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Creepy crawlies

TheRicksterTheRickster Posts: 83
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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  • TheRicksterTheRickster Posts: 83

  • wild edgeswild edges The north west of south east WalesPosts: 5,510
    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.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 3,475
    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: 15,427
    Does that mean the orange/ brown leggy jobs that you find under flower pots are carnivores?
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 3,475
    Centipedes are carnivorous. So, yes.
  • B3B3 Posts: 15,427
    I suppose they must be eating the woodlice😊
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 3,475
    They prey upon soft-bodied insects, spiders, worms and other arthropods, including other centipedes, so I suppose they could manage a woodlouse.
  • B3B3 Posts: 15,427
    Vine weevil grubs look soft and tasty.😋
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • borgadrborgadr KentPosts: 18
    Back to the Rickster, the pics you showed are millipedes - completely harmless detrivores, they eat already-decaying organic matter
  • Kate 7Kate 7 Posts: 96
    Definitely millipedes.
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