Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ugggggg! Those milipedes are driving me bannanas! Please don't report me to the humane society! They were crawling everywhere in the tank last night. Heebie Jeebies!!!! I took a pair of sizzors, opened the door, and masacred all of them in a frenzie into as many pieces as I could!! Then, all the pieces crawled away and so did my skin. Isn't there a way to get rid of them without removing my Darts from the tank? I'm scared to stick my hand in the tank now to clean it!

Maggie

I discovered that when I top-dress the soil with fresh cocoanut fiber bedding the millipede population seems to diminish dramatically. I'm not sure that this has been cause and effect, because millipede populations go up and down naturally over time anyway, so this is strickly a subjective impression. On the other hand, the fresh cocoanut fiber hasn't begun to break down yet, so may interfere with their organic sustenance to an extent. Just a guess. I'd be more grossed out chopping them up than just leaving them alone--but then, I sort of like these millipedes, and they are harmless, and even beneficial organic matter eaters, after all. But once in awhile, something just DOES give us the creeps, and there's not any kind of practical reasoning that can get us over it.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
6 P. terribilis mint and organe
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus
2 P. lugubris

You could try dry ice. I've never tried it but I've heard it works pretty good. First take your frogs out and put them in a temp tank for about 24 hours. Then you get a bowl of water, set it in the tank and put a good amount of dry ice in. Probally want some kind of top on the tank so it's sealed up tight. The fog it produces will set at the bottom of the tank, and will kill any little critters crawling around down there (supposedly it takes the oxygen out of the air or something like that) Once the 24 hours is up you can put your frogs back in, if there is still any fog left just point a fan down down your tank to blow the fog out. Hope that helps.

Hi:

Thank you for the reply. A while back, another poster suggested the same thing because its true that Dry Ice will displace the O2 and kill anything needing O2 but I can't catch my frogs in such a heavily planted tank is my problem! Since I cut them in half though, I have noticed a steep drop recently in numbers I can see. I keep just cutting them when they are within reach. Does anyone know if Praying mantis will eat them? I don't mean to put one into the tank, but my nephew just found one and has been asking me to help care for it. I wondered if I could take some and feed them to the mantis?

Thanks,

Maggie

Maggie, you just have to accept the fact that although the millipedes are ugly and offend you, they are not only harmless, but doing a necessary job on our tanks, living on the organic wastes, and harming nothing. Preying mantis are over-appreciated as bug control. They just sit there and wait for something to come along and fall into their mouths. They are cute, mostly because the females eat their husbands' heads off while they are mating, and the rest of him still continues to finish the job, which most women can relate to in one sense or another and appreciate. But otherwise, preying mantis are relatively dull critters, not activists. They won't rid your tank of the millipedes.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
6 P. terribilis mint and organe
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus
2 P. lugubris

Hi Patty:

Yes, you're right(sigh), they actually do no harm that I can see. Its more a feeling I have that something is wrong when there is that many Centipedes running around. But, I hadn't known that there was actually anything beneficial about them toward the upkeep of the tanks.

I wasn't actually going to stick a Mantis in the tank, I was just thinking of removing the Centipedes one by one and seeing if the Mantis would have a meal of them instead of having to kill the Centipedes by hand and not really serving any purpose but my own comfort in knowing it was not breeding in the tank.

Until I can Dry ICe the tank, I will just have to accept them there as you say. Hey, does every male Mantis that mates with the female get his head eaten off? What purpose does this behavior serve, I wonder?

Thanks for helping again,

Maggie

Gets rid of the complications of a long-time relationship right away, so female mantis never have to complain about their husbands.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
6 P. terribilis mint and organe
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus
2 P. lugubris

That one made me chuckle for a long while. There must be something nutritious in the head of the male Mantis. And how in the world does he finish the job with his head eaten off? That is more telling of the nature of the male species-there really are two heads that they think with. Oops, maybe that was too graphic.