baby centipedes (??)

[clxt7321]

Was soaking my oncidium this afternoon and when I came back about an hour later I found this little creepy crawlies all over the top of the water. The largest one in these photos is about half an inch long. The body is almost transparent and you can see little black dots inside (the digestive system, I presume). When I squeezed them with a tweezer, they crunched.
Earlier on in the summer I did find a centipede in one of the pots but not sure if this is the same pot.
Could they be baby centipedes??

Karen

[smartie2000]

Hi,
those are millipedes, not centipedes. they eat decaying media. I have them too... I have not had any plant damage from them. I grow paphs and all their root hairs are still there. They just want to eat sphag untill its nearly all gone!

...I'm from alberta as well so I think we can assume we have the same millipedes.

The AOS says they may eat root tips but I don't see that happening on ours as they just can't bite into it. They aren't giant tropical millipedes

(BTW centipedes are carnivorous so they don't care for plants)

[allaKAZAAM]

Hello clxt7321 !

I actually meant to post this in a thread, but saw your thread name..so...

Awhile back I was able to buy a Paph. armeniacum (at the London Orchid Society)...(can't wait to see it flower!).
Anyway, when I was watering my plants one day, I noticed that there was 2 centipedes crawling around in the sphag moss.
Now I know they are carnivores, so left them in there. After several months it seemed that there was a lot more...AND...very little of any other bugs like:
Scale
Mealy
Fungus Gnats
...etc.

As far as I have read, they will do no harm to the plants, HOWEVER any other bug is TOAST!
Better then chemical insecticides and they won't "travel" away from the confined area I have them in.
PERFECT RELATIONSHIP (bug wise that is!)

So, if you do find centipedes...leave them to their hunting, 'cause it only benefits you and your Orchids.

Mark

...I am now conducting an experiment with my mother's orchids...lol...

I took one of the larger centipedes and put it in with her Paph, that has a lot of mealy bugs. If I am right...within 30 or so days. They will be all gone.

[isurus79]

I was wondering if your centipedes in Canada (my former home and native land!) are poisonous like the ones we have here in Hawaii. Over here we kill them as soon as they are found (like scorpions in AZ) because they get really big and can cause really nasty bites. I would hate to see that happen in someone's nursery or at your mom's house!! However, if theyre not poisonous, I would be really curious to find out if they are good predators for other bugs. Nothing like a little real life experiment!

[allaKAZAAM]

Originally Posted by isurus79

I was wondering if your centipedes in Canada (my former home and native land!) are poisonous like the ones we have here in Hawaii. Over here we kill them as soon as they are found (like scorpions in AZ) because they get really big and can cause really nasty bites. I would hate to see that happen in someone's nursery or at your mom's house!! However, if theyre not poisonous, I would be really curious to find out if they are good predators for other bugs. Nothing like a little real life experiment!

As far as I know...they cannot hurt anything larger than say a fly...lol!
The largest I have seen in my "collection" is about 3/4" to 1" (if that!).
If one has bitten me, than I don't know, 'cause they are so small (about this big...see below)...

}-[-[-[-[-<

Though I can understand that in the tropics they can get BIG and NASTY.
I was only suggesting to the original poster "clxt7321", that if they do have centipedes, to actually let them be...since this poster is in Canada also.

Mark