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.
living in San Diego, Ca. 14yrs now, tonight was the first time seeing one . WTF….Moved here from the boondocks in Tx. never saw this before
One just barged in on me this morning while I was in the bathroom… I thought I hated how spiders look… I’d rather kill a spider than go toe to toe with this brain eating hellish creature. *shivers* blegh
I have encountered one in my house tonight, and wanted to make sure I have nothing to worry about with children, or my family? Does anyone have any idea by chance if you could just send me an email its posted in the website.
how do you capture/ easily kill this creatture?
So I’m up late finishing some school work. I’m sitting on my bed now but earlier while sitting on the floor one of this blood curtling creeps made a mad dash straight toward me! I killed it but now I’m terrified to sleep thinking centipedes or spiders (saw a large brown one of them within the same hour) have 8 eight hours of oppertunity to climb on me! OMG make the goose bumps go away already! BLAH
I was in my bed and I felt something faintly across my leg and I caught a glimpse of this making its way into my underwear… Thankfuly it disappeared after crawling in, it must have ran away back into the wall or something, my coochie is a little extra pink tho so I’m thinking I may have been bit!
take aaah shower lady!
That is the after effect of social Friday’s. You go out for drinks with your girlfriends and the next day you end up waking with a complete stranger in your bed. OMG!!! What a bug!!
i fed it to my oscar he loved it!
just kreeper
I lived in an old house for a number of years and encountered these monsters repeatedly during the warmer months, often seeing one dash from one heating vent to another in the living room. Sometimes I’d get lucky and find one parked … they’ll stand still for a good long while, motionless, but still creepy. Smah it, and all the legs keep moving, which is even more creepy. Worst time was encountering one about three inches long (and proportionally larger around) in a box. yeeeuuchhh. I hate them so very very much.
One of the most hair-raising moments I’ve had in a while is to turn to the side while lying down and see one of these guys making a mad dash for my face. It’s on my bed somewhere now, I don’t know where.
Thank god for you telling me what it was because I’ve never seen one before in my life. I’m scared to hear about the bite, though.
An ex-gf of mine would flip out if she even knew that there was a spider in the same room as her. I use to laugh at her for that, since spiders were never a big deal to me. But then I started to see these things running and now I understand her fear of bugs a little better. They just look like the type of bug that would implant an egg into you or something (thank god that’s not actually the case!)
It also freaks me out how their so damn fast. If you miss them the first time you try to smash one, you likely won’t get a second chance. Then when you do get it, its legs will still move around and stuff, sick. My favorite strategy now is just to drop some dish washer on ‘em. That way they get stuck and eventually die then I can peaceful dispose of them.
Omg, I was in my kitchen getting a slice of Pizza, and I have the most precious Russian Blue kitten and she acts so wild. BUt I realized she was being extemeley wild, dashing down the hallway and behind the Piano. Then I seen her jump up and run as if she was bit, when I tuned on the hallway light i seen this creature running in the opposite direction of her.. UGH I almost died…. First thing I did as grab lysol spray… I feel like I must of sprayed it forever, was terrified. And My poor baby is drooling, I think it bit her tongue or something… Should I take her to the vet?
I’ve caught these since I was a child. They’re quick, but they’re really fragile. I haven’t killed a single one in all these years. They’re good critters to have around and, as far as the bite is concerned, I’ve never been bitten in 30 years of handling. Bad luck to kill these fellas.
I have lived in Illinois my entire life and never came across one of these creepy speed creatures. That is until about two weeks ago I was ever so calmly MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS sitting at the edge of my bed playing my XBOX and out of the corner of my eye I see something dashing on the wall from next to my bed towards my dresser. I immediately jumped off my bed and yelped! I have an insane fear of bugs (I even get grossed out by lady bugs… and I’ve been known to scream and throw things when I see a spider. And also not return to the room the spider was in for hours!)
I heard my friends on the headset…”you ok? What’s going on” I had to very strategically make my way back to my bed to grab the headset. “I almost died” I replied. I then explained there was a bug and I think it was a centipede. Everyone thought I meant the huge coppery brown centipedes. But no no I assured them this was an ALIEN centipede.
Anyways.. I stood in the corner of my bedroom and waited. And waited. And waited. Until finally he made a mad dash for my shoes (uh uh!) Just so happens his attraction to my $2 old navy flip flop was infact the death of him.
I’ve seen a few more around the house and I immediately do one of two things. 1) find the nearest shoe and go into huntdown mode (and by huntdown mode I mean find an area in the middle of the room where he cant pull any sneak attacks and wait for him to show himself) or 2) I leave the room.
I still never get in bed without fully examining my sheets, blanket and pillows. I’m glad I won’t die if I’m bit.. but I don’t want to find out how much it will hurt. Infact I think it would be worse to know it was in my bed than dealing with the bite!
And of course I’m posting this at 4:30 in the morning because I was just greeted by this creeper. And google proceeded.
Forgot to mention. I now live in Delaware, which is where I encountered this beast.
I live in St.Louis. Every Damn summer these little creepy fucks pop up!!1 They scare me. I just seen one in the kitchen.. IM SOOOOO CREEPED OUT BY THEM.. HOW DO I KILL? HOW DO THEY GET IN?
I came across one tonight. I was walking down my basement stairs when I saw it on the wall. I almost touched it!! Omg so disgusting! And it was huge! I screamed bloody murder and ran back upstairs where my husband was waiting looking confused. He tried to put it in a jar and it scurried under the basement stairs. This is the second time I’ve encountered this hellish disgusting bug in my basement. I won’t be doing laundry until my husband buys a few bug bombs.
When it’s too moist the buggers show up. I found dehumidifying the best way to keep them out.
Centiman
I call these spiderpedes. We first met them when we moved into an older city home…I can stand to even look at them!!! aHH!!
i was on my couch, eating a pop tart, minding my own business… looked at my leg. bam that mofo was on my leg! worst night ever i dont think i slept for 3 days. them fuckers are scary. and fast.
call the orkin man or something, they seem to work really good. i’ve seen one in the past 3 months since the guy sprayed my house.
screamed bloody murder when i did though…
Ugh I just killed three in one hr, I hate these fkrs I don’t care what they eat…now I can’t sleep for fear of being covered by nasty bugs with nasty legs all over my face. Glad to know they aren’t harmful, not glad to know they have gigantic fangs and a bite similar to a bee sting. Horray.
I just killed one last night because I have a baby who plays on the floor, but when I read all the bugs it eats I felt guilty killing it because our city has a roach problem and I’d rather have creepy centipedes than nasty disease spreading roaches! Guh! I wish I could just have no bugs in my house…
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.