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\nA portuguese millipede.
\nPhoto: RNZ\/Mary Argue\n<\/p>\n
A reinfestation of invasive millipedes, crawling out of the soil and into homes, is sending residents of Wellington’s south coast to arm themselves against the bugs.<\/p>\n
The alarm was sounded about the portuguese millipede almost a year ago, with stories of people finding hundreds of the scaly black creatures outside or inside bags, shoes and even beds.<\/p>\n
Since then, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has identified the species in New Plymouth<\/a> and Nelson<\/a> – and while it is considered a nuisance, it’s not classified as a pest species and doesn’t meet the threshold for official control measures.<\/p>\n However residents hope to fight back, and are pinning their hopes on a tiny parasitic worm to suppress millipede numbers.<\/p>\n The microscopic nematode wriggles inside its host, where it reproduces. Eventually the nematode offspring become so numerous they burst out of the host’s body, killing it.<\/p>\n A newcomer to \u014cwhiro Bay told RNZ he planned to unleash an “aggressive” species of the nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora, in addition to barrier sprays and insecticides.<\/p>\n “At this point there’s less concrete more millipedes as I step out of the house. They’re just pouring out of the soil – [it’s] probably got to do with the [recent] rainfall.<\/p>\n “It’s essentially like a millipede graveyard right now.”<\/p>\n He said he was aware of the millipedes before he moved, so was prepared, but the “volume, and the speed” of their emergence was “alarming”.<\/p>\n He hoped his experiment could potentially benefit others and if successful, “nip the problem in the bud”.<\/p>\n A trial of the nematode Steinernema feltiae as a biocontrol agent for the millipede is currently underway at Victoria University – results are expected in a few weeks’ time, but those plagued by the millipedes aren’t waiting.<\/p>\n Another \u014cwhiro Bay resident, who had already sprayed the species of microscopic worm told RNZ their place was one of several houses on the street planning to use it.<\/p>\n “We … haven’t seen any effect yet. But that’s to be expected – it’s a long term thing.”<\/p>\n They said the millipedes were already appearing as numbers tended to surge in autumn and spring.<\/p>\n “They’ve started turning up – you’ll see 10, then the next day you’ll see 20, 30, and then before you know it, they’re just … everywhere.<\/p>\n “If I actually counted them up there’d be a couple of hundred outside and then maybe 10 or 20 inside.<\/p>\n “I’m prepared that they’re going to get worse for a while, before they get better.”<\/p>\n