Millepedes And Centipedes

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31196, 21 October 1966, Page 6

Millepedes And Centipedes

Millepedes and centipedes are frequently mistaken for each other but identification is simple. The millepede, which is also often wrongly called a wire worm, is sluggish and tends to curl up when disturbed. It has two pairs of legs on each body segment, a rounder body, shorter antennae, no distinct head and no poison legs. It feeds on dead and living vegetative matter and includes seedlings, underground stems and roots, bulbs, corms and seeds in its diet. It frequently follows up damage caused by others such as slugs. It dislikes living in areas where there is a lot of soil movement such as that caused by regular hoeing. The centipede is more beneficial, being primarily carnivorous as the commoner kinds feed on such things as slugs. It has only one pair of legs on each body segment, a flatter body, is more active and inclined to run away if disturbed.

Millepede infestation can be dealt with in a number of ways. Turnips, potatoes or swedes scooped out and skewered on a peg make good traps from which the pests

can be dropped into a can of paraffin. Lindane wettable powder applied to the ground surface at the rate of one pound per 50 square yards can be used (D.D.T. is a deterrent but not a destroyer). Neither substance should be used on ground used for potatoes as tainting of crop will result. Alternatively, 1 pint of Dieldrin in 25 gallons of water can be used to treat 1000 square yards. However, no spraying should be done within 21 days from harvest. The wire worm, a reddish brown black grub, is the larvae of the click beetle. The adult gets its name from an appendage situated on the underside of the first two segments of the thorax whereby it is enabled to right itself when turned on its back with a sharp click. The wire worm is equipped with powerful jaws with which it eats germinating seeds, wheat, plant roots, tubers, insects and even other wire worms.

Small areas could be fumigated with chloropicrin or D.D. whilst lindane, aldrin or D.D.T. are effective controls. Baits of potato or other vegetable pieces can be buried just below the ground. The surrounding area can then be carefully sifted after a few days and the wireworms found destroyed.