What Exactly are House Centipedes?
House centipedes, or more properly named scutigera coleoptrata, are the most common species of centipedes within North America.
Originally from the Mediterranean, the humble house centipede has grown to adapt and survive over the course of its introduction within the United States.
Interestingly, the first recorded sighting in PA was in 1849!
What Do They Look Like?
The house centipede looks like a long and flat, worm-like insect that is usually yellowish-gray. Although sometimes they have a brownish body too.
They measure from ¾ of an inch (19mm) to 1 ½ inches long (38mm) with females being larger.
Additionally, the house centipede has darker stripes and markings on their legs and dorsal plates. However, the most prominent feature of the house centipede is its legs.
While more known as “hundred-leggers” due to their namesake; centi meaning 100, the common house centipede actually has around 15 pairs of legs.
Life Cycle
The house centipede’s life cycle, like other insects, is divided into four stages; egg, larvae, pupa, and adult.
Female house centipedes tend to lay between 35-100 eggs during the summer months, often in the soil if the right conditions are met.
House centipedes, after hatching and growing in larvae, undergo six moltings. Generally during this period of their life cycle, the centipede has only four pairs of legs.
Upon reaching adulthood, the house centipede molt four times, though each time, the number of paired legs doubles. 5 pairs of legs during the first molting, 7 legs next molt, 9, 13 and so on until they reach full maturity.
Feeding Habits
Nocturnal by nature, the house centipede uses its long legs to assist while hunting. Relying heavily on both touch and smell due to their poor eyesight the house centipede uses its long legs to outrun prey such as silverfish, small spiders, firebrats, carpet beetle larvae, and flies too.
Do Centipedes Bite?
Yes, centipedes bite and are venomous. Centipedes bite in order to kill their prey, but also can bite people if threatened.
However, such instances are extremely rare. More often than not, the house centipede will scurry away to someplace the same.
In the event you are bitten, the house centipede’s bite is harmless to people and any associated pain is localized to that area, much like a bee sting.
What Attracts House Centipedes to Your Home?
While living outside, house centipedes prefer damp, dark places like leaf or compost piles, flower pots, under stones and other places where there is abundant moisture.
However as the weather changes, especially the bitter cold of Pennsylvania winter, house centipedes cannot survive such low temperatures and will seek out the warmer, dark places of your house to hunt and reproduce.
Typically we see them prefer places such as attics, crawlspaces, basements, garages, and bathrooms due to their cool temperatures and because they often do not see tons of sunlight, perfect for nocturnal hunters like the common house centipede.
What Makes House Centipedes a Problem?
Broadly speaking, house centipedes do not pose any serious health risks to either people or pets. Nor do they pose any threats to clothing or even the structural integrity of your house like a termite infestation would. House centipedes are more considered to be a “nuisance pest” more than anything else.
Centipedes, beyond actually seeing them, show no outward signs of infestation within your house. However, if you begin to see more regular appearances of centipedes in your home that is more an indication that you have issues with cockroaches, termites, or spiders as these insects form the core diet for centipedes, so often where there’s abundance of one, there’s abundance of another.
How to Get Rid of House Centipedes with Akita Pest Control
Pest control for centipedes is included in our general pest extermination service which features a comprehensive treatment for both the interior and exterior of your home, all backed by our pest-free guarantee. When applied by a certified pest control technician, our treatments are safe for kids, adults, and pets.