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New Brunswick

My garden is full of Millipedes (little hard black worms striped with white.) Will they damage my seeds or plants? I suspect they killed cucumber plants last year...but am really not sure. I replanted and surrounded the seed with an insecticide. (forget just what I used) and my second crop did fine.

4/27/2003 11:49:04 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Millipedes are beneficial arthropods that help the garden by chewing dead organic material & hastening it's decay to stable organic matter. They don't feed on live plant material.
I'll wager the insecticide did control something worse like Cucumber Beetles or SVB.
Millipedes like cool shadey damp areas under rocks & boards. Sometimes just cleaning & pruning makes them move on.

Steve

4/27/2003 10:39:48 PM

Long Island,New York

Sorry Steve...Millipedes do in fact eat pumpkin roots...Ive seen it....I had an infestation on my clones over the winter once...ate all the roots but a few...They hung out under the vine at the root node area and munched away....I had the millipedes that came in with the soil PLUS the hatchlings that started while in the basement...zillions....I used everything under the sun to kill the white flies and the millipedes went as collateral damage.......G

4/29/2003 6:17:47 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

The mouth parts of a Millipede are not stong enough to eat LIVING plant tissue. Period.
If Millipedes are found eating pumpkin roots; it is because some other causal pathogen has destroyed the physical integrity of the roots. They only eat decaying vegetation because that is all the CAN eat. They certainly would seek out dead pumpkin roots from better grown plants because they have huge calcium needs of their own.
Millipedes will seek out & inhabit large pumpkin root systems since all healthy live plants slough off sacrificial cells as roots move through soils. These cells are a form of "lubrication" for the growing root tips. And no matter how healthy the plant, these sacrificial cells are in fact supposed to die as the plant grows.
If the Millipedes suddenly proliferated at the same time the roots were disappearing, it was probably a soil borne fungal disease or nematodes that were the primary cause of decline. The Millipedes were just there for the free meal.

Steve

4/29/2003 9:29:34 PM

New Brunswick

Hmmmm...so the millipedes appeared to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.... It did seem to be one heck of a coincidence though, as the only thing to be seen surrounding the dying plants were millipedes. Yes I did have cucumber beetles. I fought with them all spring....but the roots in my cucumber plants were what was being destroyed. The insecticide I used was chem free Insectigone, and whatever the problem was, it stopped it. I had started my cucumber plants inside last year and between the sun scalding them (the leaves turned white and dry) and whatever it was attacking the roots, most of them died. I then direct seeded and that worked out much better. Don't think I will bother starting plants early this year.

4/30/2003 10:21:03 AM

Utah

millipede: Any of a group of arthropods that have segmented bodies, each segment usually bearing two pairs of legs, and a pair of short clubbed antennae on the distinct head. Most millipedes are no more than 2.5 cm/1 in long; a few in the tropics are 30 cm/12 in. (Class Diplopoda.)Millipedes live in damp, dark places, feeding mainly on rotting vegetation. Some species injure crops by feeding on tender roots, and some produce a poisonous secretion in defence. Certain orders have silk glands.

© From the Hutchinson Encyclopaedia.Helicon Publishing LTD 2000.All rights reserved.

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/animalsplants/data/m0007909.html

4/30/2003 12:46:51 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

While most of the common Millipedes found here in CT cannot eat living plant tissue & are not considered an economically significant pest, I concede there are some types that I am not familiar with that can cause trouble. I stand corrected.

Desert Storm should contact the local ag authority in New Brunswick to find out if such a condition exists before treating with their recommended corrective elements.

Quote lifted from CT Agriculture Experiment Station:
Garden millipede, Julus hortensis.
This millipede often injures strawberry plants, especially where the crown is infested with the crown borer. They eat into the crown and allow decay. When abundant, these millipedes also injure bulbs and the roots of various other plants.
______End quote_________________________

Note however that here in CT, Millipedes are still only a secondary infection & clearly indicate that a primary cause has gone unchecked.

Now those 6 inch African Millipedes would pose a real threat I'd wager.

Steve

4/30/2003 9:29:22 PM

New Brunswick

I used Insectigone powder (non toxic to us) lightly dusted around the plants that were still living as well as new ones I started. It worked wonderfully. I suspect the milipedes were the entire problem. This year, I have decided to grow squash plants inside again. I am going to make mini plastic greenhouses out of upside down tomato baskets with plastic bags over them to protect them from the elements and of course Insectigone. Thanks for all the help

5/3/2003 10:31:05 AM