Large millipede

[Chuck]

I have lived at this place for about 25 years and have never seen these guys before, but, it has never rained this long before either. It rained almost every day during September and most days in October. I have always had millipedes and centipedes but this guy is new and for a millipede he is huge. All of the ones I have seen in the past 2 or 3 weeks are 4 inches long and almost 3/8 inches wide. There aren't a large number of them and I haven't seen them doing any damage. It also seems that fire ants are really keeping the numbers down. I watched one today as he crawled along and crawled over a fire ant. The ant stung him on his soft underbelly and he curled up. After a couple of minutes of being chewed on and stung by the ant he tried to uncurl and get away but before he could make his escape other fire ants came and killed him and are eating him as I type. The one in the picture is a different one. What I wonder is where these guys come from. How can I live here 25 years, am outside all day every day doing all kinds different things and have never seen one before. The same thing with leopard frogs. It goes months without a drop of rain and the ground is rock hard down to bedrock

and yet after a heavy rain they are every where.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I have lived at this place for about 25 years and have never seen these guys before, but, it has never rained this long before either. It rained almost every day during September and most days in October. I have always had millipedes and centipedes but this guy is new and for a millipede he is huge. All of the ones I have seen in the past 2 or 3 weeks are 4 inches long and almost 3/8 inches wide. There aren't a large number of them and I haven't seen them doing any damage. It also seems that fire ants are really keeping the numbers down. I watched one today as he crawled along and crawled over a fire ant. The ant stung him on his soft underbelly and he curled up. After a couple of minutes of being chewed on and stung by the ant he tried to uncurl and get away but before he could make his escape other fire ants came and killed him and are eating him as I type. The one in the picture is a different one. What I wonder is where these guys come from. How can I live here 25 years, am outside all day every day doing all kinds different things and have never seen one before. The same thing with leopard frogs. It goes months without a drop of rain and the ground is rock hard down to bedrock View attachment 46761 View attachment 46762 View attachment 46763 and yet after a heavy rain they are every where.

Someone here explained to me that my sighting of surfaced earthworms was related to the available moisture that allowed them the freedom to travel. Perhaps this idea of moisture in the environment is also a component of your sightings.

 

[alp]

Some kind of food chain story. That's a real biggie!

 

[Chuck]

Someone here explained to me that my sighting of surfaced earthworms was related to the available moisture that allowed them the freedom to travel. Perhaps this idea of moisture in the environment is also a component of your sightings.

Here, when you find earthworms on top of the soil it is because of too much moisture below ground and they surface to find usable oxygen. Yes, a lot of moisture is definitely the cause of seeing the large millipedes, toads and frogs but my question, I guess, is where are they during months long drought where there is zero underground moisture of any kind? I have dug large holes and small holes during periods of drought and have never dug up a large millipede, leopard frog or toad. You'd think that in 25 years I'd find at least one. I guess we will all know the answer when we also find out what was first, the chicken or the egg.

 

[roadrunner]

I see tons of those things when hiking on the Appalachian Trail (AT). In the spring there are so many, they're know as the "Road Kill" of the AT, because there are so many crossing the trail and it's almost impossible not to step on a few. I've never seen one in my yard.

 

[Tetters]

When visiting a garden in Toowoomba, Queensland one of these things bit me. I thought it was snakebite at first, but saw this slither away......(or one just like it)

...ended up in hospital, packed in ice, with a high temperature, BP 212/105 - and a bunch of swollen black fingers that resembled a pound of sausages ....

 

[Chuck]

When visiting a garden in Toowoomba, Queensland one of these things bit me. I thought it was snakebite at first, but saw this slither away......(or one just like it)

...ended up in hospital, packed in ice, with a high temperature, BP 212/105 - and a bunch of swollen black fingers that resembled a pound of sausages ....

Wow! The one's here are completely harmless. We have dangerous centipedes but not millipedes.

 

[Silentrunning]

The last year I worked in Florida our shop got invaded by those things. It got to the point where we would have to sweep the floor before working. We had to clean the office before the people that worked there would come in. After a couple of months they disappeared just as fast as they had appeared. Several houses on the west coast also were invaded by them.

 

[Tetters]

I thought the centipede looked like this,

and the millipede was like the one in my post above

 

[Chuck]

I thought the centipede looked like this,

and the millipede was like the one in my post above

You are correct. We have this centipede here and it has a poisonous bite. They grow to over a foot long. Many centipedes are carnivorous while most if not all millipedes are herbivores.

 

[Tetters]

I`ve also been bitten by a redback spider.............

......and ......
lots of these bull ants

 

[DirtMechanic]

I`ve also been bitten by a redback spider.............

......and ......
lots of these bull ants

Was alcohol involved?

 

[Tetters]

No - never even sniffed alcohol then.... living way out in the bush (£10 pommie)
There were thousands of spiders out there of several varieties. The trap doors were also plentiful, and funnel webs not uncommon. The big tarantulas would drop out of the gum trees and land on your shoulder ...... great fun! Everything bit me - must be cos I`m tasty.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I do believe that description leads to the one time and place where covering oneself with pepper sauce and running through the woods could be considered not only normal but wise.

 

[Tetters]

....