# What the heck is the real name for roly poly's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 29, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019 "2005-09-29T14:25:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/41 "2005-09-30T17:33:15Z")
How odd. We always called them “tumble bugs”, which didn’t even make it onto the linked list. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/42 "2005-09-30T18:18:59Z")
> [@Dolukhanova](#): > > Has anyone else heard of them being called doodlebugs? I grew up in the back woods of East Texas and also called them doodle bugs. We also called ant lions doodle bugs. Sometimes we had to specify which “doodle bug” we were talking about. As I got older I heard the term roly poly, which seemed better because it was unique. I still see lots of ant lion cones. Did everyone know that ant lions are larvae, and turn into lace wing flies? By the way, for the person who said he shot these roly polies with a BB gun, did he mean that he used them instead of BBs? ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/43 "2005-09-30T22:20:52Z")
As a bored kid, pillbugs were a source of amusement for me. The ones that were bigger than the rest were usually mamas: Unroll one, and you’d see dozens of tiny, translucent babies clinging to her stomach. They’d scamper away (I assume they’d return to her once I let her go…I hope). It was kinda cool. Which led me to wonder: how long do the babies stay with the mothers? How and what do they eat while with her? ---
**Author:** ![eveanyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@eveanyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eveanyn)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/44 "2005-09-30T23:18:30Z")
When I was a child, my mom called them potato bugs. We kids called them tickle bugs because they tickled when you let them walk on your hand. I still refer to them as tickle bugs, but I no longer let them walk on my hand. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/45 "2005-09-30T23:22:37Z")
> [@snailboy](#): > > Wouldn’t the exoskeletons of the pillbugs give the food an awful texture? Those recipes interest me, but I don’t like the idea of eating exoskeletons. I’ve gotten small pieces of crawfish exoskeletons in my mouth and it bugs the hell out of me. There would certainly be no practical way to peel them, but woodlouse exoskeletons are far less chitinous and tough than even prawns - I would imagine the texture as being no tougher than Rice Krispies. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/46 "2005-09-30T23:37:40Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > And is it just me, or does that look a LOT like the bug that Kahn put in Chechov’s ear? Indeed. ^ :dubious: ^ ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/47 "2005-09-30T23:45:52Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. Yep; my grandmother always called them that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an antlion. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/48 "2005-09-30T23:50:57Z")
Thinking further on that, I’m wondering if the term might be an import from German. My grandmother was the only person who ever called them that (except for me, as I naturally picked it up from her), as she was of German stock and grew up in a partially German-speaking household. The term being limited to Texas and thereabouts would then be because of the major German influence in that state. ---
**Author:** ![Kiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Kiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiminy)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/49 "2005-10-01T01:18:55Z")
> [@Dolukhanova](#): > > 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. This is the term that I learned for them when I lived in Texas, too. I had lived for several years in North Carolina, but we called them “rolly-polly bugs”, for lack of anything better. When my family rented a house at a beach in Texas, a kid there told me they were called “doodle bugs”, and he showed me the funnel-shaped holes they dug into the sand around the foundations of the cabin we were renting. I called them doodle bugs for years afterwards. When “A Bug’s Life” came out, though, one of the main characters was obviously this king of bug, and in the movie, he was referred to as a “pill bug.” It makes perfect sense to me, so I have added that to my repertoire of names for this creature. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/50 "2005-10-01T03:04:40Z")
> [@Kiminy](#): > > This is the term that I learned for them when I lived in Texas, too. I had lived for several years in North Carolina, but we called them “rolly-polly bugs”, for lack of anything better. When my family rented a house at a beach in Texas, a kid there told me they were called “doodle bugs”, and he showed me the funnel-shaped holes they dug into the sand around the foundations of the cabin we were renting. I called them doodle bugs for years afterwards. Ok, just to be clear here, the bugs that roll up are _not_ the same bugs that make the little cones. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/51 "2005-10-01T05:36:52Z")
Hm. I too, refer to these bugs as roly polies. OTOH, a potato bug is something entirely different and eminently more hideous. I’m not even going to google up a picture for you guys, because then I’d have to look at it. Anyone else know what I am talking about? ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2005, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019/52 "2005-10-01T05:56:40Z")
[Wikipedia article answers all](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolly_polly) Haven’t we learned that by yet? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-is-the-real-name-for-roly-polys/324019.md?page=2)