Post category: Millipedes

 

Millipedes are soil-living insects that normally provide the useful function of eating dead plant tissue. However, they can attack living plants too, especially seeds and seedlings of peas and beans, potatoes, strawberries and bulbs. Millipedes have two pairs of legs per body segment, compared with centipedes which have one. Centipedes are fast-moving, beneficial predators of pests especially slug and snail eggs and small snails.

Millipedes are most common on wet soils and in wet seasons, especially on soils high in organic material. Remove debris or incorporate it thoroughly into the soil to rot quickly. Use a little paraffin on early sown peas and beans.