Millipedes are dark red or brown coloured crawling worms with numerous legs about 2 to 4 attached to each segment of their body. They do not cause any harm to humans. Millipedes generally like to stay in the garden where they feed of the fruits, roots of plants, rotten wood and leaves and also colonize damp and dark places.
Most people often confuse millipedes with centipedes. Centipedes are similarly crawling insects but with less number of legs per appendage and usually have two very long antennae in the front. Millipedes have a cylindrical body type while centipedes are a bit flat and much more agile. Above all most centipedes are toxic to humans while millipedes are absolutely harmless.
So, how to get rid of millipedes in your surrounding? It has been seen that millipedes actually stay well hidden underground or in rotting leaf piles or so but it is only during their migration season may be during the rains or in summer that they venture out of their burrows and appear to wiggle all around you causing much irritation.
Ways to get Rid of Millipedes
Close All Openings
Repair all the cracks and small openings around windows and doors or kitchen gutter or any other that you find is good enough to give an entry route to the millipedes. By doing this you strictly keep them out of your house. You don’t want a millipede to share your bedroom or your kitchen with.
Clean with Soap Water
Next what you should do is to clean and rinse well all your kitchen and wash room gutters and floors with soap water or if possible insect repellent liquid. Millipedes generally prefer these moist and dark places to settle in; so insect repellents or naphthalene balls keep them away.
Clean your Garden
Clean your garden by removing waste material heaps and your junk store. These places make good colonizing spots for millipedes. Even clear away all rotting woods and decaying leaf piles that these creatures like to feed on.
Anything that you see creates a dark and damp hideout for millipedes should be cleared. The materials if possible should be disposed off or otherwise shifted to a new location.
Use Insecticides
Besides these there are several chemical treatments. Chemicals like CB air devil, Talstar granules, Delta dust can help you deter unwanted millipedes away. CB air devil is an instant kill aerosol that when sprayed in your pipes and gutters kills large number of insects instantly and works for about two to three months.
Delta dust is a similar toxic dust and used for places where it is hard to spray liquid insect repellent liquid like behind cabinets, drill holes, cracks and crevices and all. Talstar granules are however used for outdoor treatment. These small granules can be spread over your lawn or flower beds and it continues to work for a few months and keep millipedes away.
However while using these chemical repellents proper care must be taken to cover all your airways to prevent inhalation as it may also be toxic to humans.
Pest Control
It is however suggested that natural ways of treatment are much better but if there are too many millipedes around you, then you are left with no option but to go for chemicals. You can also inform the pest control department and let them take care of it.
Do you know any other treatment / solution that works best? Share it with us and we’ll add it to our list.