Scutigerella immaculata (garden centipedes) snuck inside somehow. Problem?

Volksdragon · #1 (**permalink**) 08-15-2007, 06:21 PM

I've recently noticed some young centipedes crawling around in the soil of the Vivarium I have that will house a pair of Green Anoles. I'm fairly sure they're Scutigerella immaculatas (common garden centipedes). I've also noticed some centipede eggs.

I'm not sure how they found their way inside my viv. There may have been an egg hidden in some of the moss I collected, or attached to one of the plants I bought. They've started eating at the leaf litter.

Will this be harmful to the viv's future residents? If they eat them, will there be any adverse effects? Should I quickly remove them ASAP? If not, should I go ahead and leave them there as free and biological plant waste decomposers?

Here's a picture of one. Correct me if I'm wrong about the Scutigerella immaculata taxonomy.

Here's a picture of it -

Rainfrog · #2 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 08:02 AM

I dont know if they are dangerous or not. Centipedes are venomous but I dont know the effect they would have on anoles. If you do decide to get rid of them the dry ice method would work great.

Volksdragon · #3 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 03:19 PM

Yeah, I know they're venomous, but I figure they'd only have enough venom to kill things like cockroaches and spiders (their supposed prey, as found on Wikipedia.) Then again, Jellyfish don't hunt humans and they can kill us easily.

I'm not an expert by any means on centipedes, so I'll be glad to hear from someone who can direct me as to what to do with them.

Marty · #4 (**permalink**) 08-16-2007, 10:35 PM

I'd say dry ice them. Before long, you'll see tens or even hundreds of them in your viv.

btw, my dry ice method was just published in the dart frog magazine in the June 2007 issue of Dutch "DN Magazine/Dendrobatidae Nederland"

here's the link to the article on our forum: http://www.vivariumforum.com/?q=terr...de-problem-co2

Volksdragon · #5 (**permalink**) 08-17-2007, 03:54 PM

Oh, wow, how handy! Thanks for that! I'll likely be trying that soon!

Rainfrog · #6 (**permalink**) 08-20-2007, 04:08 AM

That is Great! Congrats Marty. I really love that method of eliminating pests, it is so effective.

Volksdragon · #7 (**permalink**) 08-20-2007, 05:32 PM

Done! It worked like a charm!

It looked spectacular! I'll check for dead centipedes tomorrow and report on how effective it was.

Volksdragon · #8 (**permalink**) 08-22-2007, 04:21 PM

I awoke this morning to DEAD CENTIPEDES!

Pavel · #9 (**permalink**) 09-24-2007, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Volksdragon

They've started eating at the leaf litter.

Will this be harmful to the viv's future residents? If they eat them, will there be any adverse effects? Should I quickly remove them ASAP? If not, should I go ahead and leave them there as free and biological plant waste decomposers?

While it's all "water under the bridge" now ...

centipedes aren't decomposers -- they're predators. While they are venomous, if they are the run of the mill garden ones, they wouldn't have posed any threat to you anoles.

Now if you had had the huge tropical cents, then it would have been a case of "real & present danger"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty

btw, my dry ice method was just published in the dart frog magazine in the June 2007 issue of Dutch "DN Magazine/Dendrobatidae Nederland"

Congrats on getting published , Marty!

I did give it a try to destroy my snail pests but it wasn't effective.

My suspicions are:

1) Snails might have a low enough respiration requirement that they were able to survive the treatment.

2) There may have been enough pockets of oxygenated air amongst the rocks and moss that the little slime balls just lucked out