Woodlice infestation

[Sojourner]

Wow. Last month I transplanted 6 young plants into some fresh compost, and now when I went to transplant them to 1 gallon containers, several hundred woodlice came crawling out. All most all the wood lice were very close to the top 2 inches of soil, which I had covered in perlite.

I've searched around, but I didn't find any threads about this. What can I do to get rid of the woodlice? I'm kind of worried they could start eating the roots or something. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HeadyPete]

More likely springtails. If so, they are not a pest:

However, by their capacity to carry spores of mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhiza-helper bacteria on their tegument, soil springtails play a positive role in the establishment of plant-fungal symbioses and thus are beneficial to agriculture.[24] They also contribute to control plant fungal diseases through their active consumption of mycelia and spores of damping-off and pathogenic fungi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springtail

 

[HeadyPete]

Do they resemble these?

 

[HeadyPete]

or this:

 

[Sojourner]

or this:

This.

After some research, it seems they like moist conditions and rotten wood, which my compost contains a small amount of uncomposted wood fibers. I'm sure they hitched a ride when I brought in the compost.

If anyone doesn't have any other suggestions, I'm going to withhold water until the soil dries out. Hopefully that will kill 'em off.

 

[HeadyPete]

Cool, they need moisture to live as they breathe through gills.

Plus, they just consume dead material and excrete it as ferts, so other than the aesthetics of having them around, they are not bad for your crop.

 

[Sojourner]

Cool, they need moisture to live as they breathe through gills.

Plus, they just consume dead material and excrete it as ferts, so other than the aesthetics of having them around, they are not bad for your crop.

Hmm. I'm not gonna transplant again, so I don't have to really deal with them anymore. I figured I shouldn't have pests in my garden, but if all they're doing is converting the wood to nutrients, I might just leave 'em be.
I guess I imagined they'd start attacking roots, but if they don't eat living material...