A New To Me Bug

[Bijan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bijan]

So I have centipedes in just about all of my buckets. I probably would have never noticed, but I dunk my containers to water from the bottom. I end up finding quite a few left behind. I know they are beneficial in that they eat other bugs, but I have two issues.

• I do not want 100 containers worth of centipedes running around when I bring the trees in for winter. My daughter's room shares a wall with the garage near where the trees will be stored. While I think the situation has great potential for comedy, mama won't find it nearly so humorous.
• I am beginning to plumb buckets together for an ebb and flow style watering system. There are enough centipedes floating to block a drain valve. It does not seem likely they will escape the flood. So I am not sure how beneficial they will be anyway.

Does anybody have a good suggestion on how to get rid of them? The only solution I have at this time is to flood the containers and let them all drown, but I do not think that would be a permanent solution.

Thanks

[cjmach1973 Veteran Find all posts View Profile Close cjmach1973]

I have not heard of any controls, but I know that some varieties have a strong bite.(like spider venom)

[rusty hooks Member Find all posts View Profile Close rusty hooks]

get your pots off the ground..only by a little bit...3/4-1"...cat food containers without the labels work

stuff the drain holes in the pots with a little bit of burlap...tight enough to seal but it wont affect your dip watering....they wont get out...nor in

in a little while you'll be relatively centipede free

[COGardener Fig Phenom Find all posts View Profile Close COGardener]

My Scolopendra gigantea, was oneof my favorite unusual pets. She ate mice mostly, or more to the point anything unlucky enough to be in her enclosed.

As far as control of the native centipedes, I have never looked into it, they've never been an issue.

Perhaps a barrier of some kind, maybe diatomacius earth.

[Jamie0507 Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Jamie0507]

Oh I feel your pain.. When I lived in Cali I had a beautiful little Meyer lemon tree growing in a pot that I brought in when "winter" hit.. One day I walked into my living room where I had the pot and all along my walls in that room were hundreds of centipedes! I nearly had a stroke.. Sooo nooo.. Mama won't like it.. Lol! What I figured out was the centipedes were attracted to the moisture in the pot.. I put the pot back out into that brutal SoCal winter weather lol, (on a stand) and let the pot dry out some (yes I over-watered then too apparently hehe). Anyways those buggers dried out and I didn't have a problem again. Also, I did have the pot directly on the ground outside before I originally brought it in.. So Like Rusty Hooks above said, I think getting them off the ground may be a big help too.. Good luck, I hope it works out for Ya!