Millipedes do not eat just dead plants. Some species eat living ones as well and by doing so can become a pest. The Spotted Snake Millipede can be such a pest. The species can do a lot of harm in potato fields and to sugar beets and such. Also ripening strawberries are regularly attacked. They hate wet conditions though, especially in spring, their mating seasons. After a wet spring only very few Spotted Snake Millipeds are found. Thet prefer heavier soils over sandy ones.