My first planting of peas this year was destroyed by millipedes. Millipedes are generally not much of a pest in the garden, but they can be a serious pest of beans, peas and corn. Those large, starchy seeds are very attractive to hungry millipedes. Once those seeds are sprouted and on their way, millipedes won't harm them after that. Peas, though, stay in the ground for quite a long time and as the pea gets eaten the tap root generally get destroyed as well.

These millipedes sometimes look like miniature freight trains tunneling thru the side of a mountain. After knocking them off this is what's left of the pea. In a few more days there would be nothing.

As the pea is increasingly consumed, the tap root and the stem are often severed, leaving the plant in a desperate condition.

Two years ago when I first prepared this same bed, I grew a wonderful stand of peas. There were no millipedes it seems in the freshly prepared soil. Additions of composts and regular moisture make an ideal habitat for millipedes. The second year of peas were totally destroyed. This year as well. What I did this year, though, was to push all of the infested peas off to the side, millipedes, soil and all. The millipedes were only to happy to stay there and continue feasting. I then replanted. More millipedes came by but in much smaller numbers and the peas managed to grow. One or two here or there were destroyed, but that's ok. Here's that stand of peas:

As an experiment I made some test plantings of a few peas in various spots around my vegetable garden. In new beds, the peas grew fine with a solid, unmolested tap root. In older, composted beds, the millipedes were a big problem. I tried also spreading split-peas from the grocery store on each side of the sprouting peas, hoping the millipedes would go for those. That didn't work.

But I think I may have found a solution. I took a 4-inch wide slice of paper towel and folded it in half with some peas and beans inside. These were planted in a bed where I expected heavy millipede pressure. They all came up and grew beautifully. Next year, that is how I will plant all my peas. Beans too.