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"Terrarium"
I never would have seen this guy had I not snapped the picture and looked at the shots on the monitor.
Shown with a greater zoom.
It seemed like a good collection of the millipedes didn’t make it through last winter. A number of smaller guys hung around, but the greater collection of larger, and older, arthropods passed on. I was about to give up on the tank, but then decided to try planting some clover and adding some earthworms in attempts to add nutrition to the soil. I added a couple new millipedes in the late summer, and so far they seem to be doing fine.
They seem to get along well with the Sow Bugs.
The smaller ones are very active in the early evening.
This segmented millipede almost escaped the camera; it was only after taking a shot that I realized it was hiding there.
Although it has been a while since I mentioned them, the “bug room” terrariums are doing pretty well as we enter the winter season.
A while back, I dedicated one terrarium to Sow Bugs. It took a little while for the guys to populate the tank, but without any natural predators and a wealth of mud, branches and leaves, the tank is now Sow Bug Central. It is easy to sneak up on the critters and see dozens, if not literally hundreds, devouring the food I put in for them.
This result takes little time at all. With the passing autumn, I collected probably four times as many leaves this years as I did last to ensure I have food for them over the upcoming months.
Yet another very minor event interests me greatly.
For the past few years, as the weather turns cold, the frame of our front door becomes the home for numerous juvenile millipedes. At least ten feet from the nearest ground, the young ones apparently climb from the brush and drying leaves below and surround the passage to the inside.
Since I started the terrarium of millipedes and sow bugs, I’ve become quite adept at finding millipedes when I go on hikes. In the early autumn, this is a pretty easy task; the large adults hide under rocks and branches, but are very conspicuous with their bright red stripes and fairly wide bodies.
As the season progresses and the adults begin to winter under, it takes a keen eye to find the babies and very young critters under the dead wood of logs and fallen trees. I seem to have a great ability to find the smallest speck and realize it is a coiled baby hiding from me.
Why these guys, older than young babies given their size and color (the real young ones are white, if not nearly transparent at times), I can’t begin to understand why they make themselves so obvious on the door, and stray so far away from food and shelter. In fact, they crawl straight up towards the porch light which should be more of a deterrent than an attraction. The only reason I can figure, given my distorted view of things, is that they know that I have very comfy, warm terrariums not far from the door, and like settlers from the old west, they daringly crawl seeking a new, prosperous home.
Maybe…
A number of juvenile millipedes are living under the dirt of the terrarium, but right against the glass side, so they are visible at almost all times.
They seem to interact well with the Sow Bugs; at least, they don’t react negatively when the Sow Bugs walk on them.
I’m happy to see both thriving. Of course, I also find it amusing that they seem to like walking on the skeletal remains of an adult millipede, which looks like dinosaur bones in comparison to their tiny bodies.
As the weather grows warmer (including the upstairs “bug room”), creatures in the terrarium are slowly showing themselves in the evening.
If I had to bet, I’d guess there are hundreds of sow bugs in the two terrariums. They tend to hide well, but sometimes I can spy hoards of them crawling under the dirt but against the glass.
This millipede was half-hiding from me, but coiled while exposed on a broken piece of tree.
I almost missed this little guy.
Turns out he is a new little member of the millipede family.
Contemplating Silent Wishes
Contemplating Silent Wishes, the second release from Fertanish, presents minimalist, experimental rhythms and sounds that patiently travel through a complicated and mesmerizing composition.
Zero Zero Three
Stray
