Collecting millipedes

• What you need
• What to do
• No Portuguese millipedes at your place?
• Sending samples to CSIRO
• Doing your own research

This activity was developed for Millpede Mayhem, the 2007 national experiment from CSIRO's Double Helix Science Club. Millipede Mayhem helped CSIRO scientists map where invasive Portuguese millipedes have spread in Australia.

Find out more about Millipede Mayhem.

What you need

To collect your millipede samples, you will need:

• garden gloves
• several specimen tubes (capped plastic containers such as film canisters)
• several small sticky labels
• water
• a tissue or cotton wool
• a magnifying glass
• a notebook or piece of paper
• a pen or pencil.

What to do

Safety warnings:

• Wear gloves when collecting millipedes.
• When looking under rocks and logs, be aware of other creatures such as poisonous spiders and snakes.
• Avoid long grass, wet areas and other known snake habitats.
• Never put your hands where you can't see.
• Millipedes are not harmful to humans but produce a smelly fluid that discourages predators. This yellow substance stains skin, and smell and colour are hard to wash off. Avoid skin and eye contact.
• Wash hands after collecting.
• Younger collectors should have adult supervision.

Before you start, read some tips on Identifying Portuguese millipedes.

1. Try to collect from several different places. Label the tubes with the site name or give each site a unique number.
2. Look around your garden and surrounding green spaces or parklands for Portuguese millipedes and any other millipede species.
3. When you find some millipedes, note the date, the type of habitat and any other interesting observations about the place. Write all the information in your notebook as you go.
4. From this site, carefully collect approximately ten adult millipedes.
5. Place the millipedes collected from the first collection site into the first collection tube.
6. Before capping the tube, add a small amount of moist (not soaked) tissue or cotton wool.
7. Repeat this collection and note-taking procedure at other sites.

No Portuguese millipedes at your place?

Although Portuguese millipedes are the main focus of this activity, there are other introduced millipedes in Australia and many native species that haven't been thoroughly researched. You might find a new millipede species!

Sending samples to CSIRO

Although Millipede Mayhem has finished, CSIRO entomologists are still happy to receive samples of millipedes, which will help them continue their research into the Portuguese millipede and its effect on different ecosystems. Samples from the NSW Central Coast north into Queensland would be particularly appreciated as this is an area of uncertainty in distribution and millipedes may be moving into this area.

Please send samples to:

CSIRO Entomology - Black Mountain
Attention: Dr Geoff Baker / Millipede Mayhem
GPO Box 1700
Canberra ACT 2601

Alternatively, you might like to keep your millipedes and do your own research.

Doing your own research

If you keep your millipede samples, you are ready to carry out a millipede research project. You could investigate:

• whether the millipede numbers in your area change from year to year or season to season
• how many males and females you've found (for tips on identifying the sex of your millipedes, see our tips on Identifying Portuguese millipedes)
• how many different millipede species you can find
• whether there are more millipedes in some locations than in others (draw a map!)
• what they like to eat.

Read more about Millipede Mayhem.

Contact Information

Primary Contact

Related Links

• Millipede Mayhem
• Double Helix Science Club
• Do-it-yourself science
• Science for Schools

• Identifying Portuguese millipedes
• Black Portuguese millipedes fact sheet