Terrarium Issues

[wiiiroc]

I've had my Satanic Leaf Tail for around a month and a week.
I sort of had a hunch something fishy was going on in the terrarium, and I was right. This morning I woke up to see two millipedes wiggling their way around inside of the tank. I am extremely freaked out and worried from this bug problem.
I was just wondering, how did they get there?
Are they a problem?
Could my leaf tail eat them? Is it safe?

Thanks you guys

- Brienna

 

[wiiiroc]

I think they're millipedes anyway...

 

[Tony C]

If they are millipedes then they shouldn't harm anything, they feed on decaying organic matter. You can remove them if you want, but you will always see weird bugs in a terrarium with live plants.

 

[Amped Herptiles]

Some smaller species of Uroplatus like phantasticus are fed millipedes by some keepers in the states. I have read that some animals find this food item to be a favorite. They are ok to be consumed by uros.

 

[wiiiroc]

If they will always be there then it seems like sort of a waste to remove them.
I did some research at work today and found out through GeckosUnlimited that I can remove them by adding dry ice and water.

I feed my gecko crickets, but the idea of having a self-producing feeder in the terrarium is really handy for the days where I am low on small crickets. I also like the idea of having a little guy who cruises around cleaning up decaying and rotting material. Saves me work

I am mostly concerned with them multiplying. I do not want to wake up one day to a terrarium of a thousand millipedes.

 

[Tony C]

If they will always be there then it seems like sort of a waste to remove them.
I did some research at work today and found out through GeckosUnlimited that I can remove them by adding dry ice and water.

Make sure your geckos are not in the terrarium if you do this, the CO2 will kill them along with all the bugs.

 

[mckyle]

I think they're millipedes anyway...

Make sure they aren't centipedes if you're in doubt - those can be fatal.

 

[wiiiroc]

Of course remove the gecko, it wouldn't be a pretty picture if he was left in there with the dry ice.

And I'm 99.9% positive they are millipedes. They look far too long and wormy to be centipedes. They also lack the super disgusting long spider legs.

 

[HepCatMoe]

centipedes have legs that go out on the sides of the body. millipedes have legs that go down under the body. if you look at just a couple pictures of each you will get the idea, and they are actually super easy to tell apart.

a lot of the larger (and by large i mean pretty dang huge 5+ inches and as thick as your finger) millipedes are poisonous. i dont know very much about the small ones.

but, even if they are poisonous, i bet they taste pretty bad and if your gecko tried to eat one it would just spit it out and never try to eat another one. in my experience reptiles are pretty smart about the things they eat.

also, i am sure they help keep the cage clean. however, if your cage is an ideal habitat you certainly might have a population boom and one day wake up to find thousands of little millipedes in your tank. is that a big deal? probably not. most of them would probably die and the population would stabilize out.

centipedes on the other hand are venomous and dangerous. a large centipede will probably attack and try to eat your gecko. :-/ ive seen anoles used as feeders for centipedes before.

so, long story short, i would view this as a good learning opportunity. i would research whatever it is, and then make a decision. but like an above poster said, you will probably always have funny little bugs running around in planted tanks. i actually introduced isopods into mine to help keep it clean.