Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: vegmandan on May 02, 2008, 19:54
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I have literally thousands of these all around my veg plot,they grow upto about an inch long.
They only seem to eat decaying plant matter and don't harm any growing plants.
I just haven't got a clue what they are.
Perhaps the larval stage of some kind of beetle ?
Any thoughts.
(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii247/vegdan/DSC00841.jpg)
(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii247/vegdan/DSC00842.jpg)
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Are they a form of milipede? Sorry if I'm wrong cos what we grew up with were huge things. They look pretty creepy don't you think? :o :shock:
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Yes some millipede of the plenty of them. Don't know no names. :lol:
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I've got a few of these too.
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they are without a doubt MULTI-LEGUS THINGAMAJIGUS :roll: (its a friday evening dont expect much sense from me :wink: )
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Brian said it looks like a young millipede!
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Another vote for millipede - two legs per segment = millipede, one per segment = centipede!
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Aunty votes millipede too. Two sets of legs per segment.
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Im no expert on minibeasts but an inch long seems a bit big for a millipede and the ones I have seen are very nearly black,looks more like a centipede to me :?
I must be wrong, legs per segment :shock: wouldnt have a clue about this bit :wink:
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I've just found out It's a flat backed millipede,after suggestions it was a millipede and googling it :D .
Only lives off dead vegetable matter except It has a liking for strawberries and lupin roots apparently.
So It doesn't seem a major pest,I'll just leave 'em be.
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Hi
I've seen both the black shiny millipedes and these browner ones, I think they're just different types.
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Only lives off dead vegetable matter except It has a liking for strawberries and lupin roots apparently.
So It doesn't seem a major pest,I'll just leave 'em be.
Unless you are a strawberry or lupin plant me thinks :wink:
Must be time for bed my typing is starting to get dyslexic :wink:
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Thanks, I was wondering what they were.
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I have them all over my garden too well patch of mud. I'd leave them alone they ate lots of weeds last year. It was great, they left my salad leaves and went straight for the dandelions. :D
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yes, the photo you show is a Millipede as far as I can tell from my reaserch on the internet. I too have thousands and thousands in my 40ft x 40ft walled garden. The guy next door says he also has them . I find them everywhere , under plant pots and stones and even under plants and in the roots . They are eating and destroying some of my flower plant by having a go at the roots.
For some reason they all seemed to arrive through last year . At first it was difficult to identify them as they were slightly smaller and with no legs or very much shorter legs and some of them had a slight / faint dusky pink to the normal grey/brown. I now believe these are the less developed Lavae . Now spring is here they have all developed now into the adult and identification is easier. As to how to be rid of them , Im'e unsure but Is e eplenty of stuff available in USA but not here in UK. I think I will try a dilution of Jayes fluid and spray around over the comming months but I don't think it will rid me of the ones deeper in the soil. I'll keep at it though as they are a real pest . Some gardening sites say they are not a real problem and to leave them alone but I think they are talking about if you have just a few here and there . What we have is a serious infestation . Almost a plague ....... good luck.
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Sorry - the only thought I had was - ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! :D And I have them too! ::)
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milki or centipede , they good in the soil , they eat the little buxxers that eat roots,also enjoy the odd woodlice too , its a gardeners friend
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These are flat millepedes. Most of the time they live on decaying organic matter but sometimes they will attack the tiny roots of just germinating seeds and kill the plants. This happens usually in a dry season. The first sign is that the seeds do not come up. If you dig up a seed there will be a damaged root with tiny brown marks. Bigger plants are seldom affected.
I would not bother too much about them. If there is organic matter they prefer to feed on that.