MILLEPEDES. 
49 
town manure containing slaughter-house refuse, and what I may 
perhaps best describe as garbage, some of which accumulations would 
be very suitable for Millepedes. 
The following note refers to sudden appearance of Millepede-attack, 
on a much smaller scale than the above, but which seems only to be 
accounted for by migration, for, as these pests eat from their earliest 
condition, 'their presence would not become observable suddenly 
unless they transferred themselves (or were artificially transferred in 
manure, which in this case there is no mention of), from one place to 
another. 
In the course of July I received an inquiry from Mr. Spencer 
Smithson, of Facit, Rochdale, as to how to get rid of a pest of Mille¬ 
pedes in garden ground, which had “ completely destroyed one bed of 
pansies by eating the roots, and were then just beginning to attack 
another.” On inquiry as to whether the creatures could have 
migrated, it was replied that from the position of the beds it appeared 
very improbable that the Millepedes had travelled from one to the 
other; but in both cases the attack had been very sudden, as if the 
pest had just arrived. There were many specimens of the black-grey 
kinds, but the kind which caused most damage was “ much like Julus 
guttatus, only considerably longer.” 
An application of soot and water was tried, mixed in the proportion 
of two handfuls of soot to one gallon of water, applied as closely as 
possible to the crown of the root by means of a watering-can with a 
long spout and no rose. This was reported as very successful; 
whether it acted by killing the Millepedes or driving them away was 
not ascertained; conjecturally it was in both ways, as, though the 
mixture acted very well on the whole, some of the Millepedes were 
seen to come out of the ground when the soot and water was applied 
to one of the roots, and after a while a few more roots were attacked. 
The following note, sent by Mr. P. Sharp, on the 20th of August, 
from The Gardens, Claydon Park, Winslow, Bucks, shows the damage 
caused by various kinds in garden cultivation :— 
“ Herewith I send you some Snake Millepedes, I think of several 
kinds. With us they are most numerous this season, completely de¬ 
stroying all succession crops of Peas and French Beans in this locality. 
I have applied doses of lime, soot, paraffin, &c., but with no avail.” 
The specimens forwarded were of the Flattened Millepede, Poly- 
desmus complanatus (see figs. 6, 7, p. 45), and of the long yellow thread¬ 
like centipede* often found in turning over decayed leaves, or beneath 
stones. 
* This centipede ( Geopliilus) may be easily known from the Millepedes by 
its long narrow shape, like a piece of stout flattened silken thread about a couple 
of inches long, of a yellow or ochreous colour, and furnished with fifty or 
E 
