Everyone is saying they're harmless, but we read house centipedes cam leave painful bites. I've never been bitten, that I know of, but when plagued with centipedes, I'd sometimes wake up with one of two types of mysterious bug bites: itchy, and painful. I know from prior experience that most North American spider bites are only ever itchy, so I always put the painful ones down to house centipedes. I can't prove it, though. Here are the facts I do know about house centipedes, from empiricle evidence:
They like damp. You'll find them in damp spots, drains, around toilets, around damp areas in basements, etc. Not exclusively, but predominantly.
They wage a secret war with spiders. Sometimes the spider wins, but usually the centipede does unless it gets trapped by a web.
Alive, they move like the wind. Shockingly, alarmingly fast.
When smacked, they explode into air and legs. So many legs, and not much else.
Despite reports that they control other bugs, they are useless against real nuisance bugs like soldier and stink bugs. And for fly control, spiders do a better job. The only real thing we ever saw centipedes hunting were spiders.
Small glue traps work really well at controlling them. I caution against large glue traps, as they might catch small rodentia, and if you want to know true horror, find a YouTube video of a mouse caught in a glue trap.
That's why you always find dead garden millipedes curled up in a spiral. The odd number of legs makes them walk in circles until they die from it. "True" story.
Youβre team spider unless you live in Australia and like all animals in Australia the spiders are no exception.Spiders kill, spiders eat burbs, spiders fly. Yup they fly, itβs nightmare material.
Iβve also been bitten by a centipede in bed while sleeping and woken up in so much pain I threw up(#australiathings). How did I know it was a centipede? It was still in the bed. They are not nice. But Iβm still all for them eating the spiders.
Your bullet points sound like an RTS (real time strategy) game's description of a unit. I would prefer neither around me, let them wage war (or set up home) elsewhere preferably.
I know they're generally harmless (they eat bugs and won't bite you if you leave it alone) but they make my skin crawl and I can't help but kill them with extreme prejudice when I find one.
When I was younger and I had roommates I hated it when they killed the house spiders. It was the reason we had so many other bugs. Once that roommate moved out, the rest of us stopped killing the spiders and after a burst of spiders the rest of the bugs were gone. House bugs are very creepy but they keep the bad house bugs away. Like bedbugs. Fuck bedbugs and the evolutionary niche they've crawled out from.
You see, I think spiders are incredibly interesting animals. But I really can't look at them. I guess my Mum screaming every time something with more than 4 legs appeared had a lasting impact on me. So having one next to me while I sleep is nightmare stuff to me.
Just so people who see them aren't worried, they don't just eat bed bugs. They will eat basically any insect that is smaller than they are up to and including spiders. I even saw one eating a yellowjacket once. So having house centipedes in your home doesn't mean that you have bedbugs.
Gee! I didn't notice the spoons until you mentioned it, sorry! Must be a very small centipede then. Fully grown ones are about 10cm long, and they are very, very, very very fast. (But harmless)
Might as well kill it then as they don't survive well outside if at all. They are a good beneficial insect that will hunt and kill bad insects in and around your home.
Do what I did and weld your house out of 20mm steel plate and have tightly controlled, thoroughly monitored and analyzed airflow, with a single two-stage entry hallway for washing off and inspecting your terran exploration suit and all acquisitions before entering your home.
I can pull a serious vacuum on this bitch, nothing's getting in unless I want it in.
a good ol' centipede. they like crawling out of drains and usually completely harmless (they can bite afaik, but never happened to me, even though i liked to rip their legs off as a kid for some reason... also depends on the species)
this one is super chonky tho and has less legs then regular ones I've seen before... probably American one /s
House centipede. They eat other bugs and while scary looking are harmless. They like spiders appear from time to time without anything being wrong. Theyβre just looking for other bugs to eat.
Where in the world do these things live? I've never seen anything like it before, and we have some pretty crazy things you can find in a house here in Aus