A woodlouse (plural woodlice), also known by many common names is an isopod crustacean with a rigid, segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs. Woodlice form the suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda, with over 5,000 known species.

Woodlice in the genus Armadillidium and in the family Armadillidae can roll up into an almost perfect sphere as a defensive mechanism, hence some of the common names such as pill bug or roly-poly. Most woodlice, however, cannot do this.
Woodlice, which are not known to transmit disease, may cause superficial damage to decorations and possibly furnishing in your home. You wil have noticed that they leave a stain if you crush them on the carpet. Normally, damp areas attract woodlice but in most cases, these crustaceans enter your home by accident and are found just wandering around. Woodlice will die in most home environments as they are damp lovers and are soon dehydrated by our warm indoor environments.
Woodlice feed on mould growth, leaves and rotting wood, they are known to damage wallpaper which may be due to feeding on minute mould growth on the paper causing incidental damage. Woodlice may be found anywhere in your home but most commonly will be found on the ground floor having entered via poor seals around doors and windows or through air vents. Woodlice can however live in roof voids and in damp bathrooms and toilets.

To control them and kill them - Go to - www. pest control Suppliers or phone 0800 888 6000

Hope this answers your question

"superficial damage to decorations and possibly furnishings in the home"?!! Where'd you get that from Triffidkiller? How are they supposed to do that? Really, not... well not in the UK anyway. Unless they die within the curtain folds, when decomposition may stain the fabric I guess.

If you've got a problem with them in the home, sort the damp out, that'll resolve that. In the garden, they're largely beneficial, eating decaying plant and organic matter. If there's too many in the garden, remove any rotting wood that's about clear away plant debris.

They shouldn't need "controlling and killing". They do no harm in the garden and in the home you should follow Bamboo's advice. This looks like an easy route to answering an an essay question to me.
Triffidkiller has kindly gone to the trouble of summarising an Wikipedia article for you.

used to be eaten with a mild peppered cheese sauce apparently.

why do you want to know about them?
welcome to GoY

woodlice are great for eating up decaying wood etc. they do no harm to healthy living matter! Look like Wikki got it wrong again!

Obvious the knowledge on this subject is limited by some people – and I always say you cant educate pork – But everyone has there opinion – I go by scientific research and there findings – So you believe it or not – That’s not my problem – but You need to read up more as to what is a pest and what is not in the garden or the home - ? Once again the small tight group have plenty to say!!

It may be a small group that answered today but it isn't tight - anyone can join in. It is also polite and friendly so please note.
It makes me very sad to see this kind of unpleasantness on Goy - there is surely no need for it.

Oh dear, dear, how tiresome, not another person who gets all snippy. Triffidkiller, I'll ignore your tantrum, but would like the source for the information regarding the 'superficial damage to decorations...' please, you should be able to post a link or mention where you got that info at least, I'm always up for learning something new.

Why do I feel like I'll be waiting a long time for you to respond appropriately to this request.... maybe cos you still haven't responded to my query on the T & M plug plants thread, I guess.

KBnorman, to return to your original question I would suggest you read the RHS info:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=723
To me they are goodies in the garden :)

Who would think that woodlice would cause such controversary!
I agree with Moon grower (and others) that these are 'goodies'. Not only that I am quite fond of them, they remind me of childhood days turning over logs to see what we could find. Well, country children had to amuse themselves! I always thought they were one sort, but there are several so we all learn something and if they wander indoors, they get gently put out.

I have a special fondness for woodlice too. As a college student I developed a method of locating arthropod hygroreceptors(these are cells that sense the amount of water in the air) and the woodlouse was my subject. It involved cubicle to control humidity, a screened cage to eliminate electronic wave interference, the smallest of electrodes,a ton(my kingdom for a transistor way back then) of electronic equipment to record receptor impulses, a steriomicroscope and a small glass rod and lacquer to affix my research partner to. Tried it first with the cockroach but that was a fail. At the time I found it a bit comical to see this little fellow hooked up to so much stuff. Oh Yes, they are an important part of natures cleanup crew!

