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Creepy crawlies

TheRicksterTheRickster Posts: 85
in Problem solving
Hoping the hive mind can help with this one... in one of our bulb pots from last year there are a LOT of these centipede/millipede/other things. Should we be concerned, or welcome them in to the garden? 

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Posts

  • TheRicksterTheRickster Posts: 85

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Centipedes/millipedes are mostly good things to have in the garden. There's a couple that will nibble the odd potato but otherwise they're just cleaning up and doing pest control for you.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    Fairly simple way to tell if a creepy crawling thing is a herbivore or a carnivore. Carnivores move quickly, herbivores crawl slowly. After all leaves etc. tend to stay where they are whereas prey moves. Centipedes run fast, millipedes creep along.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Does that mean the orange/ brown leggy jobs that you find under flower pots are carnivores?
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    Centipedes are carnivorous. So, yes.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I suppose they must be eating the woodlice😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    They prey upon soft-bodied insects, spiders, worms and other arthropods, including other centipedes, so I suppose they could manage a woodlouse.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Vine weevil grubs look soft and tasty.😋
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • borgadrborgadr Posts: 718
    Back to the Rickster, the pics you showed are millipedes - completely harmless detrivores, they eat already-decaying organic matter
  • Arthur1Arthur1 Posts: 542
    Definitely millipedes.
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