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Kale pest? Millipedes

carrotbinkycarrotbinky Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
Hi all,

One of my kale plants was looking a bit limp like when cabbage root maggot is there so I pulled it. It came out easily like the roots were eaten through and instead of maggots it was what looks like millipedes. Are they a pest or a symptom of the plant not doing well for whatever reason so they moved in - what do you think? Maybe they aren’t even millipedes!

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,840
    edited October 2018
    Millipedes have soft mouth parts so tend to eat and thus process decaying matter and are good garden friends.   If they are in your kale or other plants suc as spuds they're most likely following damage made by a previous pest such as slugs or cabbage root fly maggots which, in this case, may well be in their next part of the life cycle and no longer there to be recognised as the culprits for your limp plant.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • carrotbinkycarrotbinky Posts: 2
    Very helpful, thank you! I found cabbage fly root maggots at the base of one plant and slug eggs at the base of another so I’ve a choice of what to blame.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 86,945
    They're ganging up  ;)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • carolynslowe252carolynslowe252 Posts: 3
    edited November 2018
    What have you done to get rid of them then?
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