Millipedes: North American Natives

[Harlequin]

Does one X mark your recent find and the other your latest?

Yes, one X marks where I found the specimens for my original colony, and the other marks where I found the ones just last weekend.

It does seem likely that they are all A. evides, although you can see on that map that both species were beginning to migrate into each others range... in 2002? Where did you find that distribution map?

It's from McAllister's pub, 2013:

McAllister, C. T., H. W. Robinson, M. B. Connior and L. C Thompson. "Millipedes (Arthropoda: Diplopoda) of the Ark-La-Tex. VI. New Geographic Distributional Records from Select Counties of Arkansas." Journ. of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 67, 2013. 87-93.

Do you have more photos from when they were mating? (I really cannot see their antennae in the one that you uploaded.) I believe that you are correct that increasing the moisture levels stimulated them to mate, but could it be that it did so by first stimulating them to reach a final level of maturity? I find it curious that, as far as I can see, ALL of the photos on BugGuide.net of A. evides have light antennae. To me, this suggests that either they do not live long after reaching this final stage of maturity and reproducing or they are not A. evides after all, but that A. louisianus has migrated further north (and also further assumes that they and not A. evides have dark antennae upon maturity).

Yes, I have one that I didn't post because they weren't quite coupled, and yes, they were mating while still having light colored antennae:



Yeah, the short stage of maturity is what concerned me when I first realized this was age coloration. I hope I'm not about to lose my breeders. I have a box full of hatchlings from them, but still, that would eliminate production for a while.

 

[ErinM31]

It's from McAllister's pub, 2013:

McAllister, C. T., H. W. Robinson, M. B. Connior and L. C Thompson. "Millipedes (Arthropoda: Diplopoda) of the Ark-La-Tex. VI. New Geographic Distributional Records from Select Counties of Arkansas." Journ. of the Arkansas Academy of Science, Vol. 67, 2013. 87-93.

Would you mind sending me a copy, please? I can only find outdated versions on Google. I agree that you almost certainly have Auturus evides, although it would be really nice to see what A. louisianus looks like!

Yeah, the short stage of maturity is what concerned me when I first realized this was age coloration. I hope I'm not about to lose my breeders. I have a box full of hatchlings from them, but still, that would eliminate production for a while.

I'm not sure what to think... were they all white and now all brown? If it were developmental, I would expect it to be more staggered... maybe it's a temporary change based on their environment or something? I talked to Jeff Brown from BugGuide and he's observed variation in the color of E. leachii antennae but not obviously correlated with anything like developmental stage.

Keep us updated and hopefully it's nothing to worry about!

 

[billrogers]

Do y'all think this is a baby N. americanus? I found it under some bark.

 

[ErinM31]

Do y'all think this is a baby N. americanus? I found it under some bark.
View attachment 212451 View attachment 212452 View attachment 212453

I think the young would be paler at that size and that this is instead a Julid.

 

[Harlequin]

Would you mind sending me a copy, please? I can only find outdated versions on Google.

Here is a direct link
I'm not sure if you'll be able to access it since you're not in the Arkansas education system and since this is a UARK site. If you can't, just message me a contact email for you, and I'll just send you the pdf.

I'm not sure what to think... were they all white and now all brown? If it were developmental, I would expect it to be more staggered... maybe it's a temporary change based on their environment or something? I talked to Jeff Brown from BugGuide and he's observed variation in the color of E. leachii antennae but not obviously correlated with anything like developmental stage.

No, they didn't all change at once. Most did because I had collected nearly all adults in my original collection, so most of them were all the same size/age. I do have 2 or 3 juveniles that I collected at that time that are still in my original culture box. I dug them out over the weekend and made some observations. Of the three, 2 are still white (entirely), and one has the adult color pattern with light antennae, just like the ones I collected recently. I'm certain now that they are all A. evides.

Also, the 'old' ones apparently ain't that old after all (pardon the 'Josey Wales' reference... ). After I transferred them to a new box during my mite purge, I found them breeding again already in the new box, so apparently, they aren't ready to die just yet...

 

[Harlequin]

I took some more 'baby' pics over the weekend.


