In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

In article b6537c6a01e8feaaa4a4aaa81514de73@TeraNews, andrew
writes:
| Every time I lift anything in the garden at least when the thing is
| resting on a hard surface I see lots of wood lice scuttling away. Are
| the harmful or friendly?
| I also manage to get them into my compost bins when I am depositing
| handfuls of cut grass which I had previously scraped from my rotating
| mower and left to dry out.

They are harmless scavengers on rotting vegetation, and should be
ignored. They are crustaceans, and can be eaten, incidentally;
please tell us if you summon up the courage to try! They VERY,
VERY rarely damage seedlings, but it can happen.

They can also damage stored fruit and vegetables though that will only
happen if the storage area is damp as they can't survive in dry
conditions. They will happily chew at damp newspaper so if the fruit,
say, are wrapped in newspaper this could increase the (fairly slight)
risk of damage.

As for eating them, well they are crustaceans and so related to lobsters
and prawns, but whether they taste similar I'm not about to find out!

--
Malcolm