LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte, Philippines — Millipedes attacked agricultural fields in Barangay Yawran, Itbayat, Batanes, damaging crops and swarming communities, local authorities said Tuesday.

Millipedes are arthropods that eat decaying leaves and other dead plant matter, but they can also be minor garden pests when they damage emergent seedlings.

“Millipedes contribute to balance our ecosystem but that volume is so unusual. All that we can do is to eradicate them with insecticide,” said Department of Agriculture (DA) provincial chief Celso Batallones.

Ms. Josefa Ponce, Itbayat town secretary, said the millipede infestation was first noticed last September when students and teachers of Yawran Barrio School found them in plants.

The incident was followed by millipedes swarming into residential areas, alarming residents.

Itbayat Mayor Romeo Gonzales sent municipal agriculture personnel to conduct an inspection and found that the millipedes had already damaged some agricultural fields in Barangay Yawran.

Gonzales instructed the spraying of insecticides to combat the spread of the millipedes.

However, the insecticides they used did not work so Ponce and his team at the DA-Island Agriculture Research Outreach Station (DA-IAROS) stepped in.

Ponce used a different kind of insecticide which worked against the millipedes.