# What do you call them ?



## Foxbat (Jul 8, 2020)

Apparently, 250 different names across the UK have been recorded so far for this tiny crustacean.
I’ve always called the Slaters. What do you call them?








						Slater or chucky pig? Survey charts different names for woodlice
					

Researchers say woodlice - or slaters - have more local names than any other species.



					www.bbc.co.uk


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## Alex The G and T (Jul 8, 2020)

_Pillbugs_, (because they roll up into tiny balls, when disturbed) or _sow bugs_. (don't know why)   

California.


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## Vladd67 (Jul 8, 2020)

Boringly I call them wood lice.


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## tegeus-Cromis (Jul 8, 2020)

I call them pillbugs. My kids call them roly polies. (They learned the name in kindergarten.)


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## The Judge (Jul 8, 2020)

Monkey peas!


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## HareBrain (Jul 8, 2020)

My legions.


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## tegeus-Cromis (Jul 8, 2020)

The Judge said:


> Monkey peas!


You just made that up, didn't you?


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## The Judge (Jul 8, 2020)

What?!  My veracity being questioned?!  The cheek of it! 

(And -- somewhat disappointingly -- it's a name they've already recorded.  It's second on that list they've given, which suggests it's rather more widespread than I expected, and not just confined to the Leicester of my youth.)


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## J Riff (Jul 8, 2020)

Called 'em Woodbugs.


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## Pyan (Jul 8, 2020)

When I was young (last century!) in Cumbria, we called them slaters, or slaiters - presumably because of the colour.


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## Pyan (Jul 8, 2020)

There seems to be a lot of discussion on this - here's some of the others that the researchers have found:
Chuggy pigs
Pea bugs 
Carpenter`s bugs
Hardy backs
Wood mice
Cheesy bugs
Tanks
Chuckywigs
Chucky pigs
Chuckybacks
Granfer grigs
Rolly Pollys
Cheese logs
Wood pigs
Penny pigs
Pellet bugs
Sow pigs
Slaiters

*Bulletin of the British Myriapod & Isopod Group *


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## JimC (Jul 8, 2020)

Arkansas 70 years ago - pill bugs, sow bugs, roly polys.


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## Mouse (Jul 8, 2020)

Billy Bakers.


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## Overread (Jul 8, 2020)

I call them woodlice

I'm also confused why people keep calling them pigs, poor little things they are clearly more louse than pig!


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## Montero (Jul 8, 2020)

Wood lice.


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## The Judge (Jul 8, 2020)

HareBrain said:


> My legions.


All hail, Lord of Woodlice, the Woodlouse King!


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## Pyan (Jul 8, 2020)

The Judge said:


> All hail, Lord of Woodlice, the Woodlouse King!


HB should really recruit some heavy infantry...


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## Foxbat (Jul 8, 2020)

pyan said:


> When I was young (last century!) in Cumbria, we called them slaters, or slaiters - presumably because of the colour.


I wondered if maybe it was because the segments looked a bit lit slate tiles on a roof


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## Pyan (Jul 8, 2020)

Never thought of that, but sounds very plausible.


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## Danny McG (Jul 8, 2020)

pyan said:


> When I was young (last century!) in Cumbria, we called them slaters, or slaiters - presumably because of the colour.


Ditto


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## Astro Pen (Jul 8, 2020)

Cheesy bobs  (when we were kids, not that I ever tasted one)
or plain old wood lice as an adult
I think daddy long legs spiders just call them 'lunch' to judge from the piles of remains I find in dark corners of my victorian cottage .

ps when I was young they would roll up into a ball but they don't seem to these days, maybe a different species now?


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## -K2- (Jul 8, 2020)

tegeus-Cromis said:


> My kids call them roly polies. (They learned the name in kindergarten.)



Name I heard mostly, even from adults. Must be a regional/generational thing.

K2


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## Foxbat (Jul 8, 2020)

pyan said:


> HB should really recruit some heavy infantry...
> View attachment 66479​











						Giant isopod - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org
				



Fascinating creatures. H.R. Giger would have been proud to come up with something like this...come to think of it, looks like an elongated facehugger.


