I want the biggest, badest, ugliest, most toxic chemical known to man kind and I want to sprayed in around and over my house, NOW!
I am usually a live and let live kind of person, even when it comes to bugs. I knew moving to ‘the country’, to a property that is surrounded by grass and trees and live stock rather than roads, houses and concrete, would mean welcoming a few new bugs into our lives. I can cope with that.
The first year up here I was all ready and willing to learn to live with the bugs. The flies were a pain but no big deal. The Earwigs, slightly more annoying when they ate every new shoot in the vegie garden and turned up in odd places inside but still manageable. Then the millipedes arrived.
I was amazed at how many there were both inside and outside, we mused that it must have been an especially good year for millipedes and worked on embracing the farm life – millipede’s and all. The second year on the farm we realised that there was a definite ‘millipede season’ and that each year we’d have to cope with these evil little creepy crawlies… Can you see how I went from ‘all part of the country life’ to ‘burn the suckers’ in one short year? Well it’s year three now and I am well and truly over the revolting little buggers!
Last year I had several run ins with them while in bed and that was enough to turn me against them for life. With the early onset of the cold wet weather this past week our house as been besieged yet again and when I found half a millipede in Muski’s mouth that was it! I am on the war path!
Normally we try to keep the number of nasty chemicals in our house down to a bare minimum. We are a long way from chemical free – I still wash my hair with cheap products that I know contain nasty stuff (thanks to Dee this will be a thing of the past soon I hope) and do all kinds of other chemical laden things, but I’d rather not be covering my off spring in too much of a toxic cocktail if I can help it. But I can’t help it, seriously I can’t.
Last night I got out the vac and sucked up every little many legged demon (why are they called millipedes anyway? not like they have a million legs!) I could find, then I surface sprayed every possible way into our house. Around the door frames and door steps, the little wall vent things, a few large cracks in the floor boards and one hole in the floor in the bath room (this is an old house ok, the floor has a few holes, it’s normal!). I felt vindicated – the house was millipede free, the smallest child could crawl around the floor and only find old hair elastics and yesterdays toast crusts to ingest.
It didn’t last. The Baldy Boy and I say watching a movie an hour or so later and we began counting the millipedes that we could see crawling around various surfaces in the lounge room. Twelve. Twelve! In just one room, rest assured they were also creeping back into every other room in the house. Obviously they are immune to surface spray, or they are getting in some magical way that I haven’t figured out yet.
ARRGGHHH! Help!
There has to be a way to deter the little suckers, or some nice non toxic trap we can set to attract, catch and dispose off them (oh how I love to burn a collection of writhing black millipedes in the fire – does that paint me in a bad light?). Surely one of my supremely intelligent readers will have an answer for me! I live in hope.
Ewwwwwwwww!
I’m with you on ‘burning the lil buggers’, I’m afraid!!! Totally creeped out, my end … I can’t imagine how you cope with them. Could be worse … could be leeches crawling into the house. I’m terrified of leeches!!! :)
I am glad it isn’t me and I feel for you especially for Muski – have you tried Dr Google ?
I hate crawling bugs.
Oh gross! I’m with you about generally being a live and let live type, but in your case….I would be calling an exterminator! Nasty!
I don’t have any advice…Google might be a good try (as Babyamore (Trish) said), but other than that I don’t really know.
Good luck!
Oh god, I know how you feel. We usually get the ants in summer and then millipedes in autumn. They’re usually at their peak in March but this year I think they will peak in April and probably into May because the summer was so long and dry and the colder, wetter weather took its sweet time getting here.
Personally, I can take the millipedes more than I can the ants. Millipedes are dumb, LOL. You just have to poke them and they curl up ready to neatly dispose of – we rarely spray them, just toss them outside. Ants, when realising they’ve got a human on the warpath, tend to go ballistic and its all I can do not to kill us all with the bug spray. If you catch the light at juuuuust the right angle in certain parts along our skirting boards, you can see where I’ve sprayed and the bug spray had dripped down. I figure I’ll just Liquid Soap the walls when we move, sigh.
The worst part about millipedes though, is the crunch when you step on them, LOL.
I stand in sympathy with you Kate :)
Cheers,
Lizzie
I put up with the ants in the kitchen until a month ago then that was IT!!!
My friend Julie had said “contact spray was the only way to go” months before but I was being very live and let live. Bought the spray, sprayed sills inside and out and Voila no more ants in the kitchen.
Not such a good option with a crawling baby however seeing it claims to “kill all crawling insects”.
Do you know how they get in? I’m intending to put clear “no more gaps” between the floor and the skirting boards, and put seals on all the leaking doors and windows before the winter so I wonder if sealing the house may also stop the invasion.
Our cats eat ’em up before we spy them…we just find the remains, though I don’t know which is worse lol.
ugh! I am feeling for you here, we get caterpillars and spiders LOTS of spiders who never want to die.
Oh Kate! I’m with you, bugs in babies’ mouths are the last straw. Bugs are the worst! They belong outside and outside only! I have the ant problem and cockroaches too, so disgusting!! I can’t get rid of them! And moths! I hate them! (well, I hate them inside, they can be outside and I don’t care).
I don’t know how to solve your millipede problem, but my one thought is that even though you’ve surface sprayed everywhere they could get in, maybe you actually have some resident ones. Ones that live in your house, and thereby are not afraid of the surface spray, because they’re not trying to get out! I think an exterminator might be your answer, maybe try Google first. I have often found out things I didn’t know through Google. Also maybe try http://www.wikipedia.org and search on millipedes, lots of helpful info on wikipedia.
Good luck!!
I use lots of eucalyptus oil to wipe over surfaces and clean floors etc. Not sure if it would get rid of them once they’re there but we don’t have an creepy crawlie problems here – which may or may not have anything to do with eucalyptus oil!
Hope you find a solution.
EEEWWWW. I am so freaked out by millipedes. Have you tried Borax? It works bee-yoo-tifully with fleas and roaches. Good luck.
We use a pest service that takes care of all our bug problems. Anything like that out in the country?
I really can empathize. We live on the water so deal with unwelcome critters in the house. We don’t have millipedes but instead have the larger house centipedes and horrible spiders. These are most annoying as our main living area including kitchen is earth bermed. I went on the war path by caulking every crack I could find and continue to do so. I prefer not to use toxic sprays but this was called for drastic measures. Then I sprayed SpiderBan which has a residual effect continuing to kill off insects that come into contact with it. I repeated in the fall as well for crevices, around the base boards and doorways. We also sprayed the entire house outside with SpiderBan. It really made a huge difference! I keep a can of Raid Ant Roach & Earwig handy that continues killing crawling insects for up to 2 weeks.
Earwigs and centipedes/millipedes are attracted by dampness so I make sure to hang any towels before they go into the hamper. I don’t leave anything wet laying around and I dry out the sinks after using. That seems to really have helped as well. There are still some spiders, earwigs and centipedes getting in but that could be from under the patio door screen when the glass door is open and there are likely more cracks that need caulking. We’ve only been here 9 months so it will take awhile to get the house sealed good. HTH & good luck.
TRY THROWING SALT BY THE DOOR WAY AND THE LIQIUD SOAP DOES REALLY WORK ALTHOUGH THEY DID FIND ANOTHER WAY IN.