This is one of my first hatch of Pseudopolydesmids. They're about 5 mm long now and quite fast and agile (and very difficult to photograph!)


The A. evides plings have dispersed into the culture media, though they're still very tiny (about 1.0-1.5 mm)

 

[AllyInvert]

What an awesome thread! I've read it all and oohed and aahed over all of your pictures. I've been raising tarantulas for the last couple of years. At the last Reptile Show it seemed like every vendor there had millipedes. More millipedes in the room than T's that day. So of course while I'm hanging out, waiting on door prizes I'm actually sitting in the corner, reading everything I can find online about millipedes!! So I came home with 2 bumblebee, 2 smokey oak and 4 ivory millipedes. The smokey's are big, plump & round while the other 6 are about 1-1/2" long and skinny. I've put them in the same container and mixed up a great substrate for them with oak leaves, wood and bark pieces and the occasional fruit pieces. Everyone seems happy and they're growing -- longer and more plump. But should I be keeping them all together?
Ok, enough about the purchased millipedes....!! I live in Kentucky, along the Ohio River. What species would be native to this area? When, where and how are the best chances of my collecting millipedes? You'll have to excuse my ignorance. I never even thought of going outside and turning over a log to search for my own. An extreme immobilizing fear of spiders (after a bad bite as a child) has kept me out of the woods for years. Now that I've conquered that fear and fell in love with millipedes, I'm ready to try collecting.

 

[Harlequin]

What an awesome thread! I've read it all and oohed and aahed over all of your pictures. I've been raising tarantulas for the last couple of years. At the last Reptile Show it seemed like every vendor there had millipedes. More millipedes in the room than T's that day. So of course while I'm hanging out, waiting on door prizes I'm actually sitting in the corner, reading everything I can find online about millipedes!! So I came home with 2 bumblebee, 2 smokey oak and 4 ivory millipedes. The smokey's are big, plump & round while the other 6 are about 1-1/2" long and skinny. I've put them in the same container and mixed up a great substrate for them with oak leaves, wood and bark pieces and the occasional fruit pieces. Everyone seems happy and they're growing -- longer and more plump. But should I be keeping them all together?
Ok, enough about the purchased millipedes....!! I live in Kentucky, along the Ohio River. What species would be native to this area? When, where and how are the best chances of my collecting millipedes? You'll have to excuse my ignorance. I never even thought of going outside and turning over a log to search for my own. An extreme immobilizing fear of spiders (after a bad bite as a child) has kept me out of the woods for years. Now that I've conquered that fear and fell in love with millipedes, I'm ready to try collecting.

Hello AllyInvert! Glad to hear about your interest in millipedes! I've never kept the purchased species you listed, so I'll leave that answer to keepers who are more experienced with those species.
That part of Kentucky is actually a really good place to collect native millipedes, and you should be able to find some really beautiful species there, and probably quite a variety of species. Probably the easiest to find and keep in that area would be Narceus annularis, one of the giant spiros:

The most variety you'll find are among the flat millipedes. Listing the species of flat millipedes from any given area is usually quite a task, so you might need to do some research to learn what's in your area. The millipedes in your area will be quite a bit different from the ones here in Arkansas, so I'm not certain what species you do actually have there. As I often tell people, nothing beats just getting out and searching to see what you can find!

Since you indicated that you haven't searched through forest debris in the past, it might bear mentioning to take a few minutes to search on the Internet to see what harmful species you might encounter in your area, such as venomous snakes and even toxic plants like poison ivy. Chances of encountering harmful species in N. America are pretty small, but they are out there. That said, have fun, and good luck! And be sure to let us know what you find!

 

[AllyInvert]

Thank you so much for your response! I've been researching all afternoon. Good thing I can hide my computer monitor at work and no one sees just how busy I really am. Lol. As far as snakes or poison ivy --- I'm a farm girl. So I'm aware of those, but my daddy never could convince me to sit in the shade under the trees at the edge of a field!! After being bitten on the face by a spider at age 8 and a long, painful recovery, I was riding on the tractor the next summer when dad drove under some trees and drove thru a LARGE cobweb. Let's just say I perfected my ninja moves before I fell off the tractor (and broke my wrist). That's the last time I set foot (or wheel) under a tree!! Lol, I plan to take a hike the next day or two so I will keep you updated.

