Striped, Gangly, 30-legged bug!
November 6, 2009
My friend Brandon sent me the photo along with this message: “I was pouring myself a soda next to the kitchen sink, when I turned around and spotted this on the wall. Not what you want to see behind you after you turn the lights on.”
Its body is about 3cm long, and including the legs it’s about 10cm long. I became very curious after seeing the photo, I just had to submit it!
Laura L. W., Roseville, CA
Lake of the Pines, Auburn, CA

House Centipede

Hi Laura,
What Brandon has labeled the Bug of Doom is a harmless, beneficial House Centipede.  This nocturnal predator is not known to bite people, will run away when the lights are snapped on, and will eat cockroaches and other undesirable household intruders if left alone to forage.

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Huge Bug Killed Mouse, what is it?
September 30, 2009
We found this when we were checking our mouse traps yesterday. As you will notice, it is about the same length of the mouse and its thorax (don’t no if I am using this correctly, but the width of its body not including the legs) was as wide as a pencil. The mouse trap is still set, but the mouse is dead, presumably at the hands of the creature seen next to it, therefore, it is possibly posionous as well. Can you help us figure out what this is, and is it dangerous. P.S. Our house has many small centipide looking things, at the absolute biggest they are 2 inches, but very narrow, could this just be a mutated version of those?
Person who lives in the basement with this thing
Basement

House Centipede eats Mouse

Dear Person who lives in the basement,
WE are enthralled with your image of a House Centipede with a mouse.  Though we have not heard of House Centipedes preying upon small mammals, your photo would indicate that this is a possibility.  House Centipedes do have venom, but they are not dangerous to humans.

Possible plot for a horror movie? I think not.
July 24, 2009
It was like a horror movie gone wrong. Margaret, our volunteer receptionist, came into my office to give me a postage stamp she’d saved for my Mum. At 80, Margaret has a few mobility problems and she’s really not walking too well at the moment. As she turned slowly to go back out to reception, she yelled, “What’s that? Oh my god, kill it, kill it!”
I turned and saw she was looking at the floor. I jumped up, expecting to see some monster ready to attack. At the same time, my survival instinct kicked in and I prepared myself to push Margaret out of the way and escape if I had to – compassion only goes so far, you know.
And then I saw it – the monster. In Margaret’s eyes it was so fat it looked pregnant. It was hideous, as far as she was concerned, and it had to die or it would kill us.
No, I told her, I wasn’t going to kill it. I had an empty plastic cup on my desk so I used that to scoop it up, though I did have to chase it to get it.
“Don’t let it come near me!” screamed Margaret.
With my head held high, hero fashion, I took my captive out to the scrubby area near the old warehouse along the street and set it free to live another day, thinking that if it wanted to, it would find its way into the warehouse soon enough.
Such are the everyday dramas at the Oswego NY Branch of the American Red Cross.
Susan, house centipede rescuer

Dear Susan,
Thanks so much for sending us your gripping account of an Unnecessary Carnage intervention.

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PLEASE IDENTIFY THIS DISGUSTING BUG FROM PITTSBURGH
Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 8:58 PM
Help Bugman!!!
This type of bug has appeared 3-4 times in our house in the past 1-3 weeks.
Tonight I had to take a picture of it after we killed it.
It’s got to be poisonous, it’s terrrrible looking.
It’s got like 6 or 10 legs and it is just uggggly.
We live right near a ‘forest’ and honestly, JUST now, my roomate discovered another one as I’m typing.
Help! PLEASE!!!
What should we tell our exterminator!!!
What should we buy to protect ourselves
Thank you so much
Henry
Pittsburgh, PA, in basement 2bedroom living quarter