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## Ray Zdybrow (Jul 8, 2020)

Astro Pen said:


> Cheesy bobs  (when we were kids, not that I ever tasted one)
> or plain old wood lice as an adult
> I think daddy long legs spiders just call them 'lunch' to judge from the piles of remains I find in dark corners of my victorian cottage .
> 
> ps when I was young they would roll up into a ball but they don't seem to these days, maybe a different species now?


They are different species. The "pill bug" woodlice that roll up look like short millipedes. The flatter woodlice (the large ones are called sow bugs), can't roll up. There are several different species of  woodlice in Britain, they come in different sizes and colours (or no colour) and live in different habitats and regions, which might explain why you never see the rolling-up kind any more. 
BTW I don't believe daddy long legs spiders (cellar spiders) can eat woodlice, you may be host to woodlouse spiders, horrible looking yellowy buggers with enormous red teeth (chelicerae) with which to pierce the armour of their prey!


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## .matthew. (Jul 8, 2020)

Woodlice here too.


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## -K2- (Jul 8, 2020)

Ray Zdybrow said:


> They are different species. The "pill bug" woodlice that roll up look like short millipedes. The flatter woodlice (the large ones are called sow bugs), can't roll up. There are several different species of  woodlice in Britain, they come in different sizes and colours (or no colour) and live in different habitats and regions, which might explain why you never see the rolling-up kind any more.
> BTW I don't believe daddy long legs spiders (cellar spiders) can eat woodlice, you may be host to woodlouse spiders, horrible looking yellowy buggers with enormous red teeth (chelicerae) with which to pierce the armour of their prey!



Off the cuff, I believe Daddy Long Legs spiders just eat Aphids...oh, and find your cows, that one is a fact 

Grab one up by a hind leg and demand, "Daddy Long Legs, where are my Cows." It will point with its front leg in their direction, and if it doesn't point, it's because you don't have any 

K2


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## Pyan (Jul 8, 2020)

-K2- said:


> Grab one up by a hind leg and demand, "Daddy Long Legs, where are my Cows." It will point with its front leg in their direction, and if it doesn't point, it's because you don't have any
> K2



Or it flies off toward your cows leaving one leg behind in your fingers...


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## Overread (Jul 8, 2020)

Right lets get this one straightened out - "daddy long legs" are not spiders they are crane flies! 

I don't know about them having a built in cow-compass though...


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## Pyan (Jul 8, 2020)

Overread said:


> Right lets get this one straightened out - "daddy long legs" are not spiders they are crane flies!
> 
> I don't know about them having a built in cow-compass though...


They don't eat anything, either - adult craneflies have no mouthparts, and live about 10 days if they're lucky.


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## -K2- (Jul 8, 2020)

Overread said:


> Right lets get this one straightened out - "daddy long legs" are not spiders they are crane flies!



Negatory good buddy...

Daddy Long Legs (U.S. accepted version, though there are many others called the same):








Crane Fly:






K2


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## Pyan (Jul 8, 2020)

In the UK, that top one is usually called a *harvestman.*

And the bottom photo appears to show a daddy-long-legs that's been used to find cows, judging from the number of legs (see post #27 above)...


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## RJM Corbet (Jul 9, 2020)

Vladd67 said:


> Boringly I call them wood lice.





Overread said:


> I call them woodlice
> 
> 
> Montero said:
> ...


Ditto


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## Montero (Jul 9, 2020)

Yeah, another one for UK daddy-long-legs are crane flies.


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## Ray Zdybrow (Jul 9, 2020)

Overread said:


> Right lets get this one straightened out - "daddy long legs" are not spiders they are crane flies!
> 
> I don't know about them having a built in cow-compass though...


"Daddy long legs _spider_" has become a common name for pholcids, which are common house spiders in Britain. Proper daddy longlegs are, I agree, crane flies (tipulids), we used to get huge swarms of them resting on shady walls in late summer. Much less common now, maybe why the name has jumped species?


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## Mouse (Jul 9, 2020)

Crane flys (which I have a proper phobia of... which I think there's no name for?) I used to call _flying _daddy long legs. Daddy long legs are just the spindly spiders that hang around in houses and eat house spiders. The pic K2's posted is a harvestman, and not a spider.


