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The house centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) is harmless. Since centipedes protect your home from other harmful insects, it’s perfectly fine to leave the centipede where it is. It won’t harm you, and it will make sure that your home is free from other harmful insects that you certainly want to get rid of.
Can House Centipedes Bite?
Centipedes typically leave no direct signs of an infestation other than the sighting of the pest itself. Centipedes typically overwinter outdoors in protected situations and lay their eggs during the summer, usually in or on the soil. Females of Scutigera have been known to produced 35 eggs over a period of days.
Pesticides
Just because you see one centipede does not mean you’ll see more. So, you likely do not have more than a few centipedes at a time. Centipedes are not even known to transmit diseases to humans or plants or other mammals either. As a result, they aren’t harmful to you, your family members, furry friends, or your home. House centipedes may go on beds because of warmth and food. If you do happen to catch and hold a centipede and anger it enough, it can give a sting that hurts less than a bee sting.
Termite Control
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They can complete their entire life cycle indoors, feeding on insects while shielded from the elements. Although the pests are generally not harmful, issues can arise when centipedes live close to people. This arthropod has venomous fangs that are so small the venom doesn’t pose much danger to humans. If you find one in the house, it will be in the basement or some other dark place. Consider yourself lucky, because it’s ridding your house of pesky insects. You’re most likely to find a house centipede in a dark corner in the basement, although it will wander anywhere it finds moisture.
Where Do House Centipedes Live?
House centipedes have been observed to groom their legs by curling around and grooming them with their forcipules. Its body is yellowish-grey and has three dark dorsal stripes running down its length; the legs also have dark stripes. Coleoptrata has developed automimicry in that its tail-like hind legs present the appearance of antennae. When the centipede is at rest, it is not easy to tell its cranial end from its caudal end.
They usually hunker down in narrow openings and stay out of sight. These nocturnal arthropod eaters with eyes sensitive to light only venture out at night, so you may not encounter them during the daytime. These hunters are carnivorous but don’t target humans for nourishment. However, these creatures can viciously bite you, so avoid handling them carelessly. They can attack in defense when threatened, causing redness if you’re allergic to bee stings.
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We've got the answer to "are centipedes poisonous" and other... Overall, understanding the behavior and diet of house centipedes can be helpful for managing their presence in your home. Harborage reduction is the second most important management tactic.
How to Control (and Prevent) House Centipedes
The most effective way to prevent a centipede infestation is to reduce areas of moisture in and around your home. Remove piles of leaves and grass clippings, logs, stones and rocks on your property. Provide adequate ventilation in basements, attics and crawl spaces.
Removing Pest Attractants
In North America, it’s most likely to be found on the Eastern Seaboard. It’s only one inch long and uniformly brown, with long antennae and a really long tail. In general, soil centipedes belong to a huge family (Geophilomorpha) with too many species to mention. The diamondback soil centipede (Geophilus vittatus) is a representative. It bites, and the two-pronged tail can deliver a painful and possibly dangerous sting.
They seek shelter during the day and come out in the dark to find food. You will likely find them in cluttered areas, storage spaces, and leaf litter, which are ideal hiding places. Excess mulch, decaying leaves, and tree bark outside a house also provide moist shelter that attracts centipedes. I am very amused that your friend named her poor dead House Centipede “Satan” which might explain why it is dead.
Even though house centipedes are solitary creatures, you can have a centipede infestation. It isn’t a common occurrence, but it is one that needs to be dealt with. Centipede infestations typically happen when there is an insect infestation of another source. A house centipede, Scutigera coleoptrata, is a common arthropod that lives mainly in homes, and it isn’t aggressive or highly venomous to humans.
So, it’s best to leave the centipede alone, even though you may be tempted to squash it on site. The only time you should kill centipedes is if you have a house centipede infestation, but this is rare. The typical house centipedes have 15 pairs of legs and can travel 1.3 feet-per-second, which is much faster than it sounds for a little thing like that. Despite their speed, when you see one, you might be tempted to catch up to it and squash it with your shoe. However, you might want to hold off on killing that centipede.
The larvae undergo six molts and gain new pairs of legs after every molt. For example, centipedes will have 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 pairs of legs respectively after each molting stage, while after the final molt, they have 15 pairs of legs. They undergo four post-larval instars before reaching maturity. As you can see from their head, they have two very well-developed eyes and, for an insect, have pretty decent vision.
Adult centipedes have three dark parallel lines running from their head to the rear end of their bodies and a hair-covered pair of antennae on their heads. While some centipede species have compound eyes containing up to 200 optical units, others have a few simple eyes on each side of the head. The house centipede should be considered a beneficial organism as it feeds on spiders, insects and other small arthropods.
Centipedes are leggy insects that are generally harmless. In fact, centipedes are good for the ecosystem because they help control roaches, silverfish, flies, termites, and other pests. While they are venomous, they rarely bite humans, and their venom is not a serious threat to people unless someone has a specific allergy. As a predator to common household pests such as spiders, termites, cockroaches and silverfish, centipedes are great as their own form of pest control.
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