 

[BobBarley]

What an awesome thread! I've read it all and oohed and aahed over all of your pictures. I've been raising tarantulas for the last couple of years. At the last Reptile Show it seemed like every vendor there had millipedes. More millipedes in the room than T's that day. So of course while I'm hanging out, waiting on door prizes I'm actually sitting in the corner, reading everything I can find online about millipedes!! So I came home with 2 bumblebee, 2 smokey oak and 4 ivory millipedes. The smokey's are big, plump & round while the other 6 are about 1-1/2" long and skinny. I've put them in the same container and mixed up a great substrate for them with oak leaves, wood and bark pieces and the occasional fruit pieces. Everyone seems happy and they're growing -- longer and more plump. But should I be keeping them all together?
Ok, enough about the purchased millipedes....!! I live in Kentucky, along the Ohio River. What species would be native to this area? When, where and how are the best chances of my collecting millipedes? You'll have to excuse my ignorance. I never even thought of going outside and turning over a log to search for my own. An extreme immobilizing fear of spiders (after a bad bite as a child) has kept me out of the woods for years. Now that I've conquered that fear and fell in love with millipedes, I'm ready to try collecting.

I'd take a look at http://bugguide.net/adv_search/bgsearch.php?user=&taxon=37&description=&location[]=KY&county=&city_location=&adult=&immature=&male=&female=&representative= if you haven't already. Bugguide is a great resource for this kind of thing. I agree, this is an awesome thread! Good luck with finding millipedes!

EDIT: I keep some Tylobolus sp. millipedes from my local area, I'll get a picture up in a moment. Right now I'm out of the country so I won't be able to take any more detailed photos.

Here it is: http://arachnoboards.com/gallery/tylobolus-sp.33145/

 

[ErinM31]

What an awesome thread! I've read it all and oohed and aahed over all of your pictures. I've been raising tarantulas for the last couple of years. At the last Reptile Show it seemed like every vendor there had millipedes. More millipedes in the room than T's that day. So of course while I'm hanging out, waiting on door prizes I'm actually sitting in the corner, reading everything I can find online about millipedes!! So I came home with 2 bumblebee, 2 smokey oak and 4 ivory millipedes. The smokey's are big, plump & round while the other 6 are about 1-1/2" long and skinny. I've put them in the same container and mixed up a great substrate for them with oak leaves, wood and bark pieces and the occasional fruit pieces. Everyone seems happy and they're growing -- longer and more plump. But should I be keeping them all together?
Ok, enough about the purchased millipedes....!! I live in Kentucky, along the Ohio River. What species would be native to this area? When, where and how are the best chances of my collecting millipedes? You'll have to excuse my ignorance. I never even thought of going outside and turning over a log to search for my own. An extreme immobilizing fear of spiders (after a bad bite as a child) has kept me out of the woods for years. Now that I've conquered that fear and fell in love with millipedes, I'm ready to try collecting.

Yes, those can all be kept together, no problem! The smokey oak (Narceus gordanus) and ivory (Chicobolus spinigerus) have overlapping ranges and shared habitat preferences (although you will probably see your ivories on the surface most of the time and the somkey oaks but rarely -- at least this is the behavior I've observed in mine). The bumblebee (Anadenobolus monilicornis) has been introduced to the same range and is spreading. While I have not kept this species myself, I know that they are one of the popular communally kept Spirobolids (the order all of your species are part of), along with others including the scarlet millipede (Trigoniulus corallinus) (another introduced species) and our native Narceus americanus-annularis and Tylobolus species. It sounds like you're feeding them well and keeping them adequately hydrated. One other very important thing when keeping millipedes (which you may already know but I would not have you find out the hard way) is to never go digging for them and to use great care and caution if you need to go through their substrate to be very careful if you do not know where they all are. A millipede disturbed while molting can easily be injured and die.

