Cherokia georgiana
Cherry Millipede: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: A small Eastern-US flat-backed millipede and charming display colony animal: the cherry millipede, named for the almond/cherry scent of its cyanide-bearing defensive secretion. Cool, moist, temperate leaf-litter care. Adults reach only about 1-1.5 inches.
Group: Industry StaplesDifficulty: Spice 2: BeginnerSetup: Cool moist temperate communal millipede (flat-back)Handling: Brief contact tolerated. Wash hands after any contact. Handling is optional and never required for good care.
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 60-75°F (cool temperate) |
|---|---|
| Humidity | High with fine-mesh cross ventilation; cool, moist leaf litter, drier surface (80%+) |
| Setup Type | Cool moist temperate communal millipede (flat-back) |
| Substrate | Moist deciduous leaf litter over a thin organic layer; cool |
| Feeding | Decaying deciduous leaves; a little calcium; light veggie supplements |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 2: Beginner |
| Handling | Brief contact tolerated. Wash hands after any contact. Handling is optional and never required for good care. |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- terrestrial burrow setup for display colonies
Warnings First
- Defensive secretion is cyanide-bearing (almond/cherry smell). Wash hands after handling; keep it away from face and food
- Tiny flat-back. Keep cool and moist; not a tropical species
- Easy to lose; small ventilation, secure lid
- Small ventilation, but placed low on two opposite walls. A tiny cool damp box has almost no air volume and stalls within days.
Simple Care
- Cool room temps (60-75°F); moist deciduous leaf litter over a thin soil layer.
- Fine-mesh vents low on two opposite walls: small enough to hold them, plentiful enough to keep the litter aerobic.
- A little calcium; light veggie supplements.
- Shallow dish or bottle cap packed with grit so these tiny animals cannot drown.
- Keep as a small display colony with secure tiny ventilation and plenty of leaf cover.
- Wash hands after any handling: the defensive ooze contains cyanide; harmless externally, just don't ingest it or rub your eyes.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- A single hobby species: C. georgiana (cherry millipede), Eastern US. A cool, moist, temperate flat-back: deciduous leaf litter (oak, maple) over a thin organic layer; ventilated so it doesn't go anaerobic.
- Small and easy to lose. Keep ventilation tiny and the lid secure.
- Tiny and plentiful is the combination you want, placed low on two opposite walls so air crosses the litter layer. This is a small, cool, damp enclosure, which is the fastest-stalling configuration there is: little air volume, cool air holding little moisture, and a shallow organic layer that goes anaerobic quickly once it stops exchanging air.
- Ventilation and ambient humidity trade against each other. Hold the moisture in the leaf litter rather than in still air and let the mesh flow, rather than sealing a small box to keep humidity up.
- Judge by squeeze and smell rather than by any gauge that would fit. The litter and thin soil layer should feel like a wrung-out sponge, release no free water, and smell like forest floor. Sour means air.
- Use a shallow dish or bottle cap packed with coarse grit so the waterline sits below the rim, and mist into the leaf litter rather than over the surface. At this body size the animals drown in a couple of millimetres, and the litter is where they live anyway.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Decayed deciduous leaves are the staple; a little cuttlebone for calcium; veggies only as a light supplement. No citrus, no treated wood.
- Keep the colony cool: this is not a species to warm up; excessive heat stresses it.
- Molting: millipedes molt underground, sealing into a chamber and going still for days or weeks. Never dig up or disturb a buried animal, keep that part of the substrate from drying out, and keep cuttlebone available, since they eat the shed exoskeleton to reclaim calcium.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: Eastern United States: deciduous forest leaf litter.
- Habitat translation: A cool, moist enclosure of deciduous leaf litter over a thin organic layer, ventilated, with a little calcium and a secure lid.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Adult size ~1-1.5 in: a true miniature flat-back, not one of the cylindrical 'giant' millipedes.
- Polydesmid flat-backs like this synthesise hydrogen cyanide in their defensive glands; the dose is trivial to a person who washes up afterwards, but it's why you don't handle it casually and then touch your eyes or food.
- Cool, moist, temperate; a charming little display colony in a planted bioactive bin.