March 30, 2024
With a high of 20°C and some rain, these would normally be prime millipede conditions, but there have been hardly any this time.
I found one live millipede inside the house and one live one outdoors.
I spent half the day cutting down trees. There were plenty of vines and overgrown, scraggly trees, so I kept cutting one after another.
The footing is poor, so progress was slow.
On top of that, the saw chain on my chainsaw kept coming off, even though the tension was set exactly as specified… Once it comes off, the chain gets bent and becomes unusable. It wasn’t running out of oil either, so it’s a mystery. The poor efficiency made the work quite painful.
The local government doesn’t maintain the protected forest, so while I was at it I also cut off the dead branches hanging low.
Many vines were wrapped around the trees in the protected forest, so I cut those vines at the base as well.
Woodland that isn’t maintained becomes terribly overgrown.
Thanks to all that effort, the place gets far more sunlight than it did a year ago. Back then, trees encroaching from the neighboring land blocked the sun, and in winter the house got almost no direct sunlight.
Now, direct sunlight reaches even the first floor from morning until around 4 p.m.
It made me wonder what “right to sunlight” really means. Apparently it doesn’t apply to trees on a mountain. A mystery.
Millipede Barrier Wall
About half a year ago, I attached plastic cardboard to the house’s foundation. Simply gluing it on with silicone adhesive seemed to hold well enough, so this time I installed it around the entire perimeter of the foundation.
I removed the deck boards of the wood deck to do the installation.
I also read a post saying that bamboo vinegar works as a millipede repellent, so I put some in a spray bottle and sprayed it where large numbers of millipedes had been gathering.
How to Use Bamboo Vinegar | Taketora, Tora-fu Bamboo Specialty Store: Many people use bamboo vinegar as a bath additive, but did you know it has many other uses? The fourth-generation head of Taketora introduces his recommended ways to use bamboo vinegar!If even a little bamboo vinegar gets on your hands, it gives off a powerful smell. It isn’t unpleasant, but the smell drifts in while you’re eating, which seriously dampens your appetite.
