[Hampshire Hog]

Good afternoon I have carefully nurtured my tomatoes at home and now find they are being munched by wood lice ! Is this common and how can I stop them. Any help appreciated. Cheers HH

[wighty]

My first thought was 'they're after the moisture'.  Please don't take this as gospel as it was just a thought.  I have no idea as to the official explanation.

[mumofstig]

It's not usual for them to munch on anything that has not already been damaged. Have the tomato skins been splitting because of the weather?

[Hampshire Hog]

I didn’t think they were split but that might be the cause, difficult to tell as it’s generally been the bottom of a tomato and out of sight till I harvest it and find it’s got some lice munching inside a crater. 

[hasbeans]

I've always assumed that the woodlice move in after the slugs/snail move out

[New shoot]

It is always something I have heard, that woodlice will only make use of holes made by slugs as they have soft mouthparts, but I am not so sure they are innocent of causing initial damage to crops.  I have a bio-live terrarium (includes invertebrates as well as plants) and some tropical wood lice or isopods are in the mix.  They are different colours to our common ones here in the UK, but basically the same thing.

I have cherry shrimps in aquariums that I feed veg to as part of their diet and the isopods get some as well.  Hard veg like carrots are a big favourite with both and cause a mini stampede when introduced to their environments.   The shrimps eat from the inside out and always leave the peel.  The isopods are the opposite and always favour peels, rinds and the tougher bits first.

The dry weather may well be driving them to seek moisture as there are no damp, dark rotting bits in corners for them to feed in, but they can certainly make their own way into stuff if they want to.  If they have started on a tomato, I would pick it and leave it in a corner of the greenhouse for them to munch.  It will probably help keep them off undamaged fruits.

Forgot to add - if you want rid, ant powder will kill them, but be careful with it round edibles.

[Hampshire Hog]

Thanks for all your comments. I must confess it was a new problem for me.
Mind you in the past they’ve often been hit by blight before I needed to worry about them being eaten!

[Goosegirl]

They haven't attacked my toms (so far) but they have attacked other plants especially my bedding plants!  It's definitely not slugs or snails as I don't have that many but woodlice are very prevalent here both outside and inside.  I have been using the blue slug pellets which have been disappearing at an alarming rate but they're not available to buy now so maybe try the organic ones?

[ceba]

I stopped growing strawberries for this very reason. The woodlice ate all of them last year  Ant powder does work but no good on low lying edibles. Miight be ok at the base of your toms.

[8doubles]

Give your tomato plants a shake !
Tomato moth caterpillars can be ( they come in green and brown versions) well camouflaged until they land on the compost.
I have never known woodlice to break into a tomato but as said previously they will take advantage if another pest breaks the skin or the toms split .

A frog in your greenhouse is a great help , a shallow dish of water with a broken clay pot for cover will be A1 habitat in these dry times !

[steven c]

just a thought did toms have BER before wood lice attack .

[Hampshire Hog]

Not that I had noticed might have affected an odd one or two??