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## Ray Zdybrow (Jul 9, 2020)

Two things I don't understand about woodlouse names. 
First, why pigs? The only thing that comes to mind is that their sticking-out legs might look a bit like piglets at suck.
Second, why cheese? I've seen it written that they smell of cheese - I have never been able to detect this odour, and I've sniffed a few woodlice in my time, I can tell you.


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## mosaix (Jul 9, 2020)

Astro Pen said:


> Cheesy bobs  (when we were kids, not that I ever tasted one)
> or plain old wood lice as an adult
> I think daddy long legs spiders just call them 'lunch' to judge from the piles of remains I find in dark corners of my victorian cottage .
> 
> ps when I was young they would roll up into a ball but they don't seem to these days, maybe a different species now?



Here, in Shropshire, they roll up into a ball as AP says. Back in Manchester, they didn't. 

BTW they're, obviously, called woodlice.


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## Astro Pen (Jul 9, 2020)

I'll cut to the chase..








						Why Not Eat Insects?
					

This is an annotated and illustrated edition of Vincent Holt's Why Not Eat Insects?, first published in 1885. It also contains a contempo...



					www.goodreads.com
				











						Insects, a Victorian Cookery Book
					

Insects, a Victorian Cookery Book book. Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers.



					www.goodreads.com


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## AlexH (Jul 10, 2020)

I've never heard them called anything other than woodlice. The other names are all new to me, and reading them makes me feel I've slipped into a parallel universe or that everyone is having a joke that's only on me.


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## Mouse (Jul 11, 2020)

What about this feller? He's a Jasper.


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## Dave (Jul 11, 2020)

This language study is strange because when I did one of these before (in another thread here) it very accurately placed me to within 20 miles of my place of birth, in Gateshead. However, everyone I have ever known called them Woodlice, wherever they came from.

It's the spelk versus splinter thing that really divides Danelaw from Anglo-Saxon.


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## Ray Zdybrow (Jul 12, 2020)

Mouse said:


> Crane flys (which I have a proper phobia of... which I think there's no name for?)



Pateramakroskelophobia


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## Don (Jul 12, 2020)

Rolly Polly


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## Alex The G and T (Jul 12, 2020)

Mouse said:


> What about this feller? He's a Jasper.






Yellow Jacket.  Wasp.


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## Dave (Jul 12, 2020)

Dave said:


> It's the spelk versus splinter thing that really divides Danelaw from Anglo-Saxon.


Actually, it's the truces terms in children's games that really do that - "Fainites" in the Anglo-Saxon areas and various others within the Danelaw. For me it was "Skinches!"


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## Pyan (Jul 12, 2020)

And 70 miles away, on the other side of the North, we said "Barley"...


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## Mouse (Jul 12, 2020)

Ray Zdybrow said:


> Pateramakroskelophobia



Is that a real term? I googled it and got no results.



Alex The G and T said:


> Yellow Jacket.  Wasp.



I have heard yellow jacket. Is that an alternate name for all wasps? I thought it was a different type of wasp in the US.


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## Dave (Jul 12, 2020)

pyan said:


> And 70 miles away, on the other side of the North, we said "Barley"...


Which is in the medieval poem _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_.


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## Pyan (Jul 12, 2020)

Quite an interesting and well-researched subject - 





I've a couple of books by the Opies where this is mentioned. Well worth reading if you're interested in vernacular history.

Books by Iona and Peter Opie


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## Alex The G and T (Jul 12, 2020)

Mouse said:


> I have heard yellow jacket. Is that an alternate name for all wasps? I thought it was a different type of wasp in the US.



It looks like the specific kind of wasp which we call "Yellow Jacket."

They usually nest underground and are extremely aggressive when they the the nest is might be disturbed.


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## Foxbat (Jul 12, 2020)

There were no truce words used where I came from. Every fight went on until stopped by an adult or one combatant ran away to a chorus of catcalls and jeers.


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## -K2- (Jul 12, 2020)

Alex The G and T said:


> It looks like the specific kind of wasp which we call "Yellow Jacket."
> 
> They usually nest underground and are extremely aggressive when they the the nest is might be disturbed.



Yellow Jackets are so much fun! If you've ever run your mower over one of their nests (in the ground), you know what I mean. Out walking my boys in our woods one day, one of them became curious as to why a bunch of Yellow Jackets were swarming out of their nest and gave it a little scratch. A good half-mile+ from the house we ran to it, and they kept up, and kept stinging the entire distance. Once inside I was stung three more times, plus four more getting them off the boys, added to all the stings during the run.

