Making Halloween Scary Again

Do you have more money than sense? Me, too! That’s why I build giant pumpkin yard sculptures that include 16 pumpkins and 62 carrots.

I mean, who carves a hundred bucks’ worth of perfectly good produce then leaves it in their yard to rot? Yet I’ve become extremely popular with the neighborhood kids—and the local rabbit population, too. While you can certainly think of better ways to spend your money, like a gas-powered bar stool or an air-conditioned toilet seat, the amazing thing about the Creepy Millipede is that it takes less than two hours to build.

Creepy Millipede

You'll need:

Carving Tools: jigsaw (or pumpkin-carving saw), drill with 1/2-inch bit (electric or manual), and mallet, hammer, or big rock (in a pinch)

16 (or more) pumpkins for body segments (they should gradually increase in size,

if possible)

62 carrots (or 4 carrots per pumpkin)

One 6-foot-long piece of rebar (steel reinforcement bar found at your local home center)
 

16 Segments Make 1 Worm

Select one pumpkin for the millipede’s head, then using the jigsaw and drill, CARVE THE FACE. I can offer very little advice here, as I have never actually seen a millipede in real life, and in the few photos I have seen, they appear to have almost no head.

What I do know for a fact is that millipedes have two antennae, so DRILL TWO HOLES in the top of the head and INSERT TWO CARROTS, then set the head aside.

LINE UP the remaining 15 or more pumpkins from smallest (representing the tip of the tail) to biggest (let’s call it the neck, though I have no idea if millipedes actually have necks), where you will ultimately attach the head.

DRILL FOUR HOLES in each body segment, two on each side of each pumpkin. You will insert carrot legs in the holes later, so before you drill all the holes, check one to be sure the stem end of a carrot fits snugly in it. (Having trouble? Here’s a tip: Remove any carrot greens first.)

Assemble Your Creeper

BEND THE REBAR into a big arc. You will need to secure the bar under something to bend it (I used the two legs of my workbench), then ull, don't push, on the bar. Wear gloves so you don’t get slashed. It’s not a difficult job, but you’ll feel like Hercules anyway. (I won’t tell if you pound your chest and hoot a few times afterward; after all, you just bent metal with muscle!)

POUND one end of the bent rebar into the ground. You’ll need to drive it far enough in to hold up the weight of the neck (have we decided if millipedes have necks yet?), about 2 feet deep should be adequate.

CHOP OFF the stems, then DRILL holes all the way through four of the biggest pumpkins. THREAD these pumpkins onto the rebar to create the thing we are calling the millipede’s neck. Drill a hole in the bottom of the millipede’s head, but don’t drill all the way through the pumpkin, only halfway. Thread it onto the rebar to top off the neck.

62 Legs and Counting

ARRANGE the remaining pumpkins in a winding chain behind the neck. INSERT four carrot legs (stem end first) into the holes you carved on the sides of each pumpkin. Pretty soon, your sculpture will begin to look like a crazed millipede, only giant-size—mine was 15 feet long!


Reprinted from Extreme Halloween by Tom Nardone by arrangement with Perigee, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., Copyright © 2009 by Tom Nardone

 

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