Am trying to upload a pic of the thing I found in the soil yesterday. Light brown.. I remember seeing them last year eating their way into my spuds. If the link works, can anyone identify this and advise me on how to get rid?
Check out this photo from Snapbucket: http://pbckt.com/pK.NxURLc
GOOD NEWS!..that is centipede...gardeners friend and one that you don't want to get rid of!
It doens't cause any damage to crops but it is predatory and eats away those 'pests' that have caused the trouble to your spuds. ;D
Do I remeber someone saying that if it moves fast then it is ok?
http://www.wildaboutgardens.org.uk/wildlife/other-invertebrates/centipede.aspx
Quote from: shirlton on April 06, 2012, 08:33:12
Do I remeber someone saying that if it moves fast then it is ok?
...I wonder what that says about me then.. :-\ ...major bug.. ::)
It sort of slid rather than crawled though. Its babies were wriggling around in my spuds last year. In small holes. There were quite a few of them
Wire worms are similar colour to the centipede but smaller..they are well known potato eaters and I suspect your pest might be that.
Saying that..as centipede likes moist cool places in the soil..whats better than crawl into hole in the spud..but they would not have made the whole in first place..just using already made hide hole.
http://www.just-green.com/Article/77/Wireworms.html
http://www.greengardener.co.uk/product.asp?id_pc=22&cat=62&id_product=358
http://www.harrodhorticultural.com/weblog/archives/2007/02/wireworm_contro.html
One way to reduce occurence of wire worms is keep cultivating the soil to expose them to the surface..birds will love to eat them away.. ;)
A comparison between the pictures seem to point to me having centipdes. Hope so! The wirewirm in this pic looks fatter. I found babies that were paler than adults.. whitish and a fair few entwined with each other.
That particular centipede won't move fast; it lives in cracks and crevices, and eats your nasties for you. Wireworms are a lot shorter.
I've got one at home, called the OH. ;D ;D
;D..OH..overly hairy (human) centipede?