Centipedes ! How do I get rid of them ?

[scotty bradley]

I was spying on my luecs today and saw one orange-red centipede. After a few moments I spotted four all together moving in and out of the foliage. They are about an inch and a half long. I am asuming they are local to Illinois. They may have hitched a ride with a large amount of woodlice I recently put in the viv. It is impossible to catch them for they are in a fiftyfive gallon viv. Someone suggested a fine tooth comb for getting them out but when looking from the top you cannot see the ground. Plants,plants,plants, and more plants. It looks kind of like a canopy in the forest. I am not about to rip them out!! I am also not going to co2 bomb the viv and kill the woodlice, tropical springtales, and a few small terrestrial snails. Should I let them co-exist and hope they do not become a hundred? I would imagine if I could catch them they would deliver a painful bite. I have had a bad experience in the past with red bugs (red wasps) and I dont plan on going through that again! So should I tear the hell out of the viv and hope to even be able to catch them? Or what? OOOOOOOHHHHHH What to DOOooooooooo! ............Scotty

[mushmush]

they will eat your springs and smaller woodlice, and could bite the frogs (doubtful but possible)
I would try to get them out with long tweezers, otherwise they will breed and devour your microfauna

[Philsuma]

or just get a long stick and ....squash em when you see em....

[scotty bradley]

The problem is i would have to look through the side of the viv and try to get them while they are running like cheetahs!!! And then I thought about flooding the viv with a couple of inches of water and maybe they would float. But my plants and critters wouldn't like that very much. And then I thought about the frogs drowning and I tossed that idea as well. I don't think the wack a mole idea will work! Any other suggestions? Any advice is appreciated thanks for the input..................Scotty

[scotty bradley]

To bad I couldnt just throw my leopard frog in there and let him catch them! LOL!.......................Scotty

[heresfishy]

paitence and a big stick will allways work to kill bugs

[Nick Boudin]

I'd use a long pair of tongs to grab/squish them up.

[boombotty]

I think it would be better to try to remove them without harming them. If I remember correctly, these actually expel cyanide when harmed or threatened. That is what the horrible stench is when you smash them.
Scott

[Philsuma]

I still have a millipede population persisting in one of my vivs for at least 3 years now. I hand pull as many as I can but I still see some occasionaly. They only show up every so often but I can deal with it and the frogs seem fine. I have not noticed any chewed plants so that's good too.

[boombotty]

Yeah, I have had them for years as well in my regina viv with no ill effect. I'll pull them out when I catch them breeding, but I don't mind a few, as they seem to help clean up waste like dead ff's and such.

[Cindy Dicken]

Millipedes.......I hate those things !

I have them in one tank and I have found the best time to pick them out is when I first turn the lights on in the mornings. Seems like they scatter after that hiding in the leaf litter and I have to dig to find them.

[joneill809]

Millipedes.......I hate those things !

I have them in one tank and I have found the best time to pick them out is when I first turn the lights on in the mornings. Seems like they scatter after that hiding in the leaf litter and I have to dig to find them.

Dusting off an older thread but...caught one of these buggers the other day when the lights came on. It was kind of funny because it was sitting right next to an isopod while both were diligently chowing down on a dead leaf. I snatched it up with my pruning forceps and snapped a photo:

From what I have read, no real harm from millipedes, but man it freaked me out to see something that was not intentionally put in the viv happily eating away. I hope this was just a straggler and not a sign of more to come...

[Philsuma]

no real harm. Cyanide smell when squished though. They do multiply quickly...I removed them when I see em - usually at night.

[cbreon]

I have one tank that they have infested. I was planning on moving the pair out and gutting the tank until I noticed some baby pumilio popping up from the broms. I still feed plenty of springs and the baby pumilio seem to be doing fine. They are more of a nuisance than anything else...

[EntoCraig]

I pumped an EMPTY tank full of c02 and nuked a centipede problem I had. Of course I had to re seed the tank with springtails and isopods after, but it worked. The Co2 gave my plants, and the fungi, a nice little health boost as well. You can also use dry ice.

I definitely would not use this method if you suspected hidden eggs or froglets in the tanks, or if you did not have a large supply of microfuana to reseed the tank with.

[Philsuma]

millipedes...love to 'ride in' on dam,p rotting wood.

another reason to buy the dry stored stuff from vendors rather than collect it in the woods yerself.

Not a danger to frogs or eggs that I've ever heard of, but with the right amount of wood or damp woody soil, they can be a pain to eradicate.

I think the adults or possibly eggs WILL survive a C02 bombing as well, so no hope there either.