I’ve been called a lot of strange things in my life, but I never thought I could be called a nematode-lover.
I certainly never envisioned a day when my wife would start referring to house centipedes – those terrifying huge invertebrates that seem to have a million legs and run at top speed – as our “honored guests.”
We’re definitely not “bug people,” so what turned us around?
As an ecologist, I can appreciate that even unlovable critters serve valuable functions in nature like decomposing organic matter and keeping the populations of other organisms in check.
Then again, I never thought the indoors had room for biodiversity or strange “guests.” Living in the aptly named “eco-house” in college (where a dirt floor basement and holes in the walls contributed to hefty populations of slugs, moths, flies, and more) forced me to get used to it, but it certainly wasn’t my ideal living situation.
So you can imagine my unhappiness when I discovered several years ago that I’d moved into a condo chock full of house centipedes.
Then the ecologist in me started wondering why they were there, and what would happen if I successfully got rid of them. I knew that getting rid of wolves in Yellowstone led to a number of problems (e.g. higher elk populations started to wipe out cottonwood groves), and that the centipedes wouldn’t be there if they weren’t finding something to eat.
It turns out house centipedes actually eat cockroaches, ants, bed bugs, moths that can eat clothes, and other household pests.
We don’t keep a pristine house, and living in a condo there are always cockroaches and ants somewhere nearby, waiting to strike. When we realized that these beasts were our front line against even more unsavory bugs, our attitudes towards them changed; after all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
No more vacuuming them up, and no more trying to bring the humidity levels low enough to make them unwelcome.
A Few Million Nematodes
When our household worm compost bin (another adventure in urban ecology) got infested with fruit flies, we naturally wondered about biological controls.
While there were many species of mites, springtails, and other tiny bugs in our bin, we were missing predators.
I ordered a few million nematodes (a kind of tiny roundworm) by mail. Within a few weeks (long enough for the adult flies to die off and their larva to have been eaten) we had a fly-free bin. To this day, I smile when I see the tiny little white thread-like nematodes patrolling my compost bin, looking for new larvae to eat.
My wife has made it clear that bringing in spider eggs from outside to take care of the occasional housefly is going too far.
But we’ve learned that whether we like it or not, we do share our homes with a variety of other creatures.
Rather than dive into a spiral of ever-increasing applications of poison or traps, we’ve been learning to love our allies, no matter how creepy they may be.
(Photos: Centipede by Flickr user robswatski under a Creative Commons Sharealike license; nematodes by Jon Fisher/TNC under a Creative Commons Sharealike license).
Umm eww.. I HATE CENTIPEDES! I LEGIT JUST TRIED KILLING ONE WITH MY BRO IS SANDAL (I’m scared of using my sandal ew) IT DIDN’T DIE SO I TRIED 5008983792 TIMES!(only like 8 times that’s still A LOT) IT DIDN’T EVEN WORK!! THEN I BROUGHT A KNIFE AND THIS AIR CONDITIONING SPRAY FOR THE BATHROOM AND MY BRO IS SANDAL AND I SPRAYED IT WITH IT UNTIL THE SPRAY RAN OUT AND THEN I GRABBED THE SANDAL AND KEPT SQUISHING IT CAUSE IT WAS WEAK CAUSE THAT AMAZING SPRAY AND THEN IT DIED AND THEN I WAS DISGUSTED THEN I GRABBED THE KNIFE AND STABBED IT EVEN THOUGH IT WAS DEAD FOR MAKING ME SCARED I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK MY HEART DROPPED WHEN I KNEW IT WAS A FREAKING CENTIPEDE NOW I’M SCARED IF THERE’S MORE HELPPPP!!
I have two cats, though only one tries to eat the house centipedes that grace our basement. There was one particular one who popped up last year, pretty small but decent length that I christened Frank. I had to rescue Frank from my cat once, and another time I didn’t notice he was in the shower with me when I turned it on- the floor got very wet that day as I frantically tried to scoop him up and deposit him somewhere drier to recuperate. When winter rolled around I started seeing him less and less- I’d worried that one of the cats had eaten him.
Now the summer weather is back, and stepping into my shower I found Frank (or possibly Frank II) on the other side of the shower curtain- considerably larger both in length and width. Just like after I first met him, he knew not to sit on the curtain while I was in the shower, and headed down to the floor to go exploring. When I got out I saw him sitting there in a corner, and made sure to lock my cat out of the bathroom when I left.
My mother hasn’t quite come around to the idea that house centipedes can be friends, but I’ve managed to convince her not to kill them on sight, which is progress.
I have a millipede I ordered for my grandson amongst other creatures but somehow I am taking care of it now it’s beautiful a rainbow ? millipede! I feed it lettuce but was wondering if it can eat arugula?
Well, I prefer geckos for insect patrol, but will concede that I’ll look at the centipedes differently now.
I used to be one of those people who would be immediately freaked-out when a centipede dashed across the room. I’d automatically reached for the nearest object to try to whack it. However, a few years ago my perception of centipedes changed. There was a bedbug infestation in my basement apartment. I tried several methods to get rid of them, but none of them worked. The bedbugs just became more aggressive, leaving lots of bite marks all over my body. One day I read on a website that house centipedes love to feast on bedbugs. At my wits end, I prayed for a house centipede to show up (I hadn’t see one in almost a year).
