Maybe I should word it better. There are many orders of magnitude more animals outside our garage than in it. The spiders are killing the pillbugs and it’s pretty much all the bugs that I ever find in my garage. There aren’t many bugs in Colorado comparatively, so the few that get in are very noticeable.
Natural cave systems don’t have as many animals in them either, because there are just not enough nutrients around for larger populations to establish. (Exceptions are to this are caves where birds or bats nest in large colonies and there you can find huge populations of other animals feeding on the feces for example.)
I don’t think the spiders necessarily feed on pillbugs though. At least I haven’t observed that yet. I’d think spiders would either feed on other spiders or on any flying insects getting in the garage.
Oh and something new I’ve learned from Wikipedia about pillbugs:
They have also been observed eating wood supports in houses, making them a house pest.
Maybe check for that if there are so many in your garage?
It’s interesting and shows the power of names, because when I was growing up I only ever heard them called woodlice, and didn’t hear the name pillbug. So I kind of just always assumed they ate wooden structures and it was the rest of their diet that surprised me. Like I find them in fallen apples now that we have an apple tree and I didn’t expect that!
Maybe I should word it better. There are many orders of magnitude more animals outside our garage than in it. The spiders are killing the pillbugs and it’s pretty much all the bugs that I ever find in my garage. There aren’t many bugs in Colorado comparatively, so the few that get in are very noticeable.
Natural cave systems don’t have as many animals in them either, because there are just not enough nutrients around for larger populations to establish. (Exceptions are to this are caves where birds or bats nest in large colonies and there you can find huge populations of other animals feeding on the feces for example.)
I don’t think the spiders necessarily feed on pillbugs though. At least I haven’t observed that yet. I’d think spiders would either feed on other spiders or on any flying insects getting in the garage.
Oh and something new I’ve learned from Wikipedia about pillbugs:
Maybe check for that if there are so many in your garage?
It’s interesting and shows the power of names, because when I was growing up I only ever heard them called woodlice, and didn’t hear the name pillbug. So I kind of just always assumed they ate wooden structures and it was the rest of their diet that surprised me. Like I find them in fallen apples now that we have an apple tree and I didn’t expect that!