Crawled out of a houseplant

[mmfh]

Went to water a plant and this crawled out of the bottom of the pot. Guessing it is some type of garden centepede. Since there is 3 inches of snow on the ground guess I have to try to keep it. it's tiny. I only have med crickets so I don't think those are an option but i probably have tiny dubia, will thise work or do they just not move too much?

 

[chanda]

That's one of the Stone Centipedes (Lithobiomorpha). I'm not sure if they'll take dubia or not - I believe they mainly prey on soft-bodied arthropods and small worms, or they'll scavenge things like dead crickets. If you're going to try feeding dubia nymphs, maybe prekill them first?

Stone centipedes need to be kept in moist substrate with enough depth for them to burrow. They are more susceptible to drying out than more commonly kept Scolopendromorph centipedes, so you don't want to give them too much ventilation.

 

[mmfh]

Will these eat fruit flies and are they nutritious enough?

 

[Arthroverts]

They likely will depending on the size, but as it grows you might want to start providing pinhead/small crickets, roaches, etc., as fruit flies are nutritionally deficient.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[RTTB]

Micro mealworms will be gobbled up.

 

[mmfh]

Ty RTTB. I'm not able to get out and get any at the moment so I thought I'd throw in the smallest of my small crickets and fish it out later if I needed to. Went back a couple hours later and there is no cricket to be seen. I will keep checking in case it dug itself in to the soil but it seems to have eaten it . It is pretty small, about an inch so they must be pretty vicious hunters. 2 questions: if I use mealworms, will they burrow and injure my centipede later? If I use small crickets how often should I feed it?

 

[RTTB]

Small cricket or small mealworm a couple times a month should be fine. To my knowledge the Lithobius sp are communal. When I’ve found them they are usually several in the same spot.

 

[RTTB]

They will eat pre killed prey.

 

[BepopCola]

Do these guys reproduce through parthenogenesis?
I found one a while back, now I have many. I've seen them nibbling at kibble sometimes.