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cheesy bugs...
Mrs McMuffin has become strangely obsessed with the cheesy bugs, or slater beetles, or wood lice...She has realised that practically every region in the country, or should that be world, has a different name for the little creatures. She would like your help in cataloguing all of the different names. Please leave a comment with the name you know these creatures by, and where you are from. In return for your help, please feel free to enjoy this recipe for wood louse sauce. Apparently it tastes like shrimp and goes really well with fish!
mr mcmuffin on 4 Mar 2004 @ 08:05 AM ✲ Permalink
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I always said you were a good man really. I suppose I really should start.
I call them 'cheesy bugs' and this is what they're called in the SE London/North Kent area
Posted by: mrs mcmuffin | 4 Mar 2004 08:31:22
I have also found out they're called 'Granny Greys' in Rhondda and 'Billy Buttons' in Wiltshire.
Other names are:
Bibble bugs, sow bugs, curd worms, tiggy hogs, shoe laces, sink lice and coffin cutters, but I don't know which regions in which country call them this.
Mr McMuffin calls them 'Slater beetles' (Glasgow), but then he was always strange.
Posted by: mrs mcmuffin | 4 Mar 2004 08:37:47
Well - this just proves that everywhere else is alot more interesting than wherever you are. I mean how creative - "coffin cutters", is this from Transylvania? Personally I like 'tiggy hogs' - in fact i think i might go and adopt one and keep it as a pet. It would suit me to the ground - not so much committment as a cat or dog .
Dog...see, now I'm off again. I wondered whether white dog doings were a result of what dogs were fed on in our youth.... (knowing this country probably each other), and like our own diets, doggy dinners have been upgraded. Perhaps it is the equivalent of our four legged friends being fed strawberry Angel Delight or tinned fruit cocktail that includes plasticised cherries, grapes and (Mrs Carrot-Cake's favourites) pineapple chunks and pears, all wrapped up in a spasm-inducing syrup. Don't know about anyone else but in our family this particular food item was greeted which such abject horror, it had little chance of ever making it as far as our stomachs let alone getting the chance of becoming dessicated excretia. Although come to think of it, I think that , on occasion, the pears did make it onto the pavement outside our house, curtisy of a secret moment, a long spoon, catapult action and the stealth of a young Mrs Carrot Cake.
Posted by: single cookie | 4 Mar 2004 09:45:22
Besides ewww, ick, gross and disgusting, I would refer to them as 'Pill bugs'.
Posted by: jo | 4 Mar 2004 12:48:41
Thanks Gypsy/Treacle tart (I can't remember either). I'm going to record here that 'eerie bugs' is the Belfast name, or else I'll forget. Researcg project coming along nicely, thanks.
Posted by: mrs mcmuffin | 5 Mar 2004 18:22:27
Pill bugs or roly-poly bugs.
Posted by: Retro Girl | 6 Mar 2004 03:34:18
Hi, in the Netherlands we call them "pissebedden". Probably because formerly people thought they were beneficial to peeing. Literally it means bed-wetters.
Nice site!
Posted by: Gerrit van Leeuwen | 10 Mar 2004 12:06:20
in sweden we call the grå-suggor, grey-sows
Posted by: heffa | 12 Mar 2004 07:45:35
I'm a northerner and we always just called them woodlice. It wasn't until I started working 'Dahn Sahf' (west Kent) that I first heard the term 'cheesy bugs'. WTF is that all about?!
Southerners!
;-)
Posted by: Kirsty | 12 Mar 2004 23:41:37
Wife just calls them "the hard backed creatures".
Posted by: Steve | 16 Mar 2004 17:01:13
Here are some pics of a giant underwater pill bug - http://hinterlands.cc/index.php?showtopic=27
Posted by: Robert Gale | 24 Mar 2004 18:15:00
Aw jeezus Robert, I don't think I'll sleep tonight now!
Posted by: Steve | 24 Mar 2004 19:06:01
Aaargh!
Posted by: mrs mcmuffin | 24 Mar 2004 20:58:46
dude, those are roly-poleys.
Posted by: amber | 26 Mar 2004 16:51:00
Here's another gross one for you - http://pya.cc/pyaimg/pimg.php?imgid=3717
Posted by: Robert Gale | 14 Apr 2004 07:57:41
I am from the Oregon, USA, and grew up knowing them as 'potato bugs,' but also regularly heard them called 'pill bugs.'
I asked a friend from the Chicago area, and he said they used to call them 'bloodsuckers' and 'tater bugs.'
Bloodsuckers is my personal favorite, as I find an infestation of bloodsuckers seems much more dramatic that an infestation of pill bugs, although there is a certain sense of comic delight associated with an infestation of rolly pollies.
Posted by: bp | 5 May 2004 05:34:12
Thank you very much for your help and I agree, bloodsuckers sounds the best.
