What type of worm is this?

moneyistooshorttomention

Reen wrote: »

Some millipedes are small. The ones I find tend to thrash about when they are uncovered when I move pots. Do they have legs?

Have gone back for another look at images of millipedes.

They don't appear to have legs (difficult to tell when they are coiled up like this).

Most of those pictures feature rather bigger worms than that - but perhaps there are mini-millipedes (and with no visible legs whilst coiled)? The striping is correct and the rather dark colour (of some of them) is correct.

Wonder if that is what they are?

Will have a google for the Wikipedia entry there is bound to be on them for a further check.

At a quick guess - if that's what they are, then are they a bonus, a problem or "just one of those things" as far as the plants in my garden are concerned?

Mojisola

No need to worry about them in the garden -
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=801

Next time you find one, pop it in a jar and see what it looks like when it uncurls. On the small species, the legs can look more like a fringe than legs.

moneyistooshorttomention

Mojisola wrote: »

Can you post some photos?

I still think millipedes is the answer - they can be very small and vary in colour. Are yours anything like these -
http://abugblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/snake-millipede.html

I think we may have a positive identification there then. Looks like it is millipedes from that.

Just scanned Wikipedia entry and the bonus is apparently some obscure African tribe eats them boiled dried in tomato sauce (will pass on that chance of going along with that current idea of trying to make it fashionable to eat insects :eek:).

The downside was mention that they can be minor garden pests, especially in greenhouses, where they can cause severe damage to young seedlings.

Overall conclusion = stick with belting them one with a trowel when spotted or do you think my young food plants are safe from them hoping for free food off me?

Mojisola

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Just scanned Wikipedia entry and the bonus is apparently some obscure African tribe eats them boiled dried in tomato sauce (will pass on that chance of going along with that current idea of trying to make it fashionable to eat insects :eek:).

The African ones will be much bigger!
http://allcreatures.tumblr.com/post/2524121411/zookeeper-andreas-steffens-holds-two-african-giant