Found it dead in my dishes
I think thatβs the bug they put in Neo in the first Matrix film
Everyone is saying theyβre harmless, but we read house centipedes cam leave painful bites. Iβve never been bitten, that I know of, but when plagued with centipedes, Iβd 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 canβt prove it, though. Here are the facts I do know about house centipedes, from empiricle evidence:
- They like damp. Youβll 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.
Iβm team spider.
This pretty well captures things! Insects that eat other insects are worth rooting for, but like you, Iβm on team spider.
Are either centipedes or spiders insects? I thought insects only had 6 legs
Dumb question but I thought centipedes had like⦠95 legs or something.
The one in the op doesnβt have that many. Why are people thinking itβs 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
As far as Iβm aware, if itβs got upwards of 350 legs, those are called millipedes, not centipedes.
Also, Iβve 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, Iβd say kill it with fire! Even though itβs already dead, I wouldnβt wanna take any chances if it happens to have eggs in it or possibly a parasite or anythingβ¦
I was bitten by one in my sleep as a kid, my foot swelled and it was pretty painful.
Youβre 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, itβs nightmare material.
Iβve 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 Iβm 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 youβd be getting.
Dude, what kind of beetles do you have around youβ½ Where I live, Iβm 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 itβs feeding on, in an over simplified way.
Thats a house centipede. Looks creepy, but its a nice house pet. It eats all of the other, undesireable, pests in your house.
Oh so itβs a rest of the world huntsman spider, cool. Iβve got one in my bedroom, love having little buggy helpers around
People love to say that they are harmless. But then why give it the most harmful sounding name imaginable?
HUNTS
MAN
When I was younger and I had roommates I hated it when they killed the house spiders. It was the reason we had so many other bugs. Once that roommate moved out, the rest of us stopped killing the spiders and after a burst of spiders the rest of the bugs were gone. House bugs are very creepy but they keep the bad house bugs away. Like bedbugs. Fuck bedbugs and the evolutionary niche theyβve crawled out from.
Does it come as good news that cockroaches are bedbug predators? Some real βpick your poisonβ shit, huh?
You see, I think spiders are incredibly interesting animals. But I really canβt look at them. I guess my Mum screaming every time something with more than 4 legs appeared had a lasting impact on me. So having one next to me while I sleep is nightmare stuff to me.
Depends on the spider. I would not want something like a huntsman spider, but I donβt mind the small ones that just sit in their corner webbing.
Itβs a common house centipede.
Generally good critters. They do bite though.
I know theyβre generally harmless (they eat bugs and wonβt bite you if you leave it alone) but they make my skin crawl and I canβt help but kill them with extreme prejudice when I find one.
Thatβs 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.
β¦And they can detach their legs? I want one!
Just so people who see them arenβt worried, they donβt 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 doesnβt mean that you have bedbugs.
Spiders are creepy but theyβre not bad either. Get rid of flies and mosquitos
I want one!
Donβt worry, you already have more than one, probably hiding in the walls.
Unless you live in a high rise buildingβ¦
They probably have two, regardless of where they live. Unless they are in a wheelchair.
I wish I had a few of those instead of a multitude of disgusting silverfish }:
Silverfish eat the glue thatβs used to bind books. So theyβre a pest to someone with a personal library.
Iβve got regular silverfish in the bathroom, but gray silverfish (or paperfish as they are called here) in the rest of the house. Those things are larger and much more destructive, some found their way in my collection of sheet musicβ¦ They literally eat their way through paper and even damage untreated wood, nasty critters. And worse, where ventilating your house helps against silverfish, it only seems to create even better living conditions for those buggers. Iβd trade for house centipedes happily.
yeah itβs 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.