Posted by: mrs mcmuffin | 5 May 2004 08:04:03
Pill bugs and Woodlice are different in the fact that a pill bug can roll itself completely spherical (and you can play marbles with them) whereas a woodlouse has legs'n'stuff sticking out. Try it. I'm right...
Posted by: Phil | 5 May 2004 20:58:50
The things we call woodlice over here do roll up into tiny little balls. I know, I used to poke them when I was a kid just to watch them do it.
Posted by: mrs mcmuffin | 5 May 2004 21:25:02
Ah, they must have been pill bugs then. If you take a wander in the garden and turn over some stones you may find a variety of these things, watch out for orange ones though, they'll 'ave yer arm off! Phil central is located in sunny Dorset and the bugs here I swear are getting bigger!
Posted by: Phil...again | 6 May 2004 15:38:47
You must have all manner of freakish creatures in Dorset, I don't recall ever seeing arm eating orange ones.
Posted by: mrs mcmuffin | 6 May 2004 19:18:01
Hello everyone. Stumbled across this page looking for info on gypsy tarts, specifially confirmation that they're only known in Kent (which seems to be true, by the way). I'm delighted to find that the debate over folk-names for the woodlouse has spread far and wide.
Anyway, I can tell you that in a remote corner of south-east Kent the little devils are known as monkeypeas. And before you ask, I don't know what the relevance is to monkeys, although I hope you agree that the pea bit is rather apt. This name only applies to the ones that roll up into a ball, which I'm often told are not woodlice, but no-one seems to know what they are if not.
If you want to get really precise, I've only ever met people you know what the hell a monkeypea is in Dover (where I'm from), Folkestone, and (having just Googled it) Canterbury. And for all I know, that may be all - until now... Spread the word!
Posted by: Paul Morris | 14 Jul 2004 14:29:31
Thankyou, Paul. Monkeypea-who'd a thought it.
I am also amazed to learn that Gypsy Tart is a Kentish dish and its gooey deliciousness is not known outside the fair county. So my sister pisked a 'local' name, I wonder what non kent people think of her choice.
Posted by: mrs mcmuffin | 14 Jul 2004 15:12:17
I have sucessfully managed to erase 'cheesy bug' from the vocabulary of the kids in my class.
Perhaps I am destroying local culture and tradition!
Will ask at work today if anyone over this end of Kent has heard of 'monkeypeas'. I haven't!
Have never heard of a gypsy tart either, but I'm not a native - what exactly is it?
Posted by: Kirsty | 15 Jul 2004 07:26:12
Louisiana, USA... we call them.. are you ready?
We call them 'Doodle Bugs'. Usually this is in reference to the slow pokey ones that roll up into a nice ball until they realise they aren't in any danger and insist on trying to escape.
We usually lumped the faster flatter version in with that name but I've also heard of them (both varieties) referred to as 'sow bugs' due to the fact that they bury themselves in loose, highly vegetative content soil. Not wet, mind you, just rich. Water tends to get them up and out, crossing the sidewalks and such. They 'sow' themselves into the earth, like seeds.
Posted by: Raen | 18 Jul 2004 10:02:16
I'm from Western New York, and I've always called them potato bugs, although a few of my relatives call them tomato bugs for whatever reason. I think they just heard it wrong as kids and the name stuck. Just a few weeks ago the kids at my day camp found a red one, which I've never seen before. Hey, maybe that's where tomato bug comes from.
Posted by: Jewels | 26 Aug 2004 06:51:24
Well, my ex-husband came from north Kent and he always called them cheeseybugs - now I know why. I come from north London and call them leatherjackets, despite living all their early lives in Devon, my children call them cheeseybugs too.
Posted by: Lynette | 10 Sep 2004 10:51:44
Im from Gravesend in Kent and have always known Woodlouse as Cheesybugs. After a conversation with a friend last, I discovered anyone outside of the Kent area has no idea what a CheesyBug is - this was confirmed when I discused this with my work collegues and was met with very blank and confused faces asking what on earth I was talking about!!
Does anyone know why they are called so? I will not rest until I have an answer!!!.....
Posted by: Kelly | 14 Sep 2004 16:26:13
I have lived in Canterbury kent since I was a kid and loved poking monkeypea's when I was little and seeing them role up in a ball. Funny that when I went to uni no one had heard what they were and it was just plain old woodlice. Funny that no one has heard of Gypsy Tart either. Now that is yummy!!!
Posted by: Railton | 16 Oct 2004 00:19:39
I used to live in Bexley Kent but now live in North Yorkshire I call "wood lice" cheesybugs so do my kids who were born in the North but when the kids refer to them outside of the family nobody has a clue what they are talking about.
