Rolly Pollies Remove Heavy Metals From Soil, Stabilize Growing Conditions, Protect Groundwater

By Organic and Healthy

Turns out a little bug we don’t think of much just so happens to be one of the best protectors of soil ever imaginable. Read on to find out more!

Turn over a brick or a board that has been lying in the yard for a while and underneath you may find a collection of pill bugs scurrying about. Also known as “rolly pollies” or woodlice, these grey-colored creatures can be found in many dark, moist environments feeding on decaying matter. 

What’s interesting about these critters is that they are not bugs at all.

They are crustaceans and more closely resemble crabs and shrimp, not insects. They are characterized by their ability to roll up into a ball when they feel threatened.

Breeding or collecting pill bugs may be an important practice for homesteading and gardening.

The guts of these pill bugs contain a number of microbes that help the critter feed on dead, organic matter.

By releasing mass quantities of pill bugs into a mature garden, one can be assured that dead plant matter is being properly broken down and returned to healthy soil.

See: Hemp Eats Radiation, Cleans Toxic Metals From Soil

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Pillbugs play an important role in the cycle of healthy plant life.

They return organic matter to the soil so it can be digested further by fungi, protozoans and bacteria. This process produces a natural supply of nitrates, phosphates and other vital nutrients that plants need to thrive now and in future growing seasons.

One very unique quality that these crustaceans possess is their ability to safely remove heavy metals from soil.

For this reason, they are an important tool for cleaning up soil contaminated with pollutants like lead, cadmium and arsenic. In coal spoils and slag heaps, pill bugs come in handy. (source)

They take in heavy metals like lead and cadmium and crystallize these ions in their guts. The heavy metal toxins are then made into spherical deposits in the mid gut. With this special cleanup property, pill bugs survive where most creatures can’t, in the most contaminated sites.

See: “Super Sponge” Removes Mercury From Water In Seconds

The magic of the pill bugs helps reestablish healthy soil and prevents toxic metal ions from leaching into the groundwater.

This means pill bugs are also protecting well water from becoming contaminated while stabilizing soils. 

Photo by Franco Folini (San Francisco, California) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

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