is this a fire millipede?

[pinkum]

hi. i just joined as i want to get a millipede, i was getting my info off another millipede sight which turned out to have mostly child porn on its forum, which i reported to the police. so need some advice.
i have 2 small children who are great with handling insects with supervision. i cant do mites and heard large pedes get them and the tank i have is a little small for bigguns anyway. so no mites, medium sized, handleable, no inking/pooing.
i found out that fire mils are good for all this but hard to find. then i find fire red mills on this sight
http://www.exotic-pet-shop.co.uk/ourshop/prod_1349654-Fire-Red-Millipede-medium.html
but the pictures crap and they say dont handle them. is this a fire mill? can anyone give me any recomendations. im loosing my will to live! :wall: im in england so need a uk supplier. please help.

 

[DawnW]

That's the only person I know of selling them at the mo, but I agree the pics are not great. They did have them listed on that famous auction site, as well as RFUK. I was toying with contacting them to ask for pics taken with flash, and closer up pics using macro. They could be (compared to what the wonders of google showed me) but I would have liked to see flash pics as well, to get a better look. As it happens I can't really afford a group of them at the mo, so I just left it.

So in summary, I don't really know lol

 

[Leakypede]

Child porn, ye gods! Good for you for reporting it.

All millipedes will poop or leak defensive fluids on you at some point -- there are just some that tend to do it more than others, and which ones are a matter of opinion (and the individual millipede). Anyone who tells you differently is (probably) selling something.

As far as mites, they're not common. Narceus americanus and Archispirostreptus gigas both typically have commensal/possibly mutualistic mites, but as far as I've read, most other millipedes don't.

But where to buy any millipedes in the UK? I have no idea.

 

[DawnW]

There are quite a few places you can get millipedes, and I would say definitely don't let the mites thing put you off the giants. They're so amazingly cute. If you feel your tank isn't big enough, you can always use plastic storage boxes. I keep my millies in these at the mo (and my snails), and probably will forever since it's far cheaper for more floor space than glass tanks. And they stack really well

I have a group of UKCB African giant millies, and I have seen literally 4 mites on all 6 of them! I've read that CB ones often don't have them.

As for places to buy, you can check The Spider Shop, RFUK classifieds (search invert section for 'millipedes for sale', there was a thread where people listed places to buy for someone), Bugz2go, Virginia Cheeseman, Bristol Inverts... If you search the regular (not classifieds) invert section of RFUK, there was also a couple of threads listing good online invert shops Definitely no shortage at all of places to buy in the UK, especially the African giants, but there are often other types crop up.

If you want any links just PM me

 

[pinkum]

thank you

hi, thankyou for your advice. thats very helpful. i was put off by giant blacks as i saw one in my local garden center and it was crawling with white mites, the woman working there told me they are supposed to be like that but it looked horendouse. i'll take another look at the on line suppliers though. i live in a rural town so shows are not an option for me

 

[DawnW]

Yeah, most shows aren't an option for me either! Thank heavens for Royal Mail Special Delivery!