Are House Centipedes Harmful or Dangerous?

If you’ve ever run into house centipedes inside your home, chances are you remember the experience quite well. These creatures, also known as “hundred-leggers”, can be startling and distressing to homeowners. While their name suggests they have 100 legs, the actual number of legs that house centipedes can have varies. Their bodies are worm-like in appearance and range from yellow to dark brown in color. Because of their alarming looks, many wonder whether centipedes are harmful or dangerous. We will get to this answer, but first, let’s talk about what brings them into your home.

When outdoors, centipedes live in damp, dark locations. They can be found under stones, in rotting logs, and around wood piles. Occasionally, they will move indoors where they dwell in rooms that hold a similar moist environment, such as basements, bathrooms, or crawl spaces. This means that moisture is an attractant for them. If you can eliminate debris around your yard that will help discourage their presence. If they don’t have a place to live in your yard, there’s a better chance they won’t find their way to your home. Making sure areas of your home are well-ventilated is beneficial. Dehumidifiers may be useful in areas high in moisture.

Another attraction for house centipedes is other insects. If you have found these hundred-leggers in your home, there’s a chance they entered looking for their prey. Favorite meals of centipedes can include cockroaches, silverfish, earwigs, and many other insects. If centipedes have found a way in, this means other pests can, too. For more information on why you have centipedes in your home, take a look at our previous blogs, Five Things You are Doing to Attract Centipedes and Why are there so many centipedes in my house?

Now, back to the question, are house centipedes dangerous? Centipedes do bite, and it can be painful, but it’s not long-lasting. Centipedes themselves shouldn’t create any long-lasting danger (besides maybe some anxiety at the sight of them). Centipedes are mainly nuisance pests, as they are difficult to remove from homes. They are nocturnal so you may not know they’re there until you snap the bathroom light on in the middle of the night. This makes it hard to know how many are actually present in your home.

Centipedes can useful however. Finding them can be an indication that other harmful pests are inside your home. Since house centipedes feed on other insects, this means there could be other dangers or threats inside your home that worse than centipedes. Centipedes are simply a warning sign.

If you’re dealing with house centipedes in and around your home, Schendel Pest Services is a call away. We know how important it is to eliminate pests from your home as soon as possible. In most cases, we can be there on the same day or the following day.

You can trust Schendel to handle your pest needs in a way that won’t pose a threat to people, pets, or plants. We offer effective treatment while using natural products and as little material as possible. We also offer our PestZero guarantee.

Find out more by viewing our service area, giving us a call, or scheduling your free inspection! We look forward to assisting you with your pest needs.