I get it, it was my fault and I got what I deserved. Unfortunately, I have an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bit of a temper when it comes to my boys or loved ones. So, I went back--alone--to apologize.

I love the smell of white kerosene in the morning. It smells like...victory. 

K2


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## Foxbat (Jul 12, 2020)

Every time  a wasp stings, it deposits a pheromone, which in turn attracts more wasps. The best time to get rid of a nest is at night when they are all inside (snug as bugs). 

I used a long stemmed puffer to blow insecticide inside the nest. That was the end of them. 

Fascinating fact, only female wasps actually sting. It’s done through a modified ovipositor (egg laying organ).


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## -K2- (Jul 12, 2020)

Foxbat said:


> The best time to get rid of a nest is at night when they are all inside (snug as bugs).



Yeah...except my rage doesn't exactly work on a clock and at night you miss the show. Even my spouse--while head shaking and chuckling--told everyone to, "just let K go." I had to pass a long line/review of friends and guests waving bye-bye to me, heckling, and laughing as I stormed back (no doubt speculating I'd come return scorched and charred along with more stings).

After the *boom* (white kerosene rather volatile and excitable <<< fits huh?), they said when I returned I wore the happiest smile. 

Simple pleasures... 

K2


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## Mouse (Jul 12, 2020)

Wasps are more important to the planet than humans, so...


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## -K2- (Jul 12, 2020)

Mouse said:


> Wasps are more important to the planet than humans, so...



More important than me? Yes. 
More important than my dogs? Maybe. 
Just live and learn? Absolutely, but logic, right, and wrong doesn't drive my fury.

K2


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## Phyrebrat (Jul 12, 2020)

I call them baby trilobites but I know they’re really wood lice.

if you have an ich for those kind of things DO NOT watch a horror called The Bay...




Dave said:


> It's the spelk versus splinter thing that really divides Danelaw from Anglo-Saxon



yup my gran and parents say spelk, too. I think the difference was that my gran said a splinter was wood, a spelk was metal.

Did/do you use the word ‘bleh’?


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## Danny McG (Jul 13, 2020)

pyan said:


> Quite an interesting and well-researched subject -
> 
> View attachment 66662
> 
> ...


Nah, I'm not having it, it's always been 'skinch' over here, usually with one arm extended to show two fingers crossed.


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## Phyrebrat (Jul 13, 2020)

Phyrebrat said:


> Did/do you use the word ‘bleh’?



Sorry @Dave - that should've read 'bleb' but my phone is a... <bleep>


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## Pyan (Jul 13, 2020)

Danny said:
			
		

> Nah, I'm not having it, it's always been 'skinch' over here, usually with one arm extended to show two fingers crossed.



Well, they've always been a little ...different over there, stuck between the fells and the sea.
It's 'Barley' from Carlisle down to Kendal, AFAIK. Perhaps it's to do with the West Coast mining industry families (like Dave's North-Easterners), as opposed to the farming communities this side of the fells.


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## Dave (Jul 13, 2020)

pyan said:


> Well, they've always been a little ...different over there, stuck between the fells and the sea.
> It's 'Barley' from Carlisle down to Kendal, AFAIK. Perhaps it's to do with the West Coast mining industry families (like Dave's North-Easterners), as opposed to the farming communities this side of the fells.


Yes, that's really interesting. It must be a rural farming versus town industrial difference. If it really goes all the way back to Danelaw times, then you also had Viking settlements (just look at the origin of some village names like Soulby), and then a lot of Irish and Scottish immigrants too.

@Phyrebrat I don't think I heard "Bleb" used (for a small blister) until I moved South.


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## Danny McG (Jul 13, 2020)

Dave said:


> @Phyrebrat I don't think I heard "Bleb" used (for a small blister) until I moved South


If you've an old and very worn pushbike tyre and you get a tiny bit of the inner tube bulging out from a hole in the side of it - that is a bleb


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## Ray Zdybrow (Jul 14, 2020)

Mouse said:


> Is that a real term? I googled it and got no results.



In Google Greek, pateras = father, makros = long, skelos = leg, phobia =  phobia. I thought your condition deserved a name.


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