Like a horror movie'

New Zealand suburbs plagued by millipedes

- Eva Corlett

A visitor centre on the south coast of Wellington, the blustery, briny wind is no match for the smell of thousands of decaying millipedes, which reek like decomposing vermin and rotting fish.

Along the streets of Owhiro Bay, dead, curled-up millipedes are piled up on the footpath and live ones march along the street. One resident in this part of New Zealand's capital city said that her neighbours collected five bin bags' worth of the creatures from around their home in one week.

"You're constantly on guard. These things are everywhere," said Georgia Osborne, another Owhiro Bay local. "There have been times I've woken up with a millipede on my face."

The infestation of Portuguese millipedes in the city's southern suburbs has now become so bad that people are likening it to "a horror movie". They say they are forced to sweep away hundreds of the critters from their homes and gardens each day.

Portuguese millipedes are attracted to light, and Osborne said the large street lamp outside her rental property lured them in by the thousands.