Turkey)

"slater" (Scotland, Ulster, New Zealand and Australia)

"saw bug" (Dingwall, Nova Scotia)

"sour bug" (Cambridgeshire)

"sow bug"

"wood bug" (British Columbia, Canada)

"wood-louse"

All the "bug" names are technically misnomers because they aren't even bugs. They're technically tiny land crustaceans— related to crabs, crayfish, etc. The silly little not-bugs unfortunately are not as tasty as their lobster and crab cousins. They're said to have an unpleasant taste that's similar to "strong urine."
[END]

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