As @BobBarley suggested, BugGuide is a good place to start to see what others have found in your state, but as @Harlequin recommended, nothing beats going out and looking! My enthusiasm for millipedes was greatly fueled by the unexpected find of two beautiful Eurymerodesmus melacis right by where I live! I had no idea what sort of millipedes they were nor that such could be found in my area.

In Kentucky, you are fortunate to have a variety of gorgeous Polydesmids in your area, from small ones like Euryurus leachii to larger ones such as Apheloria virginiensis. I would recommend keeping each such species that you find separately, making note of the area you found them, collect wood or leaves that you found them in (these should be baked in the oven around 225ºF until completely dry to kill pests) and recreating their microhabitat as best you can, including the moisture level. This order is notoriously more difficult to keep, which is one of the reasons I keep each species separately, so I can try to cater to their specific preferences. I say this not to discourage you but to encourage you to join us in figuring out the husbandry of our gorgeous native millipedes! Other members of Arachnoboards -- especially @Harlequin and @zonbonzovi have been extremely helpful in sharing advice and experiences that have enabled me to improve my set-ups and keep several Polydesmid species happy (I haven't had any for very long yet and no offspring but definite mating in several cases, so I am optimistic and continue to observe, share information and improve).

 

[ErinM31]

Here is a direct link
I'm not sure if you'll be able to access it since you're not in the Arkansas education system and since this is a UARK site. If you can't, just message me a contact email for you, and I'll just send you the pdf.

Thank you so much for the link!

No, they didn't all change at once. Most did because I had collected nearly all adults in my original collection, so most of them were all the same size/age. I do have 2 or 3 juveniles that I collected at that time that are still in my original culture box. I dug them out over the weekend and made some observations. Of the three, 2 are still white (entirely), and one has the adult color pattern with light antennae, just like the ones I collected recently. I'm certain now that they are all A. evides.

Also, the 'old' ones apparently ain't that old after all (pardon the 'Josey Wales' reference... ). After I transferred them to a new box during my mite purge, I found them breeding again already in the new box, so apparently, they aren't ready to die just yet...

Definitely sounds like they are all A. evides and I'm glad to hear that they're still going strong! Of the A. evides that I purchased, most had white antennae but one had the darker. I haven't observed mating in either my A. evides or E. leachii cultures yet, only that some like to sit on top of one another. Are your A. evides normally mostly to be found on the surface of the substrate or burrowed?

 

[Harlequin]

Are your A. evides normally mostly to be found on the surface of the substrate or burrowed?

They really have the tendency to move around both in and on the substrate. There's usually at least 2 or 3 that are on the surface, while some are partly burrowing, and the remainder are in the substrate. Out of all of the millipedes I have kept, they are the ones that use all of the layers the most. Right now, they're building molting chambers at the substrate surface, which is really cool to watch.

 

[AllyInvert]

Yes, those can all be kept together, no problem! The smokey oak (Narceus gordanus) and ivory (Chicobolus spinigerus) have overlapping ranges and shared habitat preferences (although you will probably see your ivories on the surface most of the time and the somkey oaks but rarely -- at least this is the behavior I've observed in mine). The bumblebee (Anadenobolus monilicornis) has been introduced to the same range and is spreading. While I have not kept this species myself, I know that they are one of the popular communally kept Spirobolids (the order all of your species are part of), along with others including the scarlet millipede (Trigoniulus corallinus) (another introduced species) and our native Narceus americanus-annularis and Tylobolus species. It sounds like you're feeding them well and keeping them adequately hydrated. One other very important thing when keeping millipedes (which you may already know but I would not have you find out the hard way) is to never go digging for them and to use great care and caution if you need to go through their substrate to be very careful if you do not know where they all are. A millipede disturbed while molting can easily be injured and die.

As @BobBarley suggested, BugGuide is a good place to start to see what others have found in your state, but as @Harlequin recommended, nothing beats going out and looking! My enthusiasm for millipedes was greatly fueled by the unexpected find of two beautiful Eurymerodesmus melacis right by where I live! I had no idea what sort of millipedes they were nor that such could be found in my area.

