Fast and agile, the “hundred-legged” centipede is a beneficial and terrifying household pest.
Have you ever seen a many-legged creature scurrying so fast across the grind that you take a second look to make sure you actually saw it ? If thus, there is a opportunity you encountered a centipede .
This critter is a common family plague, seeking out a damp environment and solid food generator in the comforts of your home. While not excessively dangerous to people, a centipede might not be a welcome guest.
What is a centipede?
distinct by their long body and numerous legs, centipedes belong to the Chilopoda worm class within the Myriapoda subphylum, which contains early leggy insects like millipedes .
Centipedes can have a few twelve pairs of legs to a few hundred, which is how they got their name. In Latin, “ centi ” refers to 100, and “ ped ” or “ pedis ” entail feet. Whenever this worm is around your dwelling, its accelerate and legs can be a discomforting spy .
Types of Centipedes
There are more than 8,000 centipede species in the universe, appearing on every continent except Antarctica .
The most park is the Scutigera coleoptrata, differently known as the house centipede. This yellow-grey centipede will typically be a few inches long with more than 15 pairs of legs, making it among the fastest in the centipede syndicate .
Centipedes have a non-metamorphosis life cycle, experiencing numerous moltings into adulthood with an average life of five years. Depending on where you live, you could encounter several types : The giant abandon ( Texas ) centipede, the bark centipede or the cryptopid centipede .
Knowing what type you encounter helps in knowing how to handle them .
What do centipedes eat?
When the lights dim and the moonlight rises, nocturnal-hunting centipedes form into action .
Centipedes find these early family pests particularly enticing :
- spiders
- crickets
- cockroaches
- worms
- silverfish
- and even other centipedes
Depending on the size and species, some centipedes may hunt small animals like lizards, snakes, birds, and frogs. As renaissance man carnivores, they will attack any soft-bodied animal they feel able of killing and eating .
How do centipedes defend themselves?
Centipedes are a goodly nosh for numerous predators, including snakes, frogs, birds, hedgehogs and badgers. so to protect themselves, centipedes trust on numerous defensive structure mechanisms :
- Speed: With all those legs, centipedes can outrun and out-maneuver a lot of their predators, escaping under stones, leaf litter and tree bark.
- Biting: When fighting something close to their size, centipedes will catch a foe with their jaw and inject a venomous bite.
- Pinching: Pinching is a centipede’s “other” primary way of biting. A centipede can poison its prey or its predators by piercing the body with their legs, one of the few species with such capability.
Where are you likely to find centipedes?
In North America, you most often will find centipedes outside in damp locations, hiding under protective areas such as stones, leaves, and logs. They will besides come indoors, so it ’ s not unusual to find one in your house .
just like their outdoor environment, centipedes look for a dampen location like a toilet or basement. If centipedes are in the base, you can reasonably assume there are other critters around, as centipedes find and hunt other types of bugs. And that ’ s not a bad thing .
How do centipedes get into your home?
Centipedes are nocturnal, leaving their day cover to find food. They ’ ra attracted to spots with a lot of moisture. They will enter a house through cracks or openings in the basis, so checking your home for undesirable entrances is all-important to establishing a pest-free home .
Centipedes are bang-up at finding hiding spaces, attracted to the dark and damp spots such as a voltaic pile of wet towels or hard-to-get-to crawl spaces in the attic. If there are enough of these hospitable environments, plus other pests as a ample food reservoir, you can promptly find yourself with a centipede infestation. But preceptor ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate worry .
Can centipedes damage your house?
No. While creepy, centipedes pose little danger to people or a home. They have no interest in damaging the structure .
While centipedes do have malice and will poison their prey, they typically will alone be aggressive towards something they can actually eat. If a common family centipede gets scared and bites you, you might feel a little pinch. But outside of that, you should have nothing to fear .
How to kill centipedes
Getting rid of centipedes is a big game of hide and seek. They don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate leave much of a trail, so you frequently have to see them to get rid of them. But if you come across one, there are numerous natural remedies for centipedes, along with using chemicals .
- Vacuum: To avoid chemicals and cleaning up splatter, vacuuming centipedes is the way to go. Once that’s done, make sure to seal the bag so they can’t get out and dispose of it in the trash.
- Shoes: The time-proven way to kill an insect. Squish them or hit them with your shoe.
- Sticky Traps: Place a sticky trap down (as shown below) where you think centipedes lurk, near the edge of a wall or an opening in the foundation. The glue will capture a few pests, including centipedes, though a larger centipede might be escape by losing a few legs.
- Insecticide Dusts: Especially useful for those spots where you shouldn’t use liquids, insecticide dust with chemicals like deltamethrin, pyrethrin and boric acid can be an effective way to eliminate centipedes. Use in cracks, holes in the wall and under cabinets or appliances. As with all insecticides, make sure you use as intended and keep out of reach of small pets and children.
- Insecticide Spray: If you find a centipede, killing one with an insecticide spray can put a quick end to your problem. Sprays with bifenthrin or cypermethrin will kill centipedes on sight with one quick shot. Similar to the dust, follow instructions and keep away from pets and children.
- Exterminators: If all else fails, call your local exterminator to provide expert solutions to your unique situation and house.
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Centipede Pest Control
As a predator to common family pests such as spiders, termites, cockroaches and silverfish, centipedes are great as their own form of pest control. so while getting rid of them might be good in the short-change term, you might want to think twice about whether or not you should kill centipedes. They could be doing more full for your family than damage .
Sources
- Insect Identification: https://www.insectidentification.org/centipedes.asp
- University of Minnesota: https://extension.umn.edu/insect-relatives/sowbugs-millipedes-and-centipedes
- Penn State University: https://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/house-centipedes
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