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Original poster

What do you call wood lice?

276 replies

toots111 · 02/07/2021 20:38

There was an article in The Times today talking about the different regional names for wood lice. It said that they call them Cheesy bugs in Surrey. Now I always thought that was a very North Kent name for them and it totally threw me that other places call them that. So What do you call them and where are you from?

OP posts:
Kudukudu · 02/07/2021 23:36

Pill bugs (American)

WestendVBroadway · 02/07/2021 23:46

Like PP I am in Somerset, but have never known them called anything other than woodlice!

Katefoster · 02/07/2021 23:49

Woodlice- South Wales

CentrifugalBumblePuppy · 02/07/2021 23:51

If inside our house, they’re Laminate Lice.
Regular wood lice otherwise.

After going to uni & using the campus nursery (around the West Midlands), my then toddler son called them rolypoly bugs.

scrumpledtitskin · 02/07/2021 23:52

Cheesybobs, Kent and East Anglia

UltimateIrritant · 02/07/2021 23:54

Chisleybobs - Hampshire and no idea how to spell it! 😁

TheSmallAssassin · 02/07/2021 23:55

Peabugs for me (Medway towns)

ThickAndTired · 02/07/2021 23:55

I was brought up in Surrey, they were always woodlice.

I lived in Surrey again, they were still woodlice.

I visit Surrey often - still woodlice.

ThickAndTired · 02/07/2021 23:56

In London, they are also woodlice.

WildRunner · 03/07/2021 00:00

Pill bugs (Shropshire / Staffordshire)

R00tat00tt00t · 03/07/2021 00:00

Slaters - SW Scotland

WTH are cheesy bugs?!

Fumnudge · 03/07/2021 00:02

Sorry to disappoint: Cheese bugs, Surrey (though my mother would have said that was lower class slang Wink )

Chickpeabiryani · 03/07/2021 00:06

Cheesy bobs, Guildford.

OriginalLilibet · 03/07/2021 00:10

Ogie Pogies. I suspect the name comes from Norfolk via my mother.

irishfeminist · 03/07/2021 00:12

Clocks! North-eastern Ireland.

BraveBraveMouse · 03/07/2021 00:16

Roly polys

irishfeminist · 03/07/2021 00:18

(I remember an English housemate long ago whose naming of a "chookypig" in the kitchen led to a lot of stoned hilarity for those of us who'd never heard it beforeGrin)

threesenoughthanks · 03/07/2021 00:18

My mum is from Liverpool and always calls them Parsons Pigs. After reading this I guess she got that from my grandad who was from the Isle of man. You learn something every day Grin

JaneJeffer · 03/07/2021 00:19

Pigeens - West of Ireland. een comes from the Irish ín meaning little so basically little pigs!

BuggersMuddle · 03/07/2021 00:21

Slaters (west coast of Scotland)

Onemorefortheroad · 03/07/2021 00:22

Slaters - SW Scotland

summerisler · 03/07/2021 00:25

Wood pigs, Lincolnshire.

summerisler · 03/07/2021 00:27

@NeverSurrender

Pigs - Lincolnshire, not heard it used since I was a child though!
Yes! That’s made my day (easily pleased) as no one where I live is from Lincs and doesn’t understand why I call them wood pigs.
ACPC · 03/07/2021 00:37

Slaters, South Lanarkshire. I was an adult before I knew their actual nameBlush

LilyRed · 03/07/2021 00:37

DP from N Ireland, slaters.

Me from mostly West Country, Pillbugs for the rolly ones and the children (growing up in S Dorset) took to calling the normal ones 'Chilliwigs', probably a corruption of 'Shelly Wigs'.