Found it dead in my dishes
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.
I’m team spider.
This pretty well captures things! Insects that eat other insects are worth rooting for, but like you, I’m on team spider.
Spiders are no insects technically. But whatever…
Are either centipedes or spiders insects? I thought insects only had 6 legs
Centepides actually only have 6 legs. You can see the six real legs if you look closely at a picture. The other “legs” work like legs, but are not actually legs.
Dumb question but I thought centipedes had like… 95 legs or something.
The one in the op doesn’t have that many. Why are people thinking it’s a centipede?
Because centipedes vary a lot between species. The house centipede only has up to 15 pairs (30 legs): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutigera_coleoptrata
They can actually range from roughly 30-350 legs! Fun fact
As far as I’m aware, if it’s got upwards of 350 legs, those are called millipedes, not centipedes.
Also, I’ve never in my life seen either a centipede or a millipede with legs anywhere near that long, so my mind is still stuck on WTF is that damn thing?
Any which way you go, I’d say kill it with fire! Even though it’s already dead, I wouldn’t wanna take any chances if it happens to have eggs in it or possibly a parasite or anything…
The difference between centipedes and millipedes actually has to do with how many pairs of legs they have per body segment. Centipedes have one pair per segment, millipedes have two pairs per segment. The centipede with 354 legs is indeed a centipede (: the millipede with the most legs actually tops out around 750 legs! Pill *millipedes seem to be the smallest millipede with only 14-42 legs!
Also, if you google pics of centipedes, there is indeed a species with terrifyingly long legs just like this picture, the house centipede.
*pill bugs != pill millipedes, pill bugs are crustaceans apparently, cool!
No, a pill bug is not a type of millipede, they’re actually crustaceans, and not closely related.
Pill bugs used to be one of the few exclusively terrestrial crustaceans, but now almost all insects are classified as crustaceans, so, i’d have to double check the phylogenies.
Ah, apparently pill bugs and pill millipedes are different! Thank you for the correction.
Huh, interesting. Well today I learned a little more about creepy-crawlies than I expected. Also, a pill bug is considered a type of millipede? Well hell, I never would have guessed that.
No, a pill bug is not a type of millipede, they’re actually crustaceans, and not closely related.
Pill bugs used to be one of the few exclusively terrestrial crustaceans, but now almost all insects are classified as crustaceans, so, i’d have to double check the phylogenies.
Oh? Okay then, well either way I’ve learned something new today. Interesting, not like it’s going to change the price of weed in Colorado for my daily life, but thanks for sharing. 👍
deleted by creator
I was actually very surprised to learn about the pill bug as well, if I’d known they were millipedes as a kid I would not have found them so cute and fun lol
So while I’m sure there are thousands of different kinds of milli- amd centipedes, in general:
- Millipedes have shorter legs
- Millipedes are slow. Like, slow enough to see them move unlike centipedes, creepy bastards
- Millipedes are vegetarians, and while crushing them can be bad news, they don’t bite
- Millipedes look kinda like long pill-bugs, whereas centipedes look like hell had a nightmare and it was given flesh and form
deleted by creator
I guess ninetyfivepede doesn’t really roll off the tongue.
deleted by creator
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.
I was bitten by one in my sleep as a kid, my foot swelled and it was pretty painful.
You’re 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, it’s nightmare material.
I’ve 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 I’m still all for them eating the spiders.
Generally bug bites are more often from beetles than centipedes or spiders, meaning centipedes and spiders generally lower how many bug bites you’d be getting.
Dude, what kind of beetles do you have around you‽ Where I live, I’m pretty confident there are no biting beetles - at least, none that can do any harm to humans.
You have way more beetles than you think you do, and far more beetles than you believe can bite. If you can find a spider, there are dozens of beetles that it’s feeding on, in an over simplified way.
Oh, I know we have tons of beetles. They invade our house every fall. I’ve never encountered a biting one, though.
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.
Wouldn’t it be inhumane to catch centipedes with glue traps if it is with rodents?
Alive, they move like the wind. Shockingly, alarmingly fast.
This is true. It was both shocking and alarming how fast it moved when I first spotted one in my room after moving to the east coast.
Thats a house centipede. Looks creepy, but its a nice house pet. It eats all of the other, undesireable, pests in your house.
