Woodlouse home: who or what it is, ordinary insects in an apartment or not, significance in nature and human life, structure of the parasite, photo development of larvae

Many residents of apartment buildings were faced with a small annoying insect creeping out in the evening from under the baseboards, and met him in the bathroom or toilet.

The creature, similar to a small armadillo, is actually an insect, and the real crustacean, which is often confused with a smaller silverfish.

Despite the fact that there is not much harm from them, compared with other inhabitants of the houses, wood lice are a nuisance. Especially when they begin to multiply actively.

What is it: description and photo

Is it an insect or a crustacean?

Woodlice (lat.Oniscidea) - a suborder of crustaceans belonging to the family of the Equine. Many mistakenly attribute representatives of wood lice to insects, although in fact their relatives are crayfish, lobsters and crabs. The suborder includes three infraorders and a large number of species.

Currently, science knows about 3,600 species of these crustaceans, and there is still a considerable amount of debate about their taxonomy.

About how wood lice look like, we wrote here.

The following are photos of wood lice:

Significance in nature and human life

Despite the fact that woodlice are attributed to various negative properties, such as the spread of diseases dangerous to humans, in fact this is a fairly harmless creature. In nature, they absorb organic rotting residues (mainly plants), accelerating their natural processing.

Sometimes, with a lack of nutrition, they can eat green parts of plants, but the damage to crops from wood lice is practically incomparable with most other garden pests. Also woodlice in the garden can feed on spores of harmful fungi, which prevents their spreade.

Absorbing plant debris, woodlice contribute to the accumulation of humus - an important component of fertile soil. You can find them in nature in rotting foliage, in compost heaps, in places where food residues are stored, etc.

Woodlice are an important component of ecological diversity and food chains. For example, these crustaceans feed on birds, large insects (wasps, carnivores), arachnids, some mammals, such as shrews and hedgehogs, as well as some reptiles - snakes and lizards.

For a person, wood lice are practically not a threat.. They do not bite, because their oral apparatus is not able to bite through the thick skin of a person. Woodlice, unlike silverfish (with which they are often confused), do no harm except polluting the surrounding territory with their waste products and unsightly appearance.

However, large colonies of wood lice can annoy city dwellers, because they need a lot of food and can get into food cabinets, sugar bowls, jars of flour, etc.

Classification

Kingdom Animals.
Type Arthropods.
Class Higher crayfish.
Detachment of Isopods.
Squad Mokritsy.

About what class wood lice belong to, read in a separate article.

Kinds

The most common species are:

Woodlice-battleship ordinary.
Woodlouse pig.
Trachelipus rathkei.
Woodlouse Reaumur.
Porcellio spinicornis.
Cylisticus convexus.

Living at home and in nature

In the conditions of apartments and private houses, armadillos and ordinary wood lice are most often found. These are arthropods from the suborder of woodlice more adapted to the urban lifestyle in Russian cities. In multi-storey buildings they prefer:

attics;
basements;
dark and damp places;
trenches for wires, water pipes.

Mokrits can often be found in bathrooms and toilets, since there is almost always high humidity.

Woodlice inhabit:

on personal plots in compost heaps and pits;
in the front gardens under the leaves;
under the foliage of fruit and berry trees;
under the foundation of the house;
next to street toilets.

They can be found under the boards and, in principle, under any rubbish that for a long time did not budge and formed moist soil under it.

In nature, woodlice are found in the forest, along roads, in forest plantations near fields. - wherever there may be organic plant debris. Many wood lice can be found near swampy puddles, under stones or fallen trees.

It is important to remember that these species differ significantly in terms of their diet and lifestyle, appearance and many other characteristics.

All about the stages of development

Mokrits can be attributed to ovoviviparous crustaceans. After fertilization, the females molt, and between the first five pairs of legs a brood pocket forms into which the fertilized eggs fall, from which the first stage of the wood lice develops in the same pocket - larvae called nautiluses.

Nautiluses develop in a brood pocket within 40-50 days, then the female releases them from herself. Since not all larvae have enough nutrients for full development, cannibalism is common among them, even inside the female - eating each other. The stronger ones are released by the mother through the hole in the brood pocket. The process of a kind of pregnancy in the female is repeated until all the seminal fluid accumulated in the receptacles is used up.

Hatched larvae are small in size, even compared to an adult. They are usually white or colorless at the time of hatching. Hatching individuals are almost completely formed, however, before puberty they need to go a few more links and grow to the usual size of an adult. In general, young and sexually mature individuals are no different in structure, except in size.

Sometimes the adult stage is also taken for larvae, since wood lice are molting throughout their entire lives. Before the mature stage, young individuals can shed 7-10 times, and several times during adulthood.

There are also white wood lice, which can also be confused with larvae.

Internal and external structure

The body of a crustacean consists of segments. The total length of the body and head rarely exceeds 1-1.5 cm. Anatomically, the body of the woodlice consists of a head and a segmented abdomen covered with chitin. The whole body consists of 8 segments, from each of which, except for the last, a pair of short legs consisting of two branches departs. The eighth segment carries a pair of outgrowths that suck water into the body of the woodlice.

Pit of chitin in wood licedue to which there is a powerful diffusion of moisture from the body of the crustacean into the environment. To prevent moisture loss and drying out, woodlice live in places with high humidity, where their name comes from. Some species can fold into a tight ball, since chitin plates are found one on top of the other. This structure makes the wood lice look like a small armadillo.

