House Centipede

House Centipede (Scutigera) are common arthropods with long, flattened, segmented bodies with one pair of legs per segment. The house centipede is up to 1 1/2 inches long and has 15 pairs of very long, almost thread-like, slender legs. Each leg is encircled by dark and white bands. The body is brown to grayish-yellow and has three dark stripes on top.

Though house centipedes are found both indoors and outdoors it is the occasional one on the bathroom or bedroom wall, or the one accidentally trapped in the bathtub, sink, or lavatory that causes the most concern. However, these locations are not where they normally originate. Centipedes prefer to live in damp portions of basements, closets, bathrooms, unexcavated areas under the house and beneath the bark of firewood stored indoors. They do not come up through the drain pipes.

House centipedes feed on small insects, insect larvae, and on spiders. Thus they are beneficial, though most homeowners take a different point-of-view and consider them a nuisance. Technically, the house centipede could bite, but it is considered harmless to people.

Life Cycle : There are six larval instars or molts, and four post-larval instars before the centipedes reach maturity. Females have been known to survive for several years and produce numerous offspring (maximum of 150). During the daytime, the centipedes inhabit dark, damp locations in the home and come out at night to forage for prey.

House centipedes feed on silverfish, firebrats, carpet beetle larvae, cockroaches, spiders and other small arthropods. If house centipedes are seen frequently, this indicates that some prey arthropod is in abundance, and may signify a greater problem then the presence of the centipedes.

Living Space : Locations within structures that have been known to provide safe harborage for house centipedes include: Beneath concrete slabs – the centipedes enter the house through expansion cracks, around sump pump openings or other breaks in slab integrity. Inside cement block walls the centipedes can enter through uncapped blocks, missing mortar between blocks and around pipes where they pass through the walls. In floor drains without water traps especially those drains that are connected to dry sumps.Under and in cardboard boxes that are stored on slabs. In any damp, cool location, such as unexcavated areas under the house.

Management: Reduction in the centipede food source is the first step in managing a house centipede population. Determine what other types of arthropods, in your house, are providing a meal for the centipedes by distributing sticky insect traps, also called monitors, around the house. These monitors and the service for identifying the specimens can be obtained through a pest control company.

Insecticides that are effective for centipedes and labeled for use in the home are formulated as either emulsifiable concentrates or wettable powders that are mixed with water for application as a spray, or as dusts. Sprays that are available for homeowner use include many of the synthetic pyrethroids such as cyfluthrin, deltamethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin, cypermethrin, permethrin or tralomethrin.

Residual sprays will help decrease appearance of the creatures for a short time. For the most part, these sprays are not dangerous to inhale or to walk on, so you can certainly be home when the spray is applied. If you touch it, however, you should wash your hands immediately.

If you ever have any bug related issues in New York City, feel free to call us either at Beyond Pest Control. Once again, and I can’t stress this enough we are on call twenty four hours a day seven days a week to kill those bugs, we aren’t kidding whether you call us at 9 am or midnight we will be available to take your call and either get rid of the bug infestation, or answer any questions you may have concerning the bug issue. I can honestly guarantee that there will be someone to answer that call. We make it our business to make you bug free!

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