Ok, thanks! Unfortunatelly this one doesnt qualify anymore as a pet but i am sure there are others around in the garden eg
Yep, they are pretty cool ! Until there is no other pests left…
This is centipede propaganda, long live the spider queen, death to the centipedes!
It’s a common house centipede.
Generally good critters. They do bite though.
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.
If it has more appendages than I do, I immediately dislike it.
You’re just jealous that you don’t have than many limbs.
Same. Just seeing one makes me gag. My physical response to them is wild, and I WILL kill it.
Same. They’re just too damn creepy to let live.
they bite???
That’s a house centipede. They will leave you alone and eat lots of pests.
Thanks for taking the useful approach, rather than parroting the usual drivel
Edit It turns out they feed on bed bugs - surely that should sway a few people.
…And they can detach their legs? I want one!
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.
Yeah it means you have house centipedes which is only slightly less bad.
Spiders are creepy but they’re not bad either. Get rid of flies and mosquitos
I want one!
Don’t worry, you already have more than one, probably hiding in the walls.
Unless you live in a high rise building…
yeah it’s just zoomed in, discolored, and wet/squished. Poor thing. Theyre unnerving at first but once you get used to them you can think of them as eyelashes gliding around the floor.
that visualization doesn’t help, at all
Theyre just winking at you across the floor ;)
Was*
Yes, fair
Goa’uld
Kree lo tak!
I couldn’t stand these guys
just a hard-working protector house centipede I think. harmless
Well, of course it’s harmless, it’s dead, SMH.
So you’re saying I can eat it, right? Gotcha. 😉
You can eat anything at least once
How about if you eat it in moderation?
I’m not sure about centipedes, but if what goes for woodlice goes for them, you need to cook them/fry them for a bit because they’re toxic if you don’t, but then they’re great.
I think it’s a mindflyer parasite. If you hear it talking to you, make sure not to listen.
Don’t let it near your eye holes
deleted by creator
My brother/sister in christ, have you considered nuking your neighborhood from orbit ?
Oh that’s no problem. Don’t worry about it.
deleted by creator
House centipedes may look like some prehistoric creature from the depths of hell, but really they’re like spiders, they’re your friends - they kill and eat bugs. You just don’t see them as often because they’re terrified of humans and zoom away at light speed when they see you.
I love them
Well thank God for that
Looks like a house centipede to me. Something for scale would be useful
Hmm yes, could be, thanks! As i read, they do exist here where i live.
For scale: Small and big spoons…?
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)
Neither did i, thought i was looking at a giant bug i hadn’t seen before!
Ah ok! havent seen them around here alive anywhere, maybe cause they re nightactive, as i read… The spoons are not too obvious in the pic, so understandable. Thank you again for all the info
Welp time to burn down the house
deleted by creator
Whenever I hear my wife scream, I know it’s another house centipede I need to trap and throw outside (or smash and kill if I’m pressed on time)
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.
Spiders are okay, at least they hang around the ceiling. But this thing is giant and crawls on the floor and walls. No thanks.
The spiders living in your house aren’t hunters; they are “wait and catch”. House centipedes hunt those insects, including cockroaches.
But how do you think the spiders GET to the ceiling 🧐
I’ve had multiple occasions where I was watching TV, and a goddamn spider slowly lowered itself (from the ceiling) to like 1ft in front of my face. Was real tiny, so very hard to see except at some angles where the backdrop provided enough contrast to see it and the single strand of web it dangled by. So it startled the shit out of me when I did see it.
This was always only when I was still living with my parents, and always in the living room. I’m all about letting certain spider-bros roam my place, eating up other insects, but only if I don’t have to: look at them, get close to them, touch them, or get stuck in their web.
You start pushing it, and slowly lowering yourself in front of my face while I’m watching Conan O’Brien at 1:30am? That relationship becomes strained.
Agreed. I’m not charging you fuckers rent so you better keep to yourselves.
If you want the privilege of engaging with the paying tenants then you better pony up your share of the rent or get the hell out of my house.
The point is they stay there
Yeah, right now I got a big meaty spider with a neat little web up in my corner near the ceiling. She wants to chill there and eat flies and I’m cool with that. But the moment she starts getting frisky and scampering around the room is when she’s getting evicted. Rules be rules.
Yeah well they shouldn’t have so many legs if they want to be in my home!
deleted by creator