House Centipede Smashed

Unnecessary Carnage?
Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 6:29 PM
First, I must say there are some great pictures on your site. I scrolled through everything to try to find an answer, but I don’t even know what category this fits into. You may be able to tell that this bug was squished, so I’ll give you details the picture might not show. It’s just over an inch long and its antennae were quite long (almost as long as the body?) Unfortunately I can’t tell whether it has legs or not, but its underbelly appears to have several tiny ridges. The 3 vertical stripes are quite distinctive. I live in Windsor, ON (directly across the border from Detroit) and found it in my bedroom this evening. We’ve had some water damage in the house and also have carpenter ants (which I confirmed from several pictures here – thanks!). As well it has been humid here lately, so I’m not sure if that’s a factor.
Any insight you could provide would be appreciated.
Many thanks, Cheryl
Windsor, ON

House Centipede Extinguished

Whoops! Cancel that email!
Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 8:07 PM
Sent you an email earlier tonight entitled “Unnecessary Carnage?” and have discovered, to my embarrassment, that it is in fact a house centipede. I moved so quickly to kill the poor bugger that I didn’t see all of the legs (and wasn’t about to pick its corpse apart to investigate).
I’ve bookmarked your site so I can identify the next critter that makes itself known!
Many thanks (again), Cheryl
Windsor, ON

Dear Henry and Cheryl,
You have both unnecessarily exterminated a harmless House Centipede. They do look frightening, and though they have venom, the venom is harmless to humans in the extremely unlikely scenario that they might bite someone. You are far better off having House Centipedes patrolling your homes at night, dispatching Bed Bugs whose populations are on the rise, than you would be getting bitten by the Bed Bugs. No exterminators are necessary.

Unnecessary Carnage Update
September 18, 2009
My Unnecessary Carnage
I just found your website while researching the bug that I have squished (although not confirmed). I was sitting in my darkened living room in the wee hours of the night and caught some rapid movement from the corner of my eye. I quickly turned on a light and settled back on the sofa. Perhaps five minutes later I saw a large bug on my ceiling, which through your site I have identified as a House Centipede. I have seen other bugs of this type and have not been bothered as they are a fairly small bug and the only things that really bother me are spiders – I’m arachnophobic after a traumatic (for me and possibly the spider) experience but I don’t typically kill spiders just make sure I know where they are at all times, avoid them if possible or await their relocation or sadly, their ‘remo val’. Alas, I digress – back to the event from today. As I said I have seen others of this type of centipede before and they didn’t bother me but this specimen was quite large. It appeared to be at least 2 inches long, and looked much bigger/wider due to the many legs. Since it was on my ceiling and they move so fast I felt I had 2 options: leave it or try to get rid of it. I chose the second and grabbed my broom. I swatted at it and it fell to the floor, camouflaged by the beige carpeting and dashed for the nearest hiding spot, under a cabinet, with me swatting at it. I am not positive that I extinguished its life and kept a vigil for 5-10 minutes and didn’t see any signs of it. I think their speed would impede their safe removal in the future. Is there any way to safely remove them? I find bugs fascinating when I happen upon them outside. I am originally from Eastern Canada and have been living and enjoying the variety of bugs here – I was very excited to see a praying man tis and even a Hercules beetle. I don’t go out of my way to look f or them but feel the need to do something if I see them and I’d much prefer to escort them safely outside. I am sorry that I killed (maybe) the bug and would really appreciate some feedback.
Sincerely Apologetic,
Sarah in VA

Hi Sarah,
Thanks for your nice letter.  Since it came in as a comment not connected to a specific post, we are attaching it to two previous letters with the shared subject matter of House Centipedes killed unnecessarily.  First off, we are going to let you off the guilty hook because we don’t believe you killed that fast little bugger.  House Centipedes are quite evasive.  As far as advising you on how to best remove them, we don’t really have any suggestions.  House Centipedes seem quite fond of human domiciles, and they easily enter homes.  As you noted, they are so quick, it is difficult to capture them.  Dare we suggest that you just learn to coexist?  Since you are arachnophobic, the House Centipede will most likely help keep your indoor spider population under control as well as feasting on other undesirable intruders like cockroaches.

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