In Kentucky, you are fortunate to have a variety of gorgeous Polydesmids in your area, from small ones like Euryurus leachii to larger ones such as Apheloria virginiensis. I would recommend keeping each such species that you find separately, making note of the area you found them, collect wood or leaves that you found them in (these should be baked in the oven around 225ºF until completely dry to kill pests) and recreating their microhabitat as best you can, including the moisture level. This order is notoriously more difficult to keep, which is one of the reasons I keep each species separately, so I can try to cater to their specific preferences. I say this not to discourage you but to encourage you to join us in figuring out the husbandry of our gorgeous native millipedes! Other members of Arachnoboards -- especially @Harlequin and @zonbonzovi have been extremely helpful in sharing advice and experiences that have enabled me to improve my set-ups and keep several Polydesmid species happy (I haven't had any for very long yet and no offspring but definite mating in several cases, so I am optimistic and continue to observe, share information and improve).

Thanks for your help! Everything I've read has said they are compatible living together and I have to say they are doing wonderful. So funny you said that about my smokey oaks. I haven't seen them since I put them in the container... and this morning guess who's on top eating an apple piece. And I just noticed an ivory on top of the wood behind him. Yes, the ivory's come up most evenings and we get to watch them often. The bumblebee has came up once (but I forgot to take a pic!)

Thanks for the suggestions on how to keep any WC I hopefully find. I had already decided to keep any I find separated. Glad to know I'm on the right track. I will definitely collect wood & leaves from the area if I find any. I have been baking wood for my tarantulas and just added some to the millipede enclosure and they love it. But I didn't realize I should be baking their leaves also? I've found some of last years leaves and dug out the decomposing ones underneath and added to my millipedes and then added a few dry oak leaves to the top.... but I didn't bake any of those....

I might be having more fun with these millipedes than I do my tarantulas.... oops!! (don't tell anybody else on here lol)

 

[ErinM31]

Thanks for your help! Everything I've read has said they are compatible living together and I have to say they are doing wonderful. So funny you said that about my smokey oaks. I haven't seen them since I put them in the container... and this morning guess who's on top eating an apple piece. And I just noticed an ivory on top of the wood behind him. Yes, the ivory's come up most evenings and we get to watch them often. The bumblebee has came up once (but I forgot to take a pic!)

Thanks for the suggestions on how to keep any WC I hopefully find. I had already decided to keep any I find separated. Glad to know I'm on the right track. I will definitely collect wood & leaves from the area if I find any. I have been baking wood for my tarantulas and just added some to the millipede enclosure and they love it. But I didn't realize I should be baking their leaves also? I've found some of last years leaves and dug out the decomposing ones underneath and added to my millipedes and then added a few dry oak leaves to the top.... but I didn't bake any of those....

I might be having more fun with these millipedes than I do my tarantulas.... oops!! (don't tell anybody else on here lol)

So glad to hear your millipedes are doing so well! It is a good idea to back everything because some pests like mites are tiny and may be overlooked. At first I did not bake leaves that I found either but simply gave them a visual inspection. Then I would freeze them first. Now I bake them. Hopefully, they will not cause a problem. In the worst case scenario and the substrate ends up overrun by mites or nuisance springtails (I really think the larger ones bothered my millipedes), you can remove the millipedes, make sure they are free of pests as best you can without stressing them too much, and keep them in moist paper towels or sphagnum moss while you bake all of their substrate and wash out their terrarium. I have done this twice, one time unnecessarily, but no harm done.

 

[AllyInvert]

So glad to hear your millipedes are doing so well! It is a good idea to back everything because some pests like mites are tiny and may be overlooked. At first I did not bake leaves that I found either but simply gave them a visual inspection. Then I would freeze them first. Now I bake them. Hopefully, they will not cause a problem. In the worst case scenario and the substrate ends up overrun by mites or nuisance springtails (I really think the larger ones bothered my millipedes), you can remove the millipedes, make sure they are free of pests as best you can without stressing them too much, and keep them in moist paper towels or sphagnum moss while you bake all of their substrate and wash out their terrarium. I have done this twice, one time unnecessarily, but no harm done.

I've kept a pretty close eye on them, just because I'm so fascinated and haven't noticed anything unusual. Actually they've eaten thru most everything I've added so I'm about to add a couple new layers. I will definitely bake it first and let it cool so I can add it tomorrow. Maybe I'll wait till dark so I can hopefully collect more than just leaves!!

