Wonderful Wednesday – Turtles and Millipedes

Living five minutes away from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park means that we see many species up close and personal right here in our yard.

I have shared before some pictures of bear, groundhog and rabbits. Two more species we saw in our back yard last week: turtles and millipedes.

These two turtles were just walking through our yard. We have seen turtles here before. A few years ago, there were as many as four in one spot at one time. So seeing two was not unusual for us. 

Two turtles in the grass

Turtles walking through our yard

The millipedes we see all over the house are harmless, but a disturbing presence for me. My daughter will pick them up gently and put them outside.

One day, as my husband was mowing, he noticed a large cob web on one of our trees. I had noticed it, too, but never really given it much thought. It turns out, it was not a spider web. It was a millipede nursery.

Hundreds of millipede babies hanging around quite literally. They look white and a bit too much like gross worms. So I will spare you the close up pictures I took. Not exactly Wonderful Wednesday type of material, if you know what I mean.

A millipede cocoon hanging from one of our trees in the yard

A millipede cocoon hanging from one of our trees in the yard

As you can see, they grabbed some decaying leaves for food before they locked themselves in there. On my morning walk, I noticed some other trees sporting the same type of structure. I have never seen anything like it before. The things you notice when you start paying attention…

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