Legs consist of two branches, external and internal. The external branches of the legs partially overlap, creating a strong body around the body. On the internal branches there are respiratory invaginations, so they play the role of peculiar gills. On the front pair of legs are air cavities - respiratory organs.

The head carries a pair of antennas and antennae. The front pair is practically not developed, the whole main function of touch lies on the developed second pair of antennae. The organ of vision of wood lice is the eyes located on the sides of the head. The first abdominal segment partially covers the head of the crustacean and has a deep notch for mobility.

Propagation Features

During the season, the female can bring offspring up to 3-4 times. On average, the active breeding season begins in April-May, when warm and humid environmental conditions occur, favorable for the growth and development of larvae.

On the ventral side of the female there are openings of the testicles leading to the oviducts. Before mating, the females molt, and the males help them discard the remains of the chitinous cover during mating. During copulation, the testicles are filled with the seminal fluid of the male, which is consumed as eggs are formed. Some species of woodlice can breed parthenogenetically without the participation of males.

After filling the testicles, the female sheds again, rebuilding her body to bear the offspring.

How do you breathe?

Biting wood lice with the help of peculiar land gills and breathing bagspenetrated by blood vessels. On the inner branch of the legs there are respiratory cavities - invaginations of the integument, which are also braided from the inside by vessels with hemolymph. By diffusion, oxygen from the respiratory cavities enters the hemolymph, which carries it throughout the body. Exhaust air enters the breathing bags and is released through small openings in them.

What does it eat?

Woodlice feed on rotting organic matter, dust, small insects, such as dust mites, and also spores of some mold fungi. Prefer soft mucous food that can be sucked. With a lack of nutrition, thin roots and stems of indoor plants, young seedlings can be damaged. If possible, eat bread crumbs, sugar, flour, less often - pet food.

What are they afraid of?

Firstly, wood lice are afraid of dry air, which can strangle the crustacean and dry out its body, since moisture quickly diffuses outward. Also, creatures do not like bright light, preferring dark moist places. They are afraid of natural enemies, such as birds or large insects and spiders.

What are dangerous for humans?

Woodlice do not bite, because their jaws are not able to bite through human skin. The danger of wood lice is only when moving, because they can leave a trail of fungi and dirt. Crustaceans also clog habitats and their way with the products of their livelihoods. With a lack of nutrition, woodlice can damage young indoor plants and seedlings, flour, sugar and other food products that can be drawn into themselves.

Where do they appear?

In the apartment

In apartment buildings, woodlice most often appear on the first and last floors, rising from the basements and going down from the attic and attic.

They can move through the ventilation shafts of the bathroom and kitchen. They prefer dark and damp places, and in apartment conditions it is most often a bathroom and toilet (how to get rid of wood lice in the bath and toilet?). Activity is mostly evening and night. They can move along the channels of telephone and electric wires, under baseboards, under suspended ceilings.

In a private house

In houses on the ground, they crawl out of cellars or basements; they can actively breed in places between the ground and the foundation, where moisture accumulates. They crawl out in search of food with active reproduction, mastering new territories so as not to oppress the neighbors.

Reasons for the appearance

Active reproduction and search for a new uninhabited territory.
Damping of ceilings, floors, walls.
Leakage and stagnation of water from pipes.
High humidity in the toilet and bathroom.
High humidity in the room.
Stagnant water in trays for plants.

About where and for what reasons wood lice come from, it is written here.

How to get rid?

The main principle in the fight against wood lice is to create conditions in which it will be difficult for them to live. And this is, first of all, getting rid of dampness, creating dry and warm air in the premises. It is important to ensure that there are no water leaks, stagnation of irrigation liquid in pallets, damp laundry.

To fight in the bathroom and toilets, it is necessary to ventilate the premises, to avoid water from entering the spaces between the wall and the bath / shower. It is important to leave washing machines for ventilation, as wood lice can accumulate in the drum and multiply actively in a damp environment.

There are a large number of chemicals and folk remedies for combating unwanted crustacean guests. One of these is the spreading of salt in places of high humidity, behind skirting boards, next to pipes. Salt draws moisture and dries in places where there is too much of it.

Boric acid, which can be sprayed at the sites of the most frequent appearance of crustaceans, has a negative effect on chitin. A solution of whiteness or bleach negatively affects the cover of woodlice, but it is important not to overdo it with a concentration so as not to lead the inhabitants of the apartment or house to poisoning with chlorine vapor. Of the chemicals, Tarax powder, glue traps, Gett spray have a good effect.

How to get rid of wood lice is described in this article.

Interesting Facts

When infecting moths with certain bacteria, they can turn into females.
Woodlice are not insects, insecticides practically do not act on them.
When adverse conditions occur, they can fall into suspended animation, that is, hibernation, for up to nine months.
Some species of wood lice take care of their offspring.
These are the only crustaceans that have switched to a land mode of life, but have not completely departed from the aquatic environment.
They are able to multiply not only through fertilization, but also parthenogenetically.
Larvae of wood lice nautilus are characterized by intrauterine cannibalism.

Woodlice are very unpleasant neighbors, although relatively harmless. In nature, they are indispensable, but in residential buildings bring aesthetic displeasure to residents. It is possible and necessary to deal with them, because with active reproduction they bring sewage and mold, but the fight against these crustaceans must begin with the indoor climate.