 

[ErinM31]

I've kept a pretty close eye on them, just because I'm so fascinated and haven't noticed anything unusual. Actually they've eaten thru most everything I've added so I'm about to add a couple new layers. I will definitely bake it first and let it cool so I can add it tomorrow. Maybe I'll wait till dark so I can hopefully collect more than just leaves!!

Good idea! @Harlequin recommended to me the baking for 225ºF (probably about 30 minutes for leaves unless they are wet) as this dry heat should kill most everything (so if you're baking wood, substrate or wet leaves then you'll need to go for longer and open the door on occasion to let the steam out and bake until thoroughly dry) but some fungi can still survive this which is not a bad thing as these break down the wood and leaves and may themselves be fed upon by the millipedes.

Oh, and I would definitely recommend getting a blacklight flashlight for night-time collecting as most of our native Polydesmids with fluoresce brightly, helping you to find them. Happy hunting and I look forward to seeing what you find!

 

[Harlequin]

Good idea! @Harlequin recommended to me the baking for 225ºF (probably about 30 minutes for leaves unless they are wet) as this dry heat should kill most everything (so if you're baking wood, substrate or wet leaves then you'll need to go for longer and open the door on occasion to let the steam out and bake until thoroughly dry) but some fungi can still survive this which is not a bad thing as these break down the wood and leaves and may themselves be fed upon by the millipedes.

Yeah, I might have to amend that temperature recommendation. These mites I'm fighting didn't come from the produce like I thought. They've appeared in millipede/isopod boxes that are completely isolated from each other in different rooms, and the only common factor is the wood/leaf debris I've been using. And since they're all the same kind of mite, I'm assuming that they're just a *really* heat/drought resistant type of wood mite that I picked up with the wood. So far, they haven't caused any problems. They're only about 100 microns or so in size, and they haven't yet shown any tendency to overpopulate or swarm. But it just annoys me that they're in there. Anyway, I'm now drying my wood/debris at 225F with a final 30 minutes at 350F after completely dry.

I've actually been thinking very seriously about releasing most of my millipedes (except A. evides, which I've grown attached to haha). I'm running into problems with space for both boxes and media, and I'm now having fungus gnats and even drain flies invade my apartment from outside (via hanging around the door/windows and coming through the vents) due to the dankness from my invert habitats. I do NOT want to have to break down my big springtail beds and frog tanks again because of another gnat infestation. In addition, some of the new millipedes I found recently were infected with roundworms, so now I have that to deal with. I'm not certain what kind of round worms these are, but I *cannot* afford to risk infecting my $150 dart frogs with something brought in with a $6 millipede.

I've loved working with native millipedes over the past 6 months or so, but my primary goal in raising them was to establish captive bred populations of natives for the pet trade. And since I've become involved with the community here on AB, I realize now that most of the native millipede sales are from wild-caught specimens, which is illegal here in Arkansas. And now, I really have to doubt that there would be much demand for captive bred populations. Alas, since I have such limited space and resources for my inverts, I'm thinking it's best to concentrate my efforts on my moneymakers - isopod and collembola feeder cultures.

 

[Hisserdude]

Yeah, I might have to amend that temperature recommendation. These mites I'm fighting didn't come from the produce like I thought. They've appeared in millipede/isopod boxes that are completely isolated from each other in different rooms, and the only common factor is the wood/leaf debris I've been using. And since they're all the same kind of mite, I'm assuming that they're just a *really* heat/drought resistant type of wood mite that I picked up with the wood. So far, they haven't caused any problems. They're only about 100 microns or so in size, and they haven't yet shown any tendency to overpopulate or swarm. But it just annoys me that they're in there. Anyway, I'm now drying my wood/debris at 225F with a final 30 minutes at 350F after completely dry.

