I found millipedes

[smartie2000]

I found little light tan coloured millipedes in my paph seedling's media. Are they known to be dangerous to the plant? I saw them munching on some moist sphag moss, no wonder some of the sphag pieces aren't as fluffy anymore. They are too small to eat leaves or whole roots, but I hope they aren't eating root hairs.
...I have created a new habitat for bugs

[Ron-NY]

Smartie, I do believe that they can eat root tips. I would repot the Paphs. Are they kept on the ground part of the year?

[IdahoOrchid]

I found some of those and some pill bugs in a few of mine that came from one particular vendor. I was told that they are not harmful. I repotted anyway. Make sure you rinse out the roots well so as to wash off any stragler young and eggs. You could also spray down with some insecticide.

[smartie2000]

Guess what I looked at the sphag moss they were on and they consumed a large portion of it!
....I would have to repot all my seedlings and perhaps all my paphs, they do travel around
I never see these bugs in the wilderness and I do look at everything outside. My first millipede sighting that wasn't one of those giant pet ones. So I think these came from Ontario where it's a little warmer. I don't keep my paphs outside

[IdahoOrchid]

Yes, millipedes are great recyclers. They consume the detris in which they live and create fertilizer!!! Well, at least the stuff that the micro-organisms consume to make it available for plants.

[Piper]

Hi Fren, I just checked the AOS pest guide. It repeats what the guys have said: millipedes feed on dead plant material, but can hurt root tips. They're attracted to the moisture, but that won't help much with a Paph.

If you have plants that aren't crazy about being repotted, I'd give them a long soak in the insecticide of your choice. I'd repeat it twice at weekly intervals to catch any eggs.

McJulie

[desertgal]

Steven....did you get those orchids at the same CA vendor I got mine? I'll be repotting all of those orchids this weekend. The bark mix is too big.

Katie

[smartie2000]

I seached two slipper orchid forums and they have no posts on millipedes!Strange.

My Canadian millipede seems to be very gentle. It is absolutely scared of any movement. It's very tiny, probably only 1 millimetre thick and 1.5 centimetres long and translucent(I can see its digestive system). I'm gonna unpot my plant (which is the most vigorous of all of my seedlings) and check out its root tips and remove the bugs. There were two of them so I hope they weren't laying eggs.

[smartie2000]

I found more millipedes in the media and one was white! Anyways the media was one of those dense soggy seedling mixes. I think my plant outgrew the seedling mix now and the mix was used for a year so I think I better change it. I forgot, thinking I changed it already because the plant looks more like my larger seedlings now. I changed the media to something bigger with more air, so the plant can start growing a larger root system.

The root tips looked fine. The millipedes were more interested in munching the decaying mix and sphag. I still have four plants in that sort of seedling mix....I wonder if they have millipedes too, but I don't want to unpot them yet

[IdahoOrchid]

The white millipede is one that had just shed its exoskeleton. Crickets do the same thing.