Assisted molt

Wade

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
2,929
Has anynone here ever assisted a centipede in a molt? I did this a couple days ago when I noticed on of my S. polymorpha had freshly molted...the crumpled molt was was lying next to it. I noticed, however, that the antenna an one of the prehensors still had the old exoskeleton stuck to them. I used a long pair of tweezers to grasp part of the old exo and then let the pede pull away. After a few tries, all of the old exoskeleton was removed.

It's possible that it would have gotten them off on it's own, but I didn't want to chnace it as I won't be able to collect any more this year!

Wade
 

BugBoyX

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 1, 2003
Messages
122
I've had to do it with snakes before, but never with a pede. Don't see any harm with doing it as long as the pede is allowed to pull free from the molt, like you did,and isn't "pulled" from it.
 
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