Some are HUGE – easily the size of your hand, and many have brightly coloured bodies and legs – possibly to scare off predators.
While both millipedes and centipedes belong to the phylum Arthropoda and to the subphylum Myriapoda, millipedes belong to the class Diplopoda and centipedes belong to the class Chilopoda. Read on to discover additional ways in which millipedes and centipedes are alike or different. Millipedes are common occasional pests that sometimes invade buildings particularly when the weather turns hot and dry. While millipedes sometimes enter in large numbers, they do not bite, sting, or transmit diseases, nor do they infest food, clothing or dry, structurally sound wood. Millipedes vary in both color and size. The most common species that invades buildings is the" garden millipede," which is brownish-black in color and about one inch long.They crawl slowly and protect themselves by secreting cyanide-like compound that has an unpleasant odor. Some people confuse millipedes with centipedes, which look somewhat similar.
Millipedes pass the winter primarily as adults and lay their eggs in moist organic material in the spring. Individuals may live for several years. Millipedes are attracted to dark, cool, moist environments that are rich in organic matter such as compost piles, heavily mulched shrub or flower beds , rotting logs, or the soil under logs and stones.
They usually go unnoticed because they live in these relatively hidden habitats. Millipedes are scavengers, feeding primarily on decomposing vegetation, but occasionally they will damage soft-stemmed plants in gardens. Major nuisance problems usually occur when the conditions become too hot and dry and the millipedes move in search of moisture. Large numbers of them may congregate in wet areas such as around in-ground swimming pools where they may crawl (and fall) into the water . Extremely wet conditions where soils become water-saturated will also force them to the surface and higher ground where they often end up on concrete slabs, foundations and siding. Millipedes may also migrate in the fall, presumably in search of overwintering sites.
What a warmer, wetter world means for insects, and for what they eat
All of these activities result in millipedes invading crawl spaces, basements and other areas of buildings. Common points of entry include door thresholds (especially at the base of sliding glass doors, garage doors), expansion joints, and through the voids of concrete block walls Frequent indoor sightings of these pests usually means that there are large numbers breeding outdoors in the lawn, or beneath mulch, leaf litter or debris close to the foundation. Millipedes do not survive indoors for more than a few days (more likely just a few hours) unless they can find suitable moist conditions.
We rounded up 10 interesting facts about these wonderful creatures:
• The indigenous people of southern Africa call the millipede ‘shongololo’, which is derived from from the Xhosa and Zulu word ‘ukushonga’, meaning to roll up…
• The name “millipede” is derived from Latin, meaning “thousand feet”. However, no known species has that many legs, and the record for the most legs on a millipede species belongs to Illacme plenipes, who has 750 feet.
• There are about 12,000 described species of millipedes!
• Their primary defence mechanism is to release a foul-smelling toxin, which is made up of hydrochloric acid (which burns) and hydrogen cyanide (which asphyxiates). This keeps most predators at bay, with the exception of shrews and civets, which appear to be immune to these toxins. Millipedes also curl up into a tight ball when threatened, to protect their soft underparts.
• When disturbed, millipedes escape predation by moving away in a slithering, snake-like motion, which may scare off some predators.
• Hornbills have been observed using crushed millipedes to line their cavity nests in trees – possibly to avoid mite and other infestations. Some primates have been observed intentionally disturbing millipedes to obtain the foul-smelling toxins which they rub onto their bodies, also as a repellent.
• Millipedes are some of the oldest land animals on Earth. The first known millipede, Pneumodesmus newmani, was only 1 cm long and appeared during the Paleozoic era, 252-541 million years ago. This is the oldest known creature to have lived on land, and was discovered in 2004 from a single specimen in Scotland.
• Some extinct prehistoric millipedes (Arthropleura spp.) grew up to 2 metres in length!
• The longest living millipede is the giant African millipede (Archispirostreptus gigas), reaching a length of up to 38.5 cm.
• It is thought that the bright body and leg colours of some millipedes is to warn off or repel predators.
