Freaky creepy
The first time I saw a house centipede was shortly after moving into my home. If you’ve never seen a house centipede, or Scutigera coleoptrata, you’re lucky. They are freakishly creepy looking little buggers, perfect for Halloween season. The first one I saw was in the guest bathtub dead, but I still screamed bloody murder at the sight of the alien carcass. A few weeks later, I groggily went to the kitchen for a midnight snack. I switched on the light and in the middle of the kitchen floor I got an eyeful of a live version of this ghoulish beast. It stared at me for what seemed like 5 minutes and then ran off at lightning speed. Paralyzed with fear, I stood, rooted to the floor, my heart racing with terror but unable to move or scream for help.What’s so scary about this centipede? It has 15 pairs of long, jointed legs and gnarly looking fangs. It grows to about 1 1/2 inches long and can run up to 16 inches per second up walls and upside down on the ceiling. You know the saying, where there’s one there are 100. Visions of hundreds of house centipedes lurking in the dark crevices of my home have haunted my dreams more than once. But my research has uncovered several facts that make me a little more comfortable sharing my home with them. They rarely bite people, and their fangs can’t penetrate human skin. Only people with allergies react strongly.They’re insectivores and feed on other pests such as spiders, bedbugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish and ants, so they’re considered more beneficial than most household pests. They hunt at night so, unless you’re a night owl, you may never meet one.
House centipedes can live their entire lives indoors, and each spring, females lay between 60 and 150 eggs.
They prefer damp areas, so one way of controlling them is to make sure your home is leak-free. If you have a large infestation of house centipedes, that could indicate that you have a moisture problem.
They can enter through tiny openings around windows and doors, so caulking and sealing can help. Try glue traps along baseboards and strategically placed insecticide. If all else fails, call professional exterminators.
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Comments
Today cleaning my closet I saw what I though was just a dust bunny floating around. I was disturbed when I got a closer look and saw a centipede. We occasionally get them, but only in our kitchen sink or bathroom. Finding one in my closet really disturbed me. Of course after seeing it I ran out of my house in fear, being the pathetic girl that I am, and called my friends what happened to calm myself down. The worst was when I returned to my room to figure out what to do with it, it moved and I couldn’t find it. Eventually I got it by sucking it up via vacuum, then i vacuumed all my shoes making sure there were no critters left behind. These creatures are disgusting.
I have these creepy things all over the house. Given that I live in the country but still these things are creepy. I once woke up in the morning to find one on my neck crawling tward my ear eww.
Hey I have these little fu*ke*s in my house too I was brining up a gym bag from the basement and three of these F*C*k*e*s fell on the floor and bolted these little guys are fast i was like wow where did they go i killed all but one with a shoe lol thanks for reading
Everytime I see these things in my house I FREAK out! They are always in our basement and our dog loves “playing” with them. Thanks to one of those little buggers I had a sleepless night. This morning at 3AM I was awoken to some rustling on a bag of apples I had stored on top of my anwar (closet). At first I thought it was a moth or bee and when I got up to investigate it was one of them. I was shock cause I didn’t know they were so noisy. Another question, are they blind? cause this one did not go to far when I first intervened. I managed to swat it with my slipper but due to the position it was in, it fell on my carpet right next to the extension cord. I knew it wasn’t dead so I moved the cord and that little bugger disappeared behind the anwar in a flash. I was scared for the rest of the night, fearing that it may crawl out and come on the bed over me. The apples are in the kitchen where they should have been in the first place, and I am at work wondering if that creature is going to attack me tonight.
To Lee back on the 1st. I hope you killed that bug. I moved into an older house,wet basement,old wood with lots of places to hide.It’s 6am I rolled over about 1am an saw about 3inches of leggs GROSS So no sleep tonite I actualy killed it with spray then put it in the ashtray to burn like you do with ticks.I have had quite a few bugs show up in this house. I have no clue what they are.I’m in green bay.I’ve lived in Ma. Fla. Nc. and this place is unreal.I would like help getting rid of them.I’m already out 200.00 for the lady bugs.I’m loosing it.
Thanks for the information. I saw one the other day and I thought it was fuzzy on my curtains. I took a closer look and it started running as I scream at the top of my lugs. My husband came to the rescue and killed it. I am so relived to know that they are harmless but I am so afraid of one getting into our ears or our mouths while we sleep. It will creep me out just to know of one getting on me.
Wow that one in the picture looks way different then the one i saw. Well me and my husband, and yes i’m gay dont hate. Well Me and my husband were laying in bed watching family guy untill he turns to me and says \shave your legs hun your tickaling me\ and i’m like \how dare you! i just shaved them and i’m all the way over here\ and he says \hun move the sheats\ so i move them and lovingly to behold… it was on his leg about 9 inches long and black centipede, and it ran off his leg across the bed and i screemed and he and theres my husband pouring his hot coffee on it, then it curled up and stoped moving. Gotta love coffee.
