The brown millipede, about 1 inch long and dark brown with lighter stripes along the body, is the most common species in this region. Brown millipedes are a common problem around homes in or near densely wooded areas where the soil has a high content of organic matter or where lawns have received heavy applications of compost, rotted manure or sewage disposal waste. Other species, especially those that can coil into a spiral, are often found in fewer numbers in homes. Each year somewhere in Missouri millipedes are invading homes. Most species of millipedes seem to migrate in great numbers when the weather is too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry.
Some millipedes feed on living plants when their normal food source is dried out.
They may feed on rotting wood of a structure but will not attach sound wood. Any situation, such as the conservation reserve program, that helps increase the amount of decaying plant material probably also contributes to increased populations of millipedes. In the process of helping break down plant material and return it to the soil, millipedes are considered to be beneficial. The life history of millipedes is rather simple. The female lays eggs in or on the soil under decaying plant material.