Is there any invertebrate creepier than the house centipede (AKA “thousand-legger”)? I grew up in Upstate New York, and had never encountered one of these until I first moved to southeastern PA around 1993. The first time I saw one skitter across the living room while I was watching TV, I thought for sure I’d seen some kind of demon–a lesser demon, granted, but a demon nonetheless.
Turns out it’s just Scutigera coleoptrata, a fast-moving type of centipede that lives mostly within human homes and eats spiders, roaches, bedbugs, silverfish, and other small insect-types that also invade human dwellings. Doesn’t sound like much, I know, and if you’ve been fortunate enough never to have encountered one, you have no idea just how disconcerting the sight of fifteen pairs of legs moving in a coordinated wave can be as this sizeable critter slashes across a floor or wall.
Since we got our dog, a Rhodesian ridgeback mix, we haven’t had much problem with these little guys. We just say “Copper, bug!” and he goes into full-on hunting dog mode, enthusiastically sniffing out the centipede before crushing it to death with his paws, and then typically tossing it around a bit before eating it. Unfortunately, he’s recently taken to retching — and I mean, retching — after eating one, so we’re not letting him do that any more. I looked up information on the house centipede, and it appears that their venom is not dangerous to house pets, though their bite is recorded as painful. After finding a close-up photo of a house centipede face, all I can say is yikes. I’m not surprised their bite is painful, check out those fangs!
(Photo after the jump)
If you do have these around, you might like to know that they are generally considered beneficial (see the list of undesirables that they are doing away with?) and that a concerted effort to kill off house centipedes might reveal a bug problem of another sort that you never knew you almost had… That, and their bites are apparently really painful to people, too. At least as painful as a bee sting.
On a related note, my search for information and photos of Scutigera coleoptrata led me to Dope on the Slope, a pretty cool Brooklyn-based blog of invertebrates and photography. It’s not many blogs that really catch my interest, so I figured I’d give this one a plug.
I just moved into an apartment in west side of cleveland, ohio. And while i was having sex with my girlfriend on the first night….i glanced up and saw on on the wall. My girlfriend saw it too and screamed….i then killed it with a shoe. Pretty creepy. I saw one two weeks later and killed it. Only time i saw one previously was in a hallway of inner city high school in toledo, ohio.
JUST FOUND TWO IN MY BEDROOM – TIP – THEY’RE REALLY FAST, USE YOUR VACUUM AND SUCK THEM UP, THEY CAN’T RUN FASTER THAN THE SUCTION.
My home is loaded with them and I have no idea why. But it’s totally freakin me out. I had one crawl across my face one night in my sleep. Is their any way to do away with them?
i just found one in my hallway and bleached it to death!!!!
Just saw a flashing dark object moving across the floor and was able to capture with a shirt.. released him outdoors.. they seem to love the basement as it’s cold and damp.. we have lots of spiders and silverfish too… I generally don’t kill any bugs especially beneficial ones as this little fighter
i keep seeing them coming from my bedroom window whice has a lot of cracks in it i think it had babys in my bathroom sink yuck it had babys or layed eggs coz now im seeing them as lil ones im so moveing as soon as possible if not then im boombing the house
ohh i see them in my shower all the time and i drowned them it pretty nasty
I just killed one with glade air freshner hahaha the freaky little fast critter died. so gross.
I’ve seen these once or twice; usually basement bugs that sometimes come up to visit. My son just killed on! LOL… boy it was big!!! We live in N. IL. I LOVE commits of die die die….
man my son and i just found one in our house i kno what u nean its fast and creepy look n well thanks for the info u posted it helped out alot
I JUST literally found one for the first time EVER, Me and my wife have two children and my daughter was just crawling around minding her own business when this little bugger crawled outa (Almost literally?) no where. Too think these things lay around a hundred eggs, I dont care of these are harmless too humans, I have bugs and its like this THING came outa nowhere and ended up on my living room floor. I took some window cleaner too it and killed it, Is there any way that anyone knows of too PERMANETLY get rid of em?
all i have to say is ewwwwwww if i see one…yeah i think i just might faint lol OR might be abit lazy to kill them because of their fastness lol
omg so creepy but cool i work in a lab so we all look at this creepy thing and did some resurch on it so i but it back where i found it and we are going to let it live here as a guest
I just found one in my bathroom. I had thoughts of killing it, but I decided on doing some research before commencing to do that. Once I did, I changed my mind. I opened a window and set it free. As creepy as it may look. I saw some beauty in that creature… besides, he kills my pests!
Why are you guys killing these guys? Jinx and Shakira have the right idea….
Permanently get rid of them? Yeah, clean your house and get rid of their food!
my mother has something like this in here apartment building, thing is these one are not afraid of people, and yes the bit is painful! they are bitting her all over leving welts, and two fang holes! people keep telling us there harmless, and helpful. But I tell you not these DEMONS!! these one will run at you, if you try to scair them off. she cought 1 inn a bottal to show it off, hopping to get some help getting rid of them. in the air tight bottle it spun like a cacoon around itself?? odd little pets. It looks like where just going to move here and try not to bring any, in the move. cuz she can’t live this way, between the painful bits, welts, and spikes in her blood sugar, every time she has a new bit. In my view they are dangers to older people, and people with sugar problems.
I live in the South of France and have just discovered these WONDERFUL creatures. They eat problem insects, like termites and bed bugs, attack wasps, and for the faint hearted – kill spiders (is that a good thing?). Why on earth are killers so proud of yourselves?
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I’m a little embarrassed to report I just woke up my husband to deal with one of these critters. He released it outside 10 minutes ago but every hair on my body is still standing on end. I find bugs fascinating–when they’re behind glass. Why do humans have such a strong visceral reaction to such tiny creatures?
Man….I’m used to the darker brown ones, still creepy but this type was new to me and scared the piss out of me while I was on my computer on the couch I saw something in the corner of my eye. I thought it was a shadow of some sort. I looked at it because the shadow was moving way to fast…..AH! Nasty little thing has weird V shaped legs just like that picture….smeared it so bad and fast there is nothing to pick up. Kind of wish I had the nerve to pick it up with something and put it in garage though now.
V/r
Sure wish I knew the difference between silverfish and house centipedes.