Everybody (who isnt allergic) should get a cat. I have these nasty things run across my living room at night all the time, they freak me out but my cat usually comes to the rescue. I used to get scared for her to even go near the things but then I realized she likes catching them, I dont need to go near it, and it is quite funny to watch her chase it. She is fast and those things actually give her a challenge, but she always wins, thank god!!!
It’s 5:am here in New York City.
I can’t sleep anymore.
There was 1 monster of these on my leg.
I jump from the bed & turn on the lights.
I saw the most horrify scene:
2 on my bed !!!!!! 30 min ago.!!!
Now I am writing on this blog,
‘cos I can’t sleep anymore.
Rafael
Sorry about your creepy crawlie incident in bed, Rafael!!! that must have really freaked you out:) Rest assured, they can’t do you any harm other than mental anguish and nightmarish flash backs!
So early this morning about 12:30AM I woke up to something on my ear. I moved whatever it was and started to go back to sleep. Then I felt something on my neck. I thought it was my hair, but when I touched where it was I was able to grab the thing. I yelled at my Husband who was sleeping at the time and told him to turn the light on. I looked down and there was this long and nasty looking thing with a million legs crawling. I screamed. He ran and got a paper towel and killed it, but let me tell you I couldn’t sleep. I am so afirad that there will be more!!! They are so nasty and now I am going to flip our bedroom around and clean every where to make sure this never happens again. I am so sick to my somtach today.
When I was in college, I rented a house my senior year and had been living there about a year before I noticed these creepy crawlers. This town is infested with roaches and they are hard to get rid of. I happened to notice how this house, however, did not have roaches at all! In fact, I even saw roach parts in the garage and around the house. I went to bed one night and as I lay down looking up to the ceiling, there it was, that centipede looking back at me! Of course I screamed and it ran across the ceiling. From then on I saw them all the time. My roommate even found a dead one under her pillow! We contacted the exterminator who said we had an infestation. Needless to say, we moved shortly there after.
Well, I have never seen nor heard of these things until I moved down to Mexico. Well, I have heard of centipedes, ya know the black ones with a million legs and they can eat you alive. When we moved into our new home, we found a dead brown bug like the one pictured in this forum. My husband said it is a centipede and that it is the same bug that bit his newphew a year back and his newphew couldn’t walk for about 6 months. So now I am freaking out. We have a 15 month old that gets into everything and if she aint getting into everything, everything is getting into her. Well, then the other night I am typing on the computer and my husband says kill the bug on the wall that is crawling next to you. Turns out it is a little brown centepede, about the size of your pinky nail. Ok, now what, do I exterminate? Afraid to do anything, espically exterminating with an 15 month old. I turn to you for help. I read they are harmless and eat roaches, ok, haven’t seen any roaches, thats a plus. Then the first article says that they rarely bite. Huh?? How rare is rare?? Their fangs?? FANGS??? HELLO!!! Ok, now I am freaky out. Please advise. Mamma on the run!!!!!
OH MY GOSH! I see about three of these nasty things every day. Every morning I wake up to get in the shower, and sure enough, there’s one just staring at me. I stay up pretty late and I always see one dart across my living room floor. I’m lucky enough to have not had the experience of one crawling on me at night, but I do dream about them :S. As a matter of fact, I had a dream of these things just last night. It freaks me out to know that they lay 50-160 eggs. I thought if I just kept killing them, eventually they would disappear…guess not.
its real name is a
chelicerata scletigromorph
not a coleopterata or a scutigerata. lol
their fangs can penetrate human skin and diferent species may have toxic venom to humans, though not deadly especially tropical species. i found one in cape tribulation, i am a nightwalk guide uni student studying marine and freshwaer ecology and invertebrate zoology.
they can run at speeds in excess of 30km/h we clocked one for 14m from a van. it was beating us at 30km/h. and we measured it to be 18cm long in the body XD was a monster
wow – all well said, had no idea there was this much worldwide hype about these things. they are def. nasty – i;ve been wondering about them for years since i moved to DC.
Heather you’re a wuss. I would LOVE to see you come across a goliath spider. My 11 year old daughter isn’t even scared of these centipedes. As for beast HAHAHA you’ve been very sheltered haven’t you??
Hi there, I was so glad to see your article here as I ditto the whole thing.
Iv had a centipede phobia for several years and Im deathly afraid of them.
I know theyre nocturnal creatures so of course I imagine them crawling all over me and into my snoring mouth as I sleep.
But most recently having to sleep in my daughters basement Iv had to deal with this. So I keep my bed away from the wall and leave the lights on when I sleep and have made peace with these creatures, well until this morning …when my daughter discoved a mama one she believes upstairs in her bedroom…Iv tried to see them as gods creatures with a designated contribution to this life and that they arnt there to scare or intimidate me but their on a sort of mission to eat up all the littler creatures or pests if you will….that bug us. So with that in mind…I still dont want to get too close to them. so I’ll take your advice and get some of the sticky traps and….try to seal up entry points.
Thank you for the picture and story. one more thing I found interesting…is that..the moms actually nuture their young for quite a while before releasing them off on their own. I find that neat.
Once again…thanks so much. J.