Y’know, the bug that curls up into a ball if you touch them?
I’ve come up with zip in google except sandwich wraps and a cartoon character.
They’re isopods. Often Armadillidium vulgare here in California (not sure about where you are, but might be the same genus at least).
We always called them potato bugs, but a quick google shows that we were wrong…
Sorry, I’m not help.
OO! One I can answer!
It’s a Pill Bug.
They are called pillbugs or sowbugs, but they are actually crustaceans – not “bugs” at all. (Bugs are a specific type of insects.)
Looks like it would be a pillbug:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2072.html
Google Woodlice 
Close…ours have a hard outer shell. (Still, the CA ones are creapy to look at!)
Yes, the offical name -which I never heard of - is The Pillbug. Huh.
Now I need to find out how to get rid of them for friends.
Thanks!
I love how your link says “Some may crawl into swimming pools and drown, causing complaints.”
PILLBUG FAMILY, SUING HUMAN FAMILY: “You should have put a fence up around your pool, or a gate with a lock. Our children have drowned, and it’s your fault. We’ll see you in court!”
OK, maybe only I find that amusing.
Or slaters, or wood lice…
Yes, technically they are terrestrial isopods, a kind of crustacean. Many other kinds of isopods live in freshwater and in the sea.
They have many different common names, the most common being pillbugs, sowbugs, or woodlice (although the latter mostly is applied to kinds that don’t roll up completely).
Has anyone else heard of them being called doodlebugs? I googled “doodlebug” the other day (don’t ask), and the term seems to be most commonly applied to a different kind of bug (the antlion, if you must know). However, when I spent summers in Texas in my youth, the term was used by everyone I knew to refer to pillbugs.
Nope, I had to mop some errant iced tea off the desktop.
Rolis polius, I believe.
The ones shown in that link are not actually Armadillium.
The links below show several Armadillium species, which is the most common kind that rolls up into a ball:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/woodlice/photos/armadillium_nasatum.html
http://www.bionat.unipi.it/polo/laboratorio9900/menini/fotoisopode.gif
http://www.painetworks.com/photos/hq/hq1307.JPG
Some marine relatives get a lot larger, like this Giant Deep-Sea Isopod
I’ve got to say, the first thing that came to mind was, “Now there’s a roly poly you can sink your teeth into.” I wonder how it would be stir-fried in butter?
Really? I’ve never in my life heard the term “doodlebug” until your post.
The names for this animal vary by region, mostly. See this survey “What do you call the little gray creature (that looks like an insect but is actually a crustacean) that rolls up into a ball when you touch it?” Note that the most common name (at 33.07%) is “roly poly.”
:eek: :eek: :eek:
Remind me to stay out of the deep sea…
Wow, “wood louse” is only 0.4% and “slater” isn’t even on the list.