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  3 responses to House Centipede – Scutigera Coleoptrata

  • So tired
    Comment on House Centipede - Scutigera coleoptrata (September 28th, 2017 at 05:29)

    You questioned why so many people stumble upon your site after Googling about centipede eggs. I would be one of those people.

    After two years of living in this house, I honestly swear I have killed hundreds of these in all sizes. I noticed a pattern and wanted to look it up. This is my third summer here and like clockwork, I started seeing baby centipedes again in August/September. They are even faster than the older ones and easy to miss. I try to kill as many as I can, but they are quick and have good eye sight (I swung my shoe at one and it froze for a moment and then hid under a ledge).

    I was curious to know what the eggs look like, how/when these things mate (interesting to hear that they don’t mate usually) and where females tend to lay their eggs. There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer anywhere online, but knowing that this process starts in April helps. I will take extra precautions then.

    These monsters are ruining my life. I have dehumidifiers. I vacuum. I clean. I leave lights on. Nothing works except spraying baseboards and door frames with Raid, but that is only temporary (waking up to dead centipedes is always a blast). I also don’t like breathing in Raid fumes if I don’t have to.

    Btw.. The reason their legs come off isn’t accidental… They shed their legs when they are in danger. I have witnessed this more than once after I spray one, it leaves its back legs behind and the rest of him takes off… and the back legs are still moving around too, sometimes twitching, sometimes legit running in the opposite direction until they slow down and die. It’s sci-fi level sh!t. Then people wonder why I can’t sleep at night.

    House Centipede – Scutigera Coleoptrata

  • kappa
    Comment on House Centipede - Scutigera coleoptrata (August 7th, 2018 at 00:35)

    For about a week I have seen a grayish-dark shadow thing that looks like it’s hovering/fluttering (but VERY FAST) as it runs across the floor in one corner of room. it’s always at night and I usually have few lights on and I have never been able to SEE it — I just catch it out of corner of my eye and by the time I look it’s already gone!!

    It looks almost like a bat shadow fluttering across the ground —

    And I began to think I was just ‘seeing things’ (like an eye problem or tv shadow)

    But then I caught the freakishly fast shadow thing when tv was off (corner of eye again) and —

    tonight I saw it again. I actually thought it might be a tiny mouse (or a vole — no tail)

    And then I FREAKED OUT!!

    But, it makes no sense if it’s a mouse bc there are no signs of mouse infestation — nothing has been nibbled, no droppings, NOTHING is disturbed — and there is an open bag of rice flour right where I see the shadow move as well as other little ‘snacky’ items and NONE of them are disturbed at all (in all these 7-10 days)

    Then I thought of the centipede thing.

    Years ago I saw a house centipede in exactly that spot (killed it – freaked out! LOL)

    Did a little research and the following check out: I’ve only seen ‘shadow’ at night, the movement is SO fast I have yet to get a visual on it, it looks like it’s fluttering or hovering, nothing in the area is disturbed (there are a bunch of plastic bags and food items) — and finally it has been RAINING — A LOT — a lot a lot a lot (unusually so)

    So I’m guessing it might be a house centipede — and I REALLY hope it’s not a mouse or a vole — I really really hope it’s a centipede (although I really don’t want to see it! LOLL)

    What other signs might help me clue in?

    Thanks!!

    House Centipede – Scutigera Coleoptrata

  • Rexie
    Comment on House Centipede - Scutigera coleoptrata (September 21st, 2018 at 18:09)

    Early one Saturday morning last spring (2018) I turned on the kitchen sink tap and one of these buggers scooted up out of the drain. He (it appeared to be a “he” …) couldn’t crawl up the sides of the sink, so I retrieved an empty juice bottle, offered the open end, and the little scooter ran right inside.

    The weather was unseasonably cold, wet, and harsh, and I didn’t have the heart to throw little “scooter” outside. But I honestly had nothing in the house I could think of that a centipeeder might want to eat. I had just brought home, the night before, the last piece of a rather delicious home-baked cake I’d taken to work earlier in the week. The cake was flavored with vanilla and orange and almond and walnuts, and was topped with a very thick layer of passion-fruit-flavored frosting. I broke off a piece of that and carefully rolled it down the inside of the juice bottle — and when I checked on “scooter” the next time, several minutes later, he was wrapped around the cake and chowing down!

    I named “scooter” Carlos and took him in to work with me that day, to transfer him to a junior size plastic critter bin I used to use to transport my little mousie April when she was very small, but which is now my “bug hospital”. I cut some cardboard tubes to make hide tunnels, and put a bit of water at one end, and tried offering various other kinds of food (including bloodworms we used to feed the fish at work). No dice. All Carlos wanted to eat was cake.

    Finally, eight days later, the weather was warm enough for outside insect activity, and I took Carlos out to the ivy and phlox under my bedroom window and took off the lid of the plastic bin. Right then, I noticed for the first time that Carlos had one extremely long rear leg, which meant “he” had been a girl all along. She climbed out of the bin and went on her independent way.

    House Centipede – Scutigera Coleoptrata

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