Why House Centipedes Can Live Successfully Indoors
The house centipede is well adapted to life in homes. While most outdoor insects need a certain amount of heat to be active, house centipedes can stay active indoors all year round due to the relatively constant temperature indoors.
The house centipede is easily identified by its thin elongated body, many legs, and extremely high speed. An adult house centipede looks quite big because of its long legs which are much longer than the body itself. An Orillia pest control expert can help confirm identification when sightings become frequent.
Most activity occurs at night. During the daytime, house centipedes hide in secluded places. It is one of the reasons why people suddenly find them. The homeowner may have not seen any centipedes for weeks and suddenly finds one running up walls or floors at nighttime.
The speed of the centipede can mislead people about the severity of the problem. Seeing a single centipede running through multiple rooms makes homeowners think there are several pests around.
The presence of just one house centipede does not necessarily indicate that there is a huge population of centipedes in the house. This happens sometimes even without there being any huge infestation problems. It is when the centipedes keep showing up that this becomes more relevant.
For homeowners in Orillia, taking note of their frequency would be more helpful than an isolated sighting.
What House Centipedes May Be Feeding On in Your Home
House centipedes are predators. They do not feed on clothing, wood, stored food, or household materials. Instead, they hunt other small insects and arthropods.
Their prey can include:
- Silverfish
- Small flies
- Spiders
- Cockroach nymphs
- Moths
- Other small crawling insects
This type of feeding habit is important because the frequent presence of centipedes may indicate another source of pests.
A centipede must have prey to survive. If many centipedes are seen frequently, there may be many small insects near their location. Then, it would be wrong to say that these centipedes keep appearing only due to themselves.
Owners must consider the places in which sightings take place. For instance, when house centipedes are often seen in one particular room, it should be determined whether other pests are also found in the room.
It is necessary to see any signs of pests, such as live pests, small flies, their cast skins, and others. The answer will show if centipedes visit houses occasionally or hunt some sources of food.
In this case, it will become clear that the centipedes themselves are not the primary problem since their frequent appearance may indicate another source of pests.
Should You Be Concerned About Seeing House Centipedes?
The appearance of the house centipedes can be intimidating due to the multitude of legs, speed, and jerking movements. However, for most homeowners, such species are rather frightening than hazardous.
Most house centipedes do not want to attack and are not dangerous because of being shy and preferring to avoid rather than confront a person. The bites occur very rarely and only when a person handles the centipede or traps it against the skin.
Moreover, house centipedes do not tend to damage the furniture, clothes, wood, and other home things. Their primary indoor activity is hunting for small insects.
What is more important than the single meeting with the centipedes, is the number of their meetings.
If you see house centipedes sporadically, it cannot be an alarming sign. Nevertheless, frequent sightings require special attention.
Frequent meetings are the signs that there is a reliable supply of food sources for the centipedes somewhere in the house. In this case, identification of the pests they feed on becomes more significant than focusing exclusively on the centipedes.
For Orillia homeowners, the key is to look at the overall pattern. One isolated centipede may require little action, while frequent sightings can justify a closer inspection.
What Orillia Homeowners Should Do If Sightings Become Regular
Start by keeping track of where and when you see house centipedes. A simple record can help reveal whether the sightings are random or concentrated in certain areas.
Note:
- Which rooms they appear in
- Whether sightings happen mostly at night
- How many are being seen
- How often they appear
- Whether other insects are present nearby
Such information will assist in knowing what could be attracting the centipedes.
Inspect the areas where there are many activities taking place to find out if there are any insects, shed skins, crawling insects, and other signs that might suggest that the centipedes are after something.
It is not necessary for one to think that just because one sees a centipede, they have an infestation problem. The important thing is whether there are continuing, increasing, or other signs of pests.
In case one is finding that even after careful observation the centipedes are showing up regularly or when they are seeing other pests, then professional advice will come in handy.
The right pest expert would be able to determine not only the activities of these creatures but also the prey which they are eating. The problem can then be solved at source.
If Orillia residents face repeated sightings of these creatures within their houses, Simcoe PestX could assist in determining what is going on, and offer a possible course of action to be taken.