Ok, I’m getting a bit freaked out now, it all started a couple of weeks ago after I planted a few herbs out in our diminutive back garden (no we don’t have a front one), these centipedes started to turn up in the pots, one here, one there and then after the heavy rain last week there were tons of them, at least 3-4 under each pot. However, things are now getting out of control, as our place is lower than our neighbours and there’s a wall between the two properties and this entire wall have been full with centipedes every night for the past couple of nights, and we’re talking 10-20 of them. And just now we killed one in our bedroom ceiling! :fume:
What’s going on and how do I get rid of them without spraying chemicals all over?
Edit: Read millipede instead of centipede, seems like I mixed up names of the two bugs…
I have no experience with that. This what I read (about ecological way to get rid of them): you need to have mice, salamanders, beetles or mongooses. These will eat them.
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]Ok, I’m getting a bit freaked out now, it all started a couple of weeks ago after I planted a few herbs out in our diminutive back garden (no we don’t have a front one), these centipedes started to turn up in the pots, one here, one there and then after the heavy rain last week there were tons of them, at least 3-4 under each pot. However, things are now getting out of control, as our place is lower than our neighbours and there’s a wall between the two properties and this entire wall have been full with centipedes every night for the past couple of nights, and we’re talking 10-20 of them. And just now we killed one in our bedroom ceiling! :fume:
What’s going on and how do I get rid of them without spraying chemicals all over?[/quote]
sounds very unusual for centipedes. You sure you mean centipedes and not millipedes? Millipedes are slow, stinky, and curl into a ball when you touch them. Centipedes are fast, mean, and have a venomous bite. Completely different critter.
Millipede control would be a system of traps outside (beer in a bowl works for some species, make sure they can get into the bowl), sticky traps inside along walls near entry points, and chemical control outside as either pellets for them to eat in the garden, or spray along access routes.
To be brutally honest, this time of the year is the “coming out” of all kinds of critters. We had a cloud of what looked like 4 winged fireflies, plus a carpet of earthworms. A friend reported earthworms covered two hundred meters in Tianmu… Could be they just hatched from winter, but centipedes can be more harmful. Post a picture and I’ll ask my biologist coworker how to get rid of them.
They’re millipedes probably. You don’t tend to get centipedes co-habiting as they eat each other right quick. Millipedes are totally harmless and eat leaf litter and your potting soil. Centipedes on the other hand eat anything they can catch. Mice, even bats. We’ve got tons of millipedes in out plant pots but I’ve only found one centipede this year so far. It was happily ensconced in one of my shoes. Just as well I’m in the habit of checking before I put them on. It was only a tiny 2-inch long one, but it would have given me an extremely painful toe if it had tagged me.
That explains a lot, as our neighbours has this tree that keeps shedding leaves on a daily basis and that would also explain why most of them seems to be coming from their garden…
I’ll try the beer trap, fingers crossed that works, as on as much as I’m sure these critters have some kind of right to a life, there are just way too many of them and beyond bugs that suck your blood or sting you, I’m not a bugofobe by any means, but this is getting creepy… :s
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]And just now we killed one in our bedroom ceiling! :fume:
What’s going on and how do I get rid of them without spraying chemicals all over?[/quote]
if they are small harmless millipedes, what’s with the execution? We get them all the time on our ground floor. Slide a piece of paper under them & tip them out the window. They’d much rather be out there too. Then kick back and enjoy the karma.
After I posted, I went outside to our patio and discovered that a pot plant given to us a few weeks ago by a friend was erupting with tiny bright green crickets. Hundreds of them! Crawling out of the soil and clambering up the walls, EVERYWHERE! Very cool indeed! I love the sound they make when they grow up.
What do crickets eat, though? Will they destroy my plants or can I just leave them alone? I want to leave them alone.
that’s pretty standard for a low-level infestation. Seriously, i have seen inch-deep piles of writhing dying millipedes stacked against the sliding door, trying to break in. Rain seems to help them abandon their cosy garden homes for drier areas en masse.
and the stench!
Such massive outbreaks are not a regular event though. We have the same kind of infestation as you at my house at the moment. Warm weather, heavy rain, lots of eggs hatching at once.
Population explosions are often caused by certain weather conditions. We’re just recovering from a swarm of flying ants, seems to happens 2 or 3 times a year. I’ve also noticed an increase in millipedes recently, but not on your scale. I’d reckon if they’re new to your wall, they’ll be gone or greatly reduced in a week.
(and if there’s so many of them, murder won’t make much of a dent in their number, so may as well spare them ).
Well, my girlfriend had a fit when she got home and hosed them all down, apparently there were more closer to the house that I didn’t see…
We didn’t have this problem last year, but I guess it might be as you say, a weather thing.
And we also have very nice neighbours that let all their shit pour over their side and into our garden…
Funny you should have mentioned centipedes earlier. I just found one in the house that was 12-15 cm or so, and bright red. it fell off the ceiling and was about to tag one of the cats. One of those bastards is enough to be considered an invasion. (it is absolutely pissing down at the moment).
still tried biting me long after I had decapitated it with a pair of heavy scissors. those things give me the creeps, and few things do.
Ok then… that’s just plain old nasty… I hope our cats takes care of those, the same way they’ve dealt with every other large-ish bug that has turned up so far, including a fairly nasty looking spider that we found all smashed up one morning…
[quote=“urodacus”]Funny you should have mentioned centipedes earlier. I just found one in the house that was 12-15 cm or so, and bright red. it fell off the ceiling and was about to tag one of the cats. One of those bastards is enough to be considered an invasion. (it is absolutely pissing down at the moment).
still tried biting me long after I had decapitated it with a pair of heavy scissors. those things give me the creeps, and few things do.
exactly this species: (not my picture)
[/quote]
Nasty critter! Never ending battle of vertebrate and invertebrate. It’s these damn fruit flies that are getting us lately.
).