Posted by: Gary Amos | 13 Nov 2004 18:39:31
how fantastic that there are other people in existance who know woodlice as cheesybugs!! my welsh boyfriend and mates have thought me v strange 4 referring to the roll up creatures as cheesybugs! i thought my grandad made it up,kent born and bred but obviously its even further back than that! some one v clever must find out y!!! then let me kno!!
Posted by: sarah | 31 Jan 2005 21:40:33
Woodlice are called parson pigs in the Isle of Man
Posted by: Lynda | 22 Mar 2005 12:08:42
I was born in Dartford and only ever knew them as cheesey bugs. However, all others I have ever met , except one person from Yorkshire, have looked at me strangely when I have said this. Why? they ask. 'I have know idea', I answer. Can anybody shed any light on as to the reason?
Posted by: Stu | 28 Mar 2005 10:48:19
I'm from Kent to and on discussing 'Cheesy Bugs'in the office was met with looks of amazement when I used the term!
Posted by: Steve R | 5 Apr 2005 13:08:19
Yeah, yeah...Mrs McMuffin has persuaded me that working for Microsoft is not a good reason for banning you from our site. You're so lucky.
Posted by: mr mcmuffin | 5 Apr 2005 13:12:00
I'm a son of Kent, now living in West Sussex. I've always called wood lice cheesy bugs, but on talking about taking rubbish to the tip, in the office today, I said "It was covered in cheesy bugs!" and this was met with dumbfounded looks and amazement by my colleagues. Very few people outside of Kent seemed to have heard the term. It has provoked an intense and very interesting debate. Please tell me why are these little crustacea called cheesy bugs? You'll be glad to know I'm now spreading the word on cheesybugs outside Kent! Love the site - Keep up the good work - Steve!
Posted by: Steve Asellus | 5 Apr 2005 14:07:52
very good
and i see the web with google
Posted by: doclee | 7 Apr 2005 14:51:15
Cryptic, yet succinct.
Posted by: mrs mcmuffin | 7 Apr 2005 21:43:16
Known to my girlfriend as cheese logs, she's from wiltshire, I also know a guy from bristol who calls them grandfathers.
Posted by: Weevile Kineavile | 11 Apr 2005 19:20:01
About the white poo..... I just found this site, so this post goes back topic.... White dog poo comes from eating bones which dogs don't get to do so much these days. Not only is it white, it doesn't smell like poo from kibble or other commercial dog food...
Posted by: susan r | 15 May 2005 18:55:23
Granny came from Cornwall and called them Grammarsows or Gramfers - what next!
Posted by: trish | 20 Jun 2005 10:53:58
I'm a southerner who was brought up in NW Kent but now live in the Rhondda in south Wales. In the Rhondda woodlice are, as you say, known as 'granny greys'; when I was growing up in the Bromley area however I never knew them as anything other than woodlice.
Posted by: Eileen | 13 Jul 2005 22:36:39
From here in Dover I can confirm there is only one name for the little critters and that is 'Monkeypea'. Most of my work colleagues agree barring two, and the're not local! Yorkshire call them 'woodlice' amazingly and Charing Kent 'peaballs' apparently? But please refer to them as Monkey peas
Posted by: Pete Sanders | 10 Sep 2005 21:31:37
we all ways called them Creepy Crawleys.
Posted by: Win | 14 Nov 2005 03:19:01
Hi,
I'm in Australia and we call them "Slater Bugs"
Regards
Denice
Posted by: Denice Weaver | 1 Dec 2005 14:14:00
hello my darlings.in somerset ive heard woodlice called gramfy groogers and chuggy pigs
Posted by: martin | 12 Mar 2006 10:05:39
Hi
Justed wanted to say that after many drunken nights discussing the cheesybug or the fact i didn't knoe what they were, I decided to call my new business by that name.
Checkout:
www.cheesybugtoys.co.uk
www.cheesybugtrampolines.co.uk
www.cheesybugpedalcars.co.uk
Posted by: Ivan Latter | 4 May 2006 11:02:25
PLEASE HELP! I need an explanation as to how on earth woodlice became known as cheesy bugs. I was born in Kent and now live in London. My flat mates thought I was completely mad when I told them I had cheesy bugs running round my room - why CHEESY??
Posted by: Michelle | 13 May 2006 15:31:06
I know wood louse as pea bug due to it rolling up into a ball and I am from Kent
Posted by: Sharon | 18 Sep 2006 00:58:22
Horay!!!! This website has sorted many ongoing arguments over if these are cheesybugs or monkeypeas! I know them as monkeypeas being a Dover girl , until I mentioned this word to my partner (I thought everyone knew them as this)!!! Whereas my partner is from Gravesend and only knows them as cheesybugs!! Weird!!
Shocked at how many regional names monkeypeas actually have!!!!!!!
PS I used to keep them in a jar on my windowsill as special pets when I was 8 or 9(until I saw alien and then I got a bit scared of them).
Thanks!
Posted by: Clare | 23 Sep 2006 20:51:57
