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The Corroboree

Black Portuguese Millipedes, control methods


Bush Turkey

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Hi all! :)

My mate has a bad infestation of Black Portuguese Millipedes. He collects about 1000 of the critters daily from the inside of his house. It is only a temp house (shed, Donga) till his actual house is built.

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He has tried all sorts of surface sprays, powders with little results. The only thing that puts a dent in the numbers is ant powder and some water traps.

The Millipede's were first found in Port Lincoln SA and have spread to pretty much the whole southern half of Australia. They stink and stain when they are squashed and have also cause train delays in Victoria. The only thing to eat them is the odd spider so they spread rapidly with they lack of preditors.

This is a millipede catcher made buy a Perth local

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You can easily make one out of a ice cream container and a solar light.

This is the best control method at the moment but its just not enough

I would like to hear other peoples methods for control

You South Aussies who live in the hills would have been battling these guys for some time.

yeah so please post your control methods peeps :)

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Edited by Bush Turkey
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my idea was to put them in a flask and try and extract the quinones from them...not sure if that's possible but the critters have interesting chemistry to them...

http://www.dmns.org/...hemecol2004.pdf

http://mercury.bio.u...fs/Happ1968.pdf

apparently monkeys use the giant african millipede to get high!

http://www.livingrai...ican-millipede/

 

Edited by applesnail
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This what we use and It is one of the only sprays that seems to work but you need to re apply to keep the barrier there. You will still have heaps to clean up but if you have sprayed the product well then most should be outside.

The other thing to do is not have any lights on outside and try and stop any light escaping from the house I realize this is hard to do but they are attracted to light.

There is not much worse than getting up in the middle of the night and treading on these little things not only are they gross when they are squashed but they are quite hard so there is an audible crunch when you step on one. :unsure:

Cheers

Got

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it is impossible to stop light escaping from the house (corrugated shed). We would need about a ton of filler Its not so bad them being on the floor, but when they start dropping on your face when your sleeping it gets scary

im dog/housesitting there in a couple of weeks so i want some kind of barrier. Might just set up a tent inside

ive heard of coopex but as soon as it dries out it becomes useless right? so re applying every couple of hours is needed???

Edited by Bush Turkey
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Most millipedes i've ever seen in my life was when I went to a radar tower somewhere in the adelaide hills as a kid.

There was about a cm thick circle of millipedes all around the building, it was insane! They somehow kept the millipedes out of the building though.

Anyway, maybe they're attracted to sources of power or something in the radar signal?

Apart from that I have no advice, only time i see millipedes is when i look under my pots

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it is impossible to stop light escaping from the house (corrugated shed). We would need about a ton of filler Its not so bad them being on the floor, but when they start dropping on your face when your sleeping it gets scary

im dog/housesitting there in a couple of weeks so i want some kind of barrier. Might just set up a tent inside

ive heard of coopex but as soon as it dries out it becomes useless right? so re applying every couple of hours is needed???

 

I don't know BT a hard man like your self shouldn't be worried about a millipede or two falling on you when you are asleep just keep your mouth closed

They say it keeps working up to four months I think the main thing is to spray where its not going to get washed off if possible.

Here is the instructions http://www.bayercrop...el/file9136.pdf

Cheers

Got

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  • 1 year later...

Most millipedes i've ever seen in my life was when I went to a radar tower somewhere in the adelaide hills as a kid.

...

Anyway, maybe they're attracted to sources of power or something in the radar signal?

Same, except instead of millipedes, I've seen swarms of ladybugs covering a radar tower pole in Canberra. Pretty odd, nothing for them to eat up there! Maybe it's a sexy-time thing...

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yeah we have a pretty big problem here in WA thanks to a certain brick manufacturer. apart from a light trap, one method that seems to work is to run a ring of tape (smooth electric/gaffa etc) around the walls as they cant climb up it. or Diatomaceous earth apparently does well but haven't tried it.

Edited by brooa
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  • 1 year later...

Hi,

There is nothing that performs like the millipede catcher. It attracts catches and kills the millipede with no chemicals and you can dispose of them easily.

You may try to make one yourself but it will not perform as well nor be as convenient. This product stops the breeding cycle. Unlike chemical that just kills the millipede if the chemical comes in contact with the toxin. Then leave the dead smelly carcass on the ground to sweep up. It is cheap and very effective. Get the job done go to www.millipedecatchers.com Now has a Solar model for any location!

Jason

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Chickens - they love them, and you can eat their eggs, and if they stop eating/laying - eat the chicken

A good suggestion .....

Chooks are the only animals I have seen to eat cockroaches also ; as with the millipedes , they love roaches too !

Wish I could find something to control Indonesian house geckos !

Edited by Heretic
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Responsible cat owner lol i must be hallucinating. First cat in australia to actually improve wildlife prospects.

The old posts about the radar towers is very interesting! Non-ionising radiation i guess, attracting them more powerfully than light (or attracting them in the daytime too)

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Try sealing the shed or donga up with expanda foam. I lived in a shed for a while and we used that to seal up the whole outside. Spray it from the inside towards the seams in the shed/donga and it will expand up and seal it.
Adds a surprising amount of insulation too if you want to use it for that additionally. Not real pricey. Covers a pretty large area. Definitely wind proof so will be bug proof. Could help.

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If you have a Gecko problem you dont have a cat. I am in your area and a cat will fix Geckos (ours is a house cat and only goes outside on a lead to keep the birds safe). Stu

Yes , thank you for the suggestion......

I will get a cat and keep it inside at night to [ hopefully ] prevent bird kills .

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