Millipedes or centipedes in house plants

They probably got in there as eggs in the potting soil when you re-potted the plants. I’d suggest that you contact a garden supply store and see what they recommend to eliminate them.

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1. Millipedes came to surface when you watered the plant. - This lead me to try something. I took the 12” plant I had, which was infested as well, and put it in the kitchen sink. the pot covered the sink hole at the bottom so I didn’t have to use the sink stopper. I began filling the plant with water. It flooded and I was able to skim the critters off the top along with a few twigs from the potting soil. The water I ran was a little warm. Is this going to kill the plant? I’ll find out later on. The water was very warm, not burning hot. The critters that didn’t make it to the top simply drowned. I found a few critters with shells on as well. I then sprayed the plant with a light mist of alcohol water mixture. Then rinsed the leaves immediately. Did this hurt the plant? I’ll find out later. The critters on the surface of the soil remained motionless. I drained the water. Then turned on the sink disposal. They won’t be going to other plants. I let the plant drain since it had good drain holes at the bottom. To accelerate drying time you can put the plant in a breeze (fan, breezeway) that doesn’t get bombarded with light. Even if you do put it in direct light for a short period, and even if you drown the plant for a short period, they wont’ die. Plants are more resilient than bugs. I think my method work as no one is crawling around my plant anymore. Based on other reactions (I got my spray cause it was the first thing I jumped on) The critters were there before you saw them, one more minute of calming down and thinking will make things go just as well with little risk of collateral damage from panic. Change the environment of the bugs for a while and understand plants are very strong as well as beautiful. I topped this thing off with some plant food to refresh the pot and just a hint of potting soil to replace what I took out- 1 handful. Good luck!

I have a question,I have centipedes on my plant.when I was watering it they came out.there is hundreds of them.I am sure they are not millipedes.will they harm humans?

Millipedes and centipedes are common pest in house plants. They probably hatched from eggs that were already present in the dirt you used to replant your plants.

To help get rid of them you can do the following things:

• remove mulch from the plants that contain the insects
• water plants in the early morning to give the dirt a chance to dry out before the millipedes become active, which is at night
• sweep and vacuum around the plants often to pick up the insects that fall to the floor
• eliminate house and food areas around the plants
• destroy plant material after pruning
• use an insecticide that is specially for millipedes and centipedes