I am the innocent victim of mistaken identity! I may look very wiry and wriggle a lot but I am not a wireworm! In fact I am not any type of worm at all, I am proud to be a centipede. Well to be precise my family name is Geophilomorpha.
One of my problems is that I like to curl up inside a dark hole. Sometimes the dark homes may be in the middle of a potato. When you dig up your potato and find me inside you automatically think I have made the hole.
The evidence against me is purely circumstantial. I am more likely to have eaten the pest that nibbled on your potato as I a meat eater.
So you see I am really a gardener's friend. When you see me don't squash me just just let me wriggle back into the soil and I will chew my way through some of your enemies.
Posts
That has got to be the longest centipede I have EVER seen! Around here, ours are usually no more than 1.5" (4cm) long.
ReplyDeleteThat one was about the same size, Margaret and very thin. The photo is larger than life size.
DeleteIt's all the legs that are the trouble. Most unsettling.
ReplyDeleteSo does the level of unsettledness correlate directly to the number of legs, Jessica you must really like snakes. :-)
DeleteThey may be harmless, but they are still slightly scary when you chance upon one by surprise!
ReplyDeleteJust imagine how they must feel, Mark :-)
DeleteHave some of these in my garden, I know I love my wildlife, but I have a hard time liking things that wriggle, buss or move fast !
ReplyDeleteI think that the more you get to know about creepy craw lies the more you come round to if not liking them, tolerating them, Amanda
DeleteI've never been sure of the difference between centipedes and millipedes - and are they both meat eaters?
ReplyDeleteMillipedes are not gardeners friends Gail as they eat vegetation rather than other insects. A millipedes body is more rounded and they have more legs. Centipede has a pair of legs to each segment of its body and a millipede has two pairs of legs to each segment. When a millipede walks it is as though there is a ripple of legs under its body.
DeleteI did not know this---great post, Sue. Learned something new!
ReplyDeleteGlad to add to your bank of knowledge, Sue
DeleteI will try and be kind to any I find in my garden. It would be nice if they wore ID's though so I could tell the good ones from the troublemakers!
ReplyDeleteI must admit slugs and snails are exceptions to that rule, Dave. Even though some of those are not as damaging as others. As you say they need to come with I D badges.
DeleteThank you Mrs Garrett
ReplyDeleteI have a very bad public image
Your very own centipede!
Just keep nibbling those nasties, Centi but I would be grateful if you would spare the worms.
DeleteWow, Sue, never seen or heard about this either. Thanks for the image and storytelling :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started gardening, I thought these were wireworms, Shirley, but I do like to read up on things that I find in the garden and learn more about them. The wireworms that do the damage are the love of a type of click beetle. Maybe the centipede makes a meal of those before curling up in the hole they have made. The true wireworm are quite a nuisance when growing any root crops.
DeleteLove this post Sue, very informative x
ReplyDeleteThanks Jo.
DeleteThis is so interesting, thank you:) I have never seen one here, only wireworms: but our veg garden was meadow land a few years back so only to be expected. The numbers of wireworms are declining with the help of cultivation and our resident birds.
ReplyDeleteStarlings are fairly partial to a tasty wireworm, sweffling aren't they?
DeleteWe have them too but ours look quite different. They are shorter and brown. We also have centipede.
ReplyDeleteWe have centipedes in all sorts of shapes and sizes, Alain
DeleteThat's very long centipede! it has 2 heads? I have the brown and short one! Never seen this type before.
ReplyDeleteIt does look as though it has two heads, Malar but there is only one on the right of the photograph.
DeleteWhat a handsome chap! Insects fascinate me, I could watch them for hours, the sheer variety is astonishing. I'm relieved they're not the same size as us! What a great photo!xxx
ReplyDeleteWhich is why I guess so many horror monsters seem to be based on insects, Duna
Delete