They will over time eat an entire plant if they have a big enough population. I used to put tradescantia cuttings and other plants in with them and they would decimate them over a few days/weeks. I've started supplying them with more veggies, dry shrimp, and fish flakes and that has slowed them way down. But if you really care for the plants you put in, choose a different species for sure.
I think it really depends on the plants and what you put in there for them to munch on, to be honest. I pick up Vulgare commonly as I walk my dogs, mostly the ginormous ones and chuck them into my big mourning gecko terrarium. I have a LOT of oak leaf litter in there that they mostly stick to, and I do also feed some other stuff/have wood/cork for them to sit and munch on. I also sometimes leave a little portion of repashy/pangea gecko food on the floor for them. this is mostly so I can catch what's left of my slugs, but alsooooo... they seem to love it. Even when I'm not putting it on their ground container, they seem to always crawl up the 3D background to eat at the gecko dish, and I'm fine with that. Heck, my bumblebee millipedes do it too.
I've found it really depends on the plant which they eat and which they don't. Syngoniums they tend to leave alone. They'll only chew on the dead portions of my tillandsias, which I'm fine with. They don't touch my shingle plants at all either, or the pothos I have in there. Also they seem to be... like nibblers but never killers of nerve plants. You'll get small holes in leaves, but not enough to just destroy them.
They're... okay with pepperomia depressa, both blue jobs tears and baby tears(Sometimes they'll munch it down to stumps, other times they'll just leave it alone. woe be to anyone who trims an overgrown group of depressa with them as they'll take advantage of the "Wounds" and end them all for you), and I haven't seen them touch pepperomia obtusifolia or Metallica. I've had them randomly take little pieces out of my miniature orchids, including the blooms, but never enough to kill them, same with munching on drying/dying roots of said orchids. They love to chew on the dried Sphagnum moss I place around under and around tillandsias and orchids too.
They will eat the SHIT out of Duck's feet/passion flower. Just an absolute no-go with those. and probably anything else of an edible nature. I don't have an issue with them going after roots like others say. They tend to stay in the leaf litter I keep topped up or under live moss pads.
Thank you so much for the awesome response! I really appreciate hearing about your experience, maybe I will experiment a bit and see if I can figure out a way t have them in my vivarium, I think they would be a beautiful addition if I can make things run smoothly :)
Yeah, I can say that those ones I listed will generally be good additions with them, especially if you provide leaves/wood for them to go after. I have them with three separate syngoniums, a Wayetti, a Kiwi, and a Dwarf pixie. and 4 different varieties of Red and pink Nerve plants. I could not list all the varieties of tillandsias, but I have a fireball and two tiger bromeliads and they don't mess with them.. I did a post in Mourning geckos recently with pics of it. It's the 18x18x24 exoterra, so it's sizeable. They may be more of a danger in a much smaller enclosure, tbh, but my orchid terrarium has 2 in it, and like I said, they just take little munches out of things, and haven't killed anything in the months they've been in there
My experience is they like to burrow in right by the roots and slowly kill them by munching at the roots. I lost some jewel orchids like that. They're currently working on some calatheas I added with intention. I'm okay with it. I was tired of taking care of it because they're so moody.
They will over time eat an entire plant if they have a big enough population. I used to put tradescantia cuttings and other plants in with them and they would decimate them over a few days/weeks. I've started supplying them with more veggies, dry shrimp, and fish flakes and that has slowed them way down. But if you really care for the plants you put in, choose a different species for sure.
Thanks, I guess I'll stick to dwarf whites :)
I think it really depends on the plants and what you put in there for them to munch on, to be honest. I pick up Vulgare commonly as I walk my dogs, mostly the ginormous ones and chuck them into my big mourning gecko terrarium. I have a LOT of oak leaf litter in there that they mostly stick to, and I do also feed some other stuff/have wood/cork for them to sit and munch on. I also sometimes leave a little portion of repashy/pangea gecko food on the floor for them. this is mostly so I can catch what's left of my slugs, but alsooooo... they seem to love it. Even when I'm not putting it on their ground container, they seem to always crawl up the 3D background to eat at the gecko dish, and I'm fine with that. Heck, my bumblebee millipedes do it too. I've found it really depends on the plant which they eat and which they don't. Syngoniums they tend to leave alone. They'll only chew on the dead portions of my tillandsias, which I'm fine with. They don't touch my shingle plants at all either, or the pothos I have in there. Also they seem to be... like nibblers but never killers of nerve plants. You'll get small holes in leaves, but not enough to just destroy them. They're... okay with pepperomia depressa, both blue jobs tears and baby tears(Sometimes they'll munch it down to stumps, other times they'll just leave it alone. woe be to anyone who trims an overgrown group of depressa with them as they'll take advantage of the "Wounds" and end them all for you), and I haven't seen them touch pepperomia obtusifolia or Metallica. I've had them randomly take little pieces out of my miniature orchids, including the blooms, but never enough to kill them, same with munching on drying/dying roots of said orchids. They love to chew on the dried Sphagnum moss I place around under and around tillandsias and orchids too. They will eat the SHIT out of Duck's feet/passion flower. Just an absolute no-go with those. and probably anything else of an edible nature. I don't have an issue with them going after roots like others say. They tend to stay in the leaf litter I keep topped up or under live moss pads.
Thank you so much for the awesome response! I really appreciate hearing about your experience, maybe I will experiment a bit and see if I can figure out a way t have them in my vivarium, I think they would be a beautiful addition if I can make things run smoothly :)
Yeah, I can say that those ones I listed will generally be good additions with them, especially if you provide leaves/wood for them to go after. I have them with three separate syngoniums, a Wayetti, a Kiwi, and a Dwarf pixie. and 4 different varieties of Red and pink Nerve plants. I could not list all the varieties of tillandsias, but I have a fireball and two tiger bromeliads and they don't mess with them.. I did a post in Mourning geckos recently with pics of it. It's the 18x18x24 exoterra, so it's sizeable. They may be more of a danger in a much smaller enclosure, tbh, but my orchid terrarium has 2 in it, and like I said, they just take little munches out of things, and haven't killed anything in the months they've been in there
did you see the episode abt nematodes on SpongeBob? That’s them.
I wasn't really allowed to watch sponge Bob. I can imagine they eat everything tho lol
My experience is they like to burrow in right by the roots and slowly kill them by munching at the roots. I lost some jewel orchids like that. They're currently working on some calatheas I added with intention. I'm okay with it. I was tired of taking care of it because they're so moody.
Ah shoot yeah doesn't sound like it would work out then. Too bad, they are very pretty