hey all, noting my lack of money right now i was brainstorming ideas to get money and this came into my head... i live in a spot where you go in the woods and there are hundreds upon hundreds of millipedes. i was wondering if i would have any success taking them and selling them... they are about 4-5 maybe even some 6"ers here... please let me know if this would be considered a bad thing to do... or cruel in anyway. and please let me know if it would be successful if it isn't cruel or bad at all. i wouldn't be selling them for that much... probably just $1+shipping. thank you. and trust me ANY help is necessary
~steven~

a lot of ppl frown on collecting for sale. however, if you only take every tenth or twentieth millipede you find there would probably be almost no impact on the area. and if you priced them to sell them as breeding groups (i.e. 1 for $7 or 5 for $15 you could actually help to get another species established in the hobby


when you start pilfering EVERY oNE you start getting into pretty dodgy territory... but it is likely if millipedes are in such numbers that you are practically stepping on them then you probably won't really be able to collect enough to seriously depress and area


but... some millipedes take years to mature and so are somewhat slower to bounce back from having a lot taken... so it is really pretty hard to tell exactly what the affects of collecting in big numbers is.


also, you could try colleccting only a few from any given acre and spreading your collecting out to hopefully only take a few from any given area


p.s. you might get some slightly flamey responses... try to understand where they are coming from and not take it too personally



plus, you are doing a bit of research BEFORE you do it, which speaks well of you


also, do you want the money to buy bugs? if so, you could consider trading them. you generally get better like, value when you trade someone, too

i would probably use some of the money to buy more bugs... BUT i would use alot of the money for my new bike fund! and i am expecting the (as you put it) "somewhat flamey responses" i knew i wold get some as soon as i hit post! thank you for your help cacoseraph

I have nothing really to add onto what Cacoseraph said, as I think that's a great answer. However, I do have one question. Do you at least know what species of millipede you're encountering where you are? I mean, it sure would be tough to sell "Unidentified Millipede from -place-. Don't know what it is, but it sure is pretty!" Know what I mean?

yea... i dont know what they are at the time BUT i will deffinately do alot of research before going on with my actual plan.
~steven~

Steven,

Get some good images and upload them. We have a professor who pops in who can easily ID them and answer your questions.

Until then, there's no reason to get flamey responses, as no one knows if you're near a very very common species OR if you're near a slow growing and threatened species.

Good on you for asking first. I recall another hobbyist who was offered X dollars for a 500 lot of critters, he said no as the impact to the area was NOT worth it at all.


Christian

thank you all for your help... yea christian, i am one of those very few kids who will read up and do his research before he gets into something and just buys stuff all willy nilly and stuff like that. haha. yea i will possibly go on a hike tomorrow or asap and get pictures of the bugs. thank you again everyone!!