The next morning I woke up – and to my surprise, I saw a reddish centipede walking across the floor. He was probably red from munching on bedbugs all night – his red coloring was probably from my blood – but it didn’t matter, because my prayers were answered. Within a few days, the biting ceased and so did the awful anxiety of getting bit. The bedbugs were eliminated and it was a miracle!!! From that day, house centipedes have been welcomed in my home.
I’m a great lover of European House Centipedes, they really are the most fascinating insects. We moved into an older house about 6 years ago and I wondered why I wasn’t seeing many insects. The centipedes were the most frequent visitors and were quite rare. I looked them up and my respect for them grew. If I see one I usually put it outside – I know it will find its way back if it wants to.
Just recently i’ve been finding the odd German Cockroach around and came looking to see if my leggy friends would be of use. In theory I will be protected. Just one question; If the roaches continue I intend to try sugar and bicarbonate of soda to kill them off. If a centipede catches a cockroach that has eaten the mixture (it fizzes their insides and kills them) will it kill the centipede too? I’d rather not use anything and just let nature take its course.
PS I usually find that bees, wasps and flies go out side if I open the window point in the direction of outside and ask them to leave . (though the bees are the most intelligent and obliging).
Hi Anji, That is an interesting question. I can’t find any info on whether or not the sodium bicarbonate would kill a predator that eats an insect killed by the original mixture. I suggest contacting an entomologist at a nearby university to see if they could answer your question. Some universities have extensions that specialize in answering this type of question from the public.
Moved into a house in Illinois after a lifetime in Los Angeles. Horrified to find literally hundreds of bugs of every type inside it. Two poison sprays by professional exterminators only resulted in slightly fewer live sightings and a lot of corpses, but not total elimination. This old house has exposed dirt under it for half the building, an unfinished basement for the other. CREEE-PEEEE!
Two weeks ago, I saw a 4″ long black centipede racing across my hardwood bedroom floor. I almost stepped on him/her at 3 AM with bare feet. That’s enough! I bought a “Bugzooka” thing off Amazon, which just sucks them up so I can release them. I felt proud of my Buddhist nature again, after my previous murderous rampage with the exterminators.
Yesterday evening, I sucked up a reddish spider and forgot to set him free. Then, I saw him go into a total frenzied panic when this morning, I sucked up a medium-sized centipede, planning to liberate them together. I wondered why a spider would be scared of a centipede, and amid massive guilt at his subsequent demise, found your story.
I am disheartened by the number of bugs in this house. But I realize they are murdering one another right and left, and the situation would be much, much worse without the top of the food chain present. Since the two chemical applications have done little to abate this situation, perhaps there is a new way of looking at my creepy, slithery, stealthy roommates.
I’m not sure I’ll ever be comfortable sleeping in a room I know contains carpenter ants, silverfish, centipedes, spiders, “roly-poly” bugs (not sure what their real name is, but they look like fossils come to life!), and who knows what else, but you’ve done a lot to expand my mind. Thanks.
All very interesting and appreciated, but please tell me the enemy of my biggest problem, silverfish, and I will gladly welcome them into my domain!
Good news! House centipedes, earwigs & spiders eat silverfish.
I hope I dont have dreams about that bloody large house centipede! LOL!
Yes, let Nature take care of the pests. More healthy than Raid and other sprays.
It is so nice to hear from other like-minded folks who realize that many of the critters in our house are beneficial. Here in Portland, Oregon we don’t get many cockroaches. But I’d be curious to see what other native bugs the centipedes might enjoy. In the autumn, warm days inspire bark beetles to emerge by the hundreds and cling to any sunny surface, inside or out. They’ve got to be tasty to somebody.
And I love the idea of a yarn ladder in the bathtub. In our household we always do a quick scan of the tub before turning on the shower, to make sure a daddy long-leg or jumping spider doesn’t wind up down the drain. Also, we recently started shaking off our firewood, just before it goes into the wood stove. I’ve reached into the flames several times recently to save a frantic spider before realizing how foolish I am – but it would break my heart to see the little guy or gal get crisped!
Keep up the awesome reporting!
Feel so guilty about vacuuming up a house centipede this morning. Thank you for the informative article. I will NEVER do that again!!
I crocheted a house centipede ladder from yarn. I drape it into the bathtub, so that if any house centipede falls into the tub it can climb back out.
Hi Margo, I checked with Jon & he says “I actually looked into buying them when I moved and couldn’t find a source. To make the house friendlier? I would say let some areas stay on the humid side (basement is perfect), and provide some cover for them, and that should be it!”
The crocheted centipede ladder totally made my day, thank you so much for sharing! That is amazing!
Do you know where I could buy maybe a hundred house centipedes? ( live in Reno, Nevada.) Also, how can I make my house friendlier for the house centipedes I have now so that they will grow and prosper?
You have now made me a centipide friend, but I just wish they would stay in the basement. They just signal “creepy” to me (all those legs?), but I am more tolerant of the house millipedes (even more legs, but they don’t wiggle), and throw them outside where they belong rather than flushing them down the toilet. I am a trained biologist (ornithologist) so this doesn’t make much sense but sometimes our emotional reactions do not.
I never harm the centipedes I find scurrying around my house as they eat the pests I do want dead. I rescue them from the bath tub and washing machine. I do this by placing a piece of paper in their path so they can scamper onto it. I then move the paper to the floor where they continue their hunt. I also try not to harm spiders for the same reason. However I am extra careful with my house’s graceful centipedes. I have read that the House Centipedes of Massahuttes are only a bit over an inch long however some Centipedes in my house appear bigger.