I've actually been thinking very seriously about releasing most of my millipedes (except A. evides, which I've grown attached to haha). I'm running into problems with space for both boxes and media, and I'm now having fungus gnats and even drain flies invade my apartment from outside (via hanging around the door/windows and coming through the vents) due to the dankness from my invert habitats. I do NOT want to have to break down my big springtail beds and frog tanks again because of another gnat infestation. In addition, some of the new millipedes I found recently were infected with roundworms, so now I have that to deal with. I'm not certain what kind of round worms these are, but I *cannot* afford to risk infecting my $150 dart frogs with something brought in with a $6 millipede.

I've loved working with native millipedes over the past 6 months or so, but my primary goal in raising them was to establish captive bred populations of natives for the pet trade. And since I've become involved with the community here on AB, I realize now that most of the native millipede sales are from wild-caught specimens, which is illegal here in Arkansas. And now, I really have to doubt that there would be much demand for captive bred populations. Alas, since I have such limited space and resources for my inverts, I'm thinking it's best to concentrate my efforts on my moneymakers - isopod and collembola feeder cultures.

Yeah, I got mite problems too, it is entirely possible they came in with your millipedes, mite eggs along with other debris could have been attached to some of your millipedes, and even if only one or two eggs got in, that would been enough to start an infestation. Springtails are your best weapon against them, the Tropical pink springtails, Sinella curviseta seem to work very well under a variety of conditions and seem to work nicely against mites.

Hey, fungus gnats never hurt anybody, and I highly doubt the drain flies are reproducing in your cages, more likely that they are in your drains. There is always at least one of those cute little things in my bathroom. I doubt any roundworms or other parasites that live in millipedes would affect your dart frogs, and I'm pretty sure they would have a much harder time finding their way into other cages than, say, mites.
Still, the choice is yours, but I personally think you should stick around and keep culturing millipedes, you seem very knowledgeable on the subject and seem to be great at caring for them.

The millipede hobby seems to be expanding, and it is always good to have captive bred populations in the hobby. I do hope you'll re-consider staying in the hobby.

All that being said, if you do decide to leave the millipede hobby, your pedes would all have a place in my home.

 

[Harlequin]

Yeah, I got mite problems too, it is entirely possible they came in with your millipedes, mite eggs along with other debris could have been attached to some of your millipedes, and even if only one or two eggs got in, that would been enough to start an infestation. Springtails are your best weapon against them, the Tropical pink springtails, Sinella curviseta seem to work very well under a variety of conditions and seem to work nicely against mites.

Hey, fungus gnats never hurt anybody, and I highly doubt the drain flies are reproducing in your cages, more likely that they are in your drains. There is always at least one of those cute little things in my bathroom. I doubt any roundworms or other parasites that live in millipedes would affect your dart frogs, and I'm pretty sure they would have a much harder time finding their way into other cages than, say, mites.
Still, the choice is yours, but I personally think you should stick around and keep culturing millipedes, you seem very knowledgeable on the subject and seem to be great at caring for them.

The millipede hobby seems to be expanding, and it is always good to have captive bred populations in the hobby. I do hope you'll re-consider staying in the hobby.

All that being said, if you do decide to leave the millipede hobby, your pedes would all have a place in my home.

Hey man, thanks for the encouragement. I appreciate it. Maybe at some point, I'll have more time and resources to continue studying and culturing them on a larger scale, but for now, I think I need to reduce to A. evides and devote some time to my other interests. I'm still interested to see what everyone else finds and learns about them, and I'll still update on A. evides when I learn something new and cool about them.

I haven't kept springtails in my millipede boxes because high springtail populations will stress the millipedes through constant tactile stimulation. I also like to have purified cultures as much as I can. I do have some N American Sinella springtails (grey), and they're a great springtail. I'll have to remember that they're good against mites

Yeah, as far as the dipterans, I don't think they're reproducing in my apartment (yet), and that's the way I'd like to keep it. I live in the Arkansas River bottomlands, and this time of year, they're everywhere here. They're just being attracted to my apartment in large numbers due to the number of cultures I have going and the musty air that's released when I maintenance them. I need to reduce the 'attractiveness' of my apartment to them so that they don't infect my large springtail beds, rendering them unsellable.

And I agree on the roundworms. They're probably specific to insects and arthropods, but even a small chance of infecting my very expensive frogs must be avoided. I can't just go out and pick them up