In my experience, they can also eat tiny seedlings, or soft fruits such as strawberries, but don't often do as much damage that way as the common cricket. Either way, some diatomaceous earth helps prevent problems.

I would just leave them alone. Those instances of damage to strawberrys or a problem to the home are just about as rare as your home or strawberry for that matter being directly struck by lightning.

They are secondary pests of soft fruit, only going for the interior after something else has made a hole for them.
As far as eating seedlings, that happens when there are a huge number of slaters and not enough food for them.
If you want to see huge woodlice then go down to the beach at night in Blue Anchor, Somerset, the sea wall is usually crawling with sea slaters. These are 4 times the size of the garden woodlouse.

Wow would love to see those Owdb. are they specific to Somerset?

Ever since I was a small boy, I have loved Woodlice. I always used to go round my Nan & Grandad's garden searching for them. I find them all over my garden now and still handle them sometimes before putting them back. It is a shame Triffidkiller seems to take a firm dislike to these wonderful creatures.

My favourite are the pill bug type. I also rarely see the rusty coloured ones (that don't roll up).

I have hundreds of woodlice living behind my garden storage box. Leave them be and admire them is what I say.

Loosetrife that's fascinating - was your partner in a fit state to be released after the experiment?

Moon Grower. I assume they are found on every beach, it is just that we knew the strand at Blue Anchor and often saw them there.

There is an excellent book from my uni days by the author Sutton all about woodlice. I used to use it a lot when doing the various identification tasks I had to do and still do [sometimes].

well your opening statement is the same as wikki!
As a scientist I'd like some further info [ref] as the 'bible' I used at uni 30+ yrs ago by Sutton doesn't mention damage to household etc. that might just be because it was more of an ecology guide etc.
But inferring that some of us on here are 'pork' is insulting.
this pork has never stopped learning.
woodlice have been used extensively in taxes and kineses experiments and recently a similar expt to that as described by Loosestrife was part of an A-level Biology question. The question recognised the source of the data.

Re pork - come to think of it, pigs are actually quite intelligent...

Very intelligent Stera

I am sorry to say Steragram my research subjects were as we called it in those days .. " sacrificed " the lacquer could not be removed so as to keep them alive.

lol -

I'm still waiting for a link or where you got the info about decorations from, Triffidkiller...

Ah well, don't suppose there are many lab techies with arthropod laquer removing expertise...

Oh boy so we have climate change and wood lice as hot topics! What fun...

These days I probably would have used a tiny dollop of superglue gel but the end result would have been the same:(

Yup it would...

What was the objective of your research Loosestrife? its hard for a lay person to imagine what the results would be used for. They certainly can tell where there's a damp corner!

First, my objective was to find out how those arthropods who live on land locate water and or a humid environment and the location of those water sensors on their bodies by covering over certain parts of their bodies and antennae with a masking substance. This type of research is call "pure or basic research" which is done to find out how the world works. I think, Steragram, what you describe and seek in your question is what is called " applied research " which is inquirery made in order to solve specific problems. For example, let's take our old nemesis the cockroach. One method of control of this pest would be to eliminate the ability of this insect to find water which it requires in order to live of course. The investigation into this would have a purposeful application which would beneficial whereas my topic of research would have no benefit at all in and of itself. BUT, those doing applied research could take the information I have given and use it as a tool, so to speak, to help them in their purposeful investigations directed to eliminating or reducing the numbers of this insect which is a carrier of disease.
My second objective was to obtain grant money to fund additional research on my part which was a very difficult thing to do as a college undergraduate over sixty years ago. Thank You Very Much for that question!

You're right L - having worked in Research labs (info depts) for a number of hears I tend to think of research as being specifically for problem solving, but obviously we need the pure stuff too - who knows what might result from it?