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Can anyone recommend a way to rid my plants of these little pests that doesn't include chemicals? I have kids that help me in the garden, so I really don't like to use the sprays and things you can buy. Someone told me to put Dawn dish detergent in a spray bottle and use that, but there are so many of them right now it doesn't seem to be working.
What I call potato bugs and what I call roly polys are two different bugs so I'm not really sure which one it is that you have--or do you have both? If it's the things I call roly polys, they feed off of decomposing stuff and don't hurt plants so there's really no need to get rid of them. But if you want to get rid of them anyway, they don't strike me as the sort of bug that dish soap is going to be effective on, dish soap is typically most effective on soft-bodied insects like aphids.
I suspect the dish soap is not going to be effective on those either, they're not soft bodied insects so unfortunately you may need something stronger. You might look for a product containing neem oil, it's an organic insecticide and is less harmful to people than some of the synthetic pesticides. It smells a little bad though, so I probably wouldn't use it right before the kids are going to be in the garden. I'm not sure if it would take care of potato bugs or not so check the label before you use it.
Diatomaceous earth will cut up some insects, but you have to reapply after the rain. We used to call wood lice potato bugs. They don't hurt anything, just pests. If they are real potato bugs -- ugh -- that's tougher. It's not very helpful aside from making you laugh, but potatobugs.com is a funny site devoted to them. See below. You might try the organic forum for organic solutions. Someone there will have concrete suggestions.
"Q: I have potato bugs in my vegetable garden. How can I rid myself of these pesky critters?
A: Drench your entire yard with gasoline and set it ablaze. Once the fire has burned itself out and the ground has cooled, cultivate the soil to a depth of seven feet, saturate the area with battery acid and top the surface with gasoline. After a few minutes, most of the surviving potato bugs, now irritated, will burrow up for air. Set the yard on fire again, and let it burn itself out. The remaining bugs should be crisped. Add water. Only then, and only maybe, will you rid yourself of potato bugs."
Roly Polys - Wood Lice will damage young shoots mainly in the spring. The best way to get rid of them is remove their hiding spots, under rocks, boards etc. If that fails Rotenone granules will keep them at bay.
