House centipedes lay their eggs in the spring. The average centipede lays around 63 eggs and a maximum of around eggs. They have as few as four pairs of legs when they are hatched.
With each molting, they gain a new pair. They live anywhere from 3 to 7 years, depending on the environment. Outdoors, house centipedes prefer to live in cool, damp places. Most live outside, primarily under large rocks, piles of wood and especially in compost piles.
Within the home, these centipedes are found in almost any part of the house, most commonly, they are encountered in basements, bathrooms and lavatories, where there is a lot more water, but they can also be found in dry places like offices, bedrooms and dining rooms. The greatest likelihood of encountering them is in spring, when they come out because the weather gets warmer and also in Autumn, when the cooling weather forces them to find shelter in human habitats.
Unlike its shorter-legged but much larger tropical cousins, the house centipede can live its entire life inside a building. Because they eat household pests, house centipedes are considered among the most beneficial creatures that inhabit human dwellings, but because of their alarming, frightening appearance and painful bite, few homeowners are willing to share a home with them.
Only one or two species of spiders with eat them. Guess I have some of those spiders too. Had one sow bug live in my basement for maybe 4 years. It grew big and turned a mahogany wood color. Quite nice looking fellow.
Thousands of sow bugs and maybe outside centipedes invade downstairs. Hard to walk down there then without killing something by walking on it. I your careful you can get around. Do they damage paper at all? I know that moths and silverfish do, and house centipedes eat them.. But do the house centipedes eat paper? Sounds like a ridiculous question, but I have a ridiculous-sized comic book collection.
Hi Jared, not only do they not eat paper, but they eat silverfish who DO eat paper. So my house centipedes have kept my comic book collection safe for many years! I never harm the centipedes I find scurrying around my house as they eat the pests I do want dead. I rescue them from the bath tub and washing machine. I do this by placing a piece of paper in their path so they can scamper onto it. I then move the paper to the floor where they continue their hunt. I also try not to harm spiders for the same reason.
I have read that the House Centipedes of Massahuttes are only a bit over an inch long however some Centipedes in my house appear bigger. You have now made me a centipide friend, but I just wish they would stay in the basement. Do you know where I could buy maybe a hundred house centipedes?
Also, how can I make my house friendlier for the house centipedes I have now so that they will grow and prosper? I crocheted a house centipede ladder from yarn. I drape it into the bathtub, so that if any house centipede falls into the tub it can climb back out.
To make the house friendlier? I would say let some areas stay on the humid side basement is perfect , and provide some cover for them, and that should be it! The crocheted centipede ladder totally made my day, thank you so much for sharing!
That is amazing! Feel so guilty about vacuuming up a house centipede this morning. Thank you for the informative article. It is so nice to hear from other like-minded folks who realize that many of the critters in our house are beneficial. In the autumn, warm days inspire bark beetles to emerge by the hundreds and cling to any sunny surface, inside or out.
And I love the idea of a yarn ladder in the bathtub. Also, we recently started shaking off our firewood, just before it goes into the wood stove. All very interesting and appreciated, but please tell me the enemy of my biggest problem, silverfish, and I will gladly welcome them into my domain!
Moved into a house in Illinois after a lifetime in Los Angeles. Horrified to find literally hundreds of bugs of every type inside it. Two poison sprays by professional exterminators only resulted in slightly fewer live sightings and a lot of corpses, but not total elimination.
This old house has exposed dirt under it for half the building, an unfinished basement for the other. I felt proud of my Buddhist nature again, after my previous murderous rampage with the exterminators. Yesterday evening, I sucked up a reddish spider and forgot to set him free.
Then, I saw him go into a total frenzied panic when this morning, I sucked up a medium-sized centipede, planning to liberate them together. I wondered why a spider would be scared of a centipede, and amid massive guilt at his subsequent demise, found your story.
I am disheartened by the number of bugs in this house. But I realize they are murdering one another right and left, and the situation would be much, much worse without the top of the food chain present. Since the two chemical applications have done little to abate this situation, perhaps there is a new way of looking at my creepy, slithery, stealthy roommates. The centipedes were the most frequent visitors and were quite rare.
I looked them up and my respect for them grew. If I see one I usually put it outside — I know it will find its way back if it wants to. In theory I will be protected. Just one question; If the roaches continue I intend to try sugar and bicarbonate of soda to kill them off. If a centipede catches a cockroach that has eaten the mixture it fizzes their insides and kills them will it kill the centipede too?
PS I usually find that bees, wasps and flies go out side if I open the window point in the direction of outside and ask them to leave. Hi Anji, That is an interesting question. I suggest contacting an entomologist at a nearby university to see if they could answer your question. Some universities have extensions that specialize in answering this type of question from the public.
I used to be one of those people who would be immediately freaked-out when a centipede dashed across the room. However, a few years ago my perception of centipedes changed. There was a bedbug infestation in my basement apartment. I tried several methods to get rid of them, but none of them worked.
You keep your house clean, so why do these little critters stick around? You offer the best space to raise a family, and your home is refuge from the outside. Here are the 6 reasons why you have centipedes, and why they will stick around long after you squish or flush a few. Your family members are not the only ones who enjoy the food you have around the house. Centipedes think you offer a tempting spread, too.
Centipedes feed on pests that you already have in your home. If you see centipedes, it could be a sign that you have another insect infestation on your hands. Centipedes eat spiders , earthworms, silverfish , ants , and flies. The first step to get rid of or prevent centipedes is to get rid of the food source, but first you must figure out what it is. Centipedes thrive in wet, damp, and humid areas. Lucky for them, your basement, kitchen, and bathroom have exactly what they are looking for. Therefore, you see centipedes under bricks and log piles, in landscaped areas, and in wet home spaces.
To avoid a centipede infestation, make sure you clean up and dry out these areas and keep piles of timber and leaves away from your home. Centipedes feel the same way.
If your house is inviting, the centipedes will find ways to get in. If you get any kind of sleep at night, you miss centipedes in action. The leggy bugs are nocturnal, so they are most active at night — scurrying, slipping, and hunting while you snooze.
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