What are these things and what can I do?.

Gremlinertia

There's always been a small few of these worm type creatures near our back door, we just keep washing up liquid with water to rinse the doorstep.. This morning however there was a good forty or more all over the place. Help!.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Just harmless millipedes. Clear away any debris, dead leaves or pots etc in the area.

Gremlinertia

Dominik Breezy Underwear wrote: »

Just harmless millipedes. Clear away any debris, dead leaves or pots etc in the area.

Why would forty plus of them have gathered up at the door?. Debris, dead leaves and pots are up in the garden.. Missus nearly screamed with the amount outside the door, wasn't the better of it myself!.

fiacha

Get all the gaps around the step / paving pointed so there are no nooks and crannies for them to use. Keep the area swept clean.

Failing that, get some chickens...they'll eat anything.

Some millipedes have chemical defences to put off predators but I have seen birds eating them in my garden when I've disturbed rotten wood.


They won't do any harm to you or the house either way.

Gremlinertia

Just can't understand why it went from three or four to over forty lying around the door this morning.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Gremlinertia wrote: »

Just can't understand why it went from three or four to over forty lying around the door this morning.

Just a load of mature adults emerging from their 'nest'.

Keplar240B

They are harmless, chewer of nature’s dead leaves and algae they perform a useful function clearing away dead vegetation.
Millipedes mass migrations occur in early summer it will soon be over
The house, must have been built on an established millipede migration route.
Its been recommend to to black out windows after dark by John Muir Trust in Scotland also paint your outside walls house darker or more natural colours.
You could also encourage hedgehog habitat, their main predator.

Gremlinertia

Hmm. It's an old house, cut stone outside, i'm currently thinking loose gravel leading from garden may have been where they matured. Wish i had taken a photo of the mess this morning though.. I'm from a farming background and i can't recall seeing anything like the spread of half dead critters in a two square foot space.

New Home

It's the heat too, Grem - I'd say that helped a lot with the reproduction of critters of various kind.

Gremlinertia

Thanks all, i'm all read up on them, they are attempting invasion again tonight and are all over gable wall, will just keep sweeping