What is this?

[frogga]

I keep finding these in my polytunnel, are they a friend or do I feed them the chickens?

Andrew

[mothhawk]

Millipedes - to the chickens with them. As a general rule, think, slow moving - bad - pest; fast moving - good - predator

[frogga]

Ok, thanks for that, I must find at least 10 each day under staging or slabs in my polytunnel. They won't live in there much longer!

[mothhawk]

The female can apparently lay up to 1000 eggs in one go, so you've got quite a few more days of hunting them yet

[frogga]

I like the comment but I don't think I will like the hunting!

[Snadger]

Millipedes - to the chickens with them. As a general rule, think, slow moving - bad - pest; fast moving - good - predator

Beat me to it!

[mothhawk]

To paraphrase a ditty (and I can't recall the author):

The millipede lays a thousand eggs, the hen lays only one; the millipede makes no fuss of this, the hen tells everyone.