Uninvited multi-legged pest

[maoandmee]

Howdy All,

I just noticed the other day that there was a multi-legged worm (?) in my potted oncidium. It was about 1/4-1/2 inch long with lots & lots of legs. I grabbed a pair tweezers and extracted the little bugger. A few days later, I noticed another one in another container...yanked that one as well.

Anyone know what that was and whether or not these things are harmful to the plants?

Both oncidiums look ok but then again, I'm not sure what damage I should be looking for with these things. Both plants are in the original medium from the flowershop. Should I just repot in new medium?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[mayres]

I think I would just be inclined to keep an eye out for any more and remove them as you have. Were the orchids around other plants - and possibly just obtained a few worms looking for a free "ride"? Larvae/worms usually eat out sections of leaves and "if" they were feasting on your orchid the damage would be pretty obvious. See any bite marks out of the sides of leaves? Repotting shouldn't be necessary for this purpose.

[rmoen]

Sounds like a warm-weather creature that snuck in. Maybe they're good with mustard (haha)
Rick

[BillC]

Hi Mau, It may be that you have a specimen of Annelida (which include earthworms and marine worms AKA Polychaetes). The polychaetes group are bristle worms, lugworms and many more. I don't think that your little ones will cause any damage to the plants on the basis that they are burrowers, reworking the compost in the same manner as earthworms do. But I would keep removing any that you find. Bill

[gerneveyn]

It could be a millipede. http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg379.html

[maoandmee]

I've checked the leaves of the plants but didn't see any munchie-marks. I do have other house plants but I keep the orchids in an entirely different room and each room has its own watering can.

Not sure if I want to find out if they're "good" with mustard -- never eating at your house rmoen .

I did read the description of the millipede and it did resemble that (Thanks gerneveyn!). So I'm assuming that they're not really harmful to my plants and in fact, may help if they eat gnats and "churn" the medium below. So I guess the solution is to just keep plucking.

Thanks for the feedback and I'll let you know if I find any other "things" from the medium below.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

If this gets to be a problem of recurring discoveries, you can use some imidaclopride to kill them I expect, as it worked well on sow bugs. It is in several Bayer Advance products, with the Soil and Turf one being the best buy.

[maoandmee]

Well, I found 5 more of them this evening. This time I took a picture of one of them -- the pic is a bit fuzzy, but I think you can see its many legs...a millipede I presume? Anyway, its beginning to freak me out a bit so I think I'll take Cynthia's advice and purchase some insecticide. Thanks for all the input!

[BillC]

Yeah, definitely a millipede and they are using your potting medium as a breeding farm. Cynthia's lotion will soon put a stop to the problem. The pic is from Aus and shows a small? millipede from a backyard. Bill

I used to get these when I had the pots close to or directly on the concrete of my patio floor. Now I keep them higher up on a plant stand and the insects don't seem to want to climb that high. Also, once or twice during the summer, I drench the medium with Orthene or malathion or something similar as a preventative.