Pet Insect Photography West Sussex Giant Millipede

This may surprise you, but giant millipedes (Archispirostreptus gigas) are popular as pets. And having met some of these gentle arthropods, I can see why. I think they’re gorgeous. Please don’t go ‘eeewww …..’ because these are definitely not ‘creepy crawlies’ or anything nasty. In fact they’re gentle and really rather characterful. And they are certainly giant – up to 12 inches long. They are docile and very pleasant to handle, but they’re capable of secreting an irritant so you need to be mindful of that.

You can keep more than one giant millipede together and they’ll be quite happy. In fact if you have a male and female it’s very likely they’ll breed. I’m not sure why they’re called millipedes because they don’t have anything like that number of legs - I think 200 to 400 legs is probably the norm. How you care for your giant millipede depends to an extent on which species it is, but they are herbivores. They love fruit and veg, particularly cucumber. To be specific, these creatures are ‘detritivores’ since they prefer decaying vegetation. They are not currently endangered and their native habitat is the African rain forest.