There are several reports of millipede infestations in Hawke's Bay, Tauranga and in the Wellington suburb of Kilbirnie from more than 75 years ago.
The black, wormlike creature - about two inches long with hundreds of "hairlike" legs - crawls up walls, drops into food and causes general "havoc" in the home.
Residents say they're alarmed but also annoyed by increasing numbers of the "sinister-looking" millipede invading their homes in spring and autumn.
It could be a report from Wellingtonians who, over the past couple of years, have described hordes of black Portuguese millipedes in and around their south coast homes - showing up in bags and even beds.
But these alarmed residents are in Napier, and in the year 1949.
