One of our readers found two small “worms” in his home. One he discovered on the hardwood floor and the other creature was crawling up the wall. He is curious what they are, if there are more crawling around his home, and how he can get rid of them.

The specimen our reader has found in his home is a millipede!  It is brown and has tiny segments lining its body, as well as two antennae sticking out of its head. Millipedes are not actually worms, they are arthropods, and are closely related to centipedes (they are often mistaken for centipedes and vice versa). They have segmented bodies, and each segment has two jointed pairs of legs.

Millipedes enjoy dark, damp environments where they can scavenge for food. Their ideal environment outdoors is leaf litter, but inside a home they usually hide out in a basement. Millipedes eat damp wood and decaying wood particles, but when they are desperate they might resort to eating living plants. Since these millipedes prefer the outdoors to inside, they are probably getting in our readers home by mistake. He should check the windows, doors, and vents to make sure they are properly sealed, so that there are no cracks millipedes or other creatures could sneak through. He should pay extra attention to the vents, windows, and doors in the basement. To prevent millipedes from entering his home in the future, there are a couple steps he can take. First, he should make sure he sweeps or vacuums regularly to limit the amount of dust and debris in his home that might be a food source for the millipedes. Also, he could purchase a dehumidifier, which will get rid of excess moisture in his home and make it a less ideal environment!

To summarize, a reader noticed a couple small creatures crawling around in his home. We believe these are millipedes.

 

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