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What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

House Centipede Terrifies Again!

Long creepy bug
Hi, this may sound like a very weird story. I know you get emails like this all the time and it turns out being this same thing but i have a question about the house centipede. Ok so heres my story. I walked into the bathroom one night to do my business (my bathroom has linolium and carpet because it is also my laundry room if that matters). Well i walk in to go to the bathroom and i turn on the light when just is a get to the toilet i see this bug scurry across the floor. It was well i guess a light yellow or clearish color and i believe it had two very thin brown "racing stripes" down his back. Well he scurried across the floor and ran around a bag of papers sitting there. Well i was so scared that after i went to the bathroom, i stood on the toilet to wash my hands. But you may be thinking to yourself, yeah its just another house centipede but i looked at the photos and the one i saw the legs weren’ t as long as the one photo but it did have feelers in the front but there wasn’t just a couple legs like the photo, no, there was ALOT. I am so deathly afraid to go back in the bathroom so i would be really thankfully if you can just let me know that its not poisonous or anything bad, i mean my dad’s work boots are now locked in the bathroom with this creature!
Thanks a Bunch,
Bathroom Critter

Dear Critter,
Though they are startling, House Centipedes are harmless. When they are running, they appear to have many more legs than they actually possess.

Posted 06 July 2004 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Millipedes

Unknown Bug in VA
Bugman
I’ve seen these around in the past, but this year they are everywhere, and by the hundreds. I’ve attached some photos. Sorry for the size, but I wanted you to get as much detail as possible. Great site.
Peace.
Brad Barker

Hi Brad,
You have millipedes. These are distinguished from centipedes since they have two pairs of legs on each segment. They are relatively benign creatures that can get very numerous, as you well know, when it is warm and damp. They sometimes eat new seedlings, but mostly they eat decaying matter and help to break down debris.

Posted 04 July 2004 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Scared of Something

In my home one day I spotted a horrible bug. It was six inches long,gray and looked like it had hair for legs and was incredibly fast.It look like this:
Katherine Cohen

Hi Katherine,
You have made a wonderful drawing of a House Centipede, Scutigera coleoptrata, though six inches is an exaggeration.

Posted 04 March 2004 § ‡ Comments (0) °
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

House Centipede

Hi. First, I want to thank you for your wonderfully informative site. I was trying to identify the very creepy looking critter in my bathtub and was able to find out that it was a house centipede and that I need not be afraid. :) Anyway, I had gotten a pretty good picture of it and thought I’d pass it along in case you could make use of it.
Thanks again.
Tina

Hi Tina,
I’m glad we could be helpful. I will post your photo immediately. Since we get so many letters about House Centipedes, it is always nice to have a new image for the homepage.

Posted 18 February 2004 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Centipedes and Millipedes

We were in Dierks, AR near the Lower Saline River in the Ouachita Mountains and pretty close to the southeast border of Oklahoma. We lifted up a kayak only to find this extremely fast moving critter resembling a centipede. However, it was approximately 6-8 inches long and the body was black with yellow legs and red antennas. We chased it around on the ground and a friend got it on video, but the critter started raising it’s body off the ground and almost bouncing around like it was mad. None of us had ever seen anything like it. And here is some more information on the area: we saw the largest tarantula ever in AR in this area and the river we were on is really full of sulphur from the decaying plants. I understand this is due to the lake only being drawn down twice a year and the soil on the bottom containing the sulphur gets stirred. So my conclusion on these large bugs is that maybe it has something to do with the water. Again, though, I am really curious as to what the centipede look alike might be. If we are able to get the video on computer and download an image, I will make sure it is sent to you.
Thanks, Renee Wilson, CPA
Loan Review Officer
Bank of the Ozarks

Dear Renee,
Oklahoma has centipedes the size you saw. Since you are so close, you may be within the range of the species. I haven’t found much information on them except that they are large and have a poisonous bite. I don’t think the water has much to do with the size of the tarantula and centipede you found. Please send the photo if you are able. We would love to see it.

Posted 13 October 2003 § ‡ Comments (0) °

One of the Best Letters Ever

Whole lotta legs
Dear Señor Bugman,
Please help. What the !*&^%$!@* are these things?!?!
I am an American who was transferred to Mexico for my job. I live in a small town located in Mexico (State of Sonora) along the Sea of Cortez. Unfortunately living conditions here are not the best. Yes, we found these horrible things in our house. Yes, we have had the house fumigated (several times). AND YES, I am having nightmares about being eaten alive by these giant bugs. It took a half a jug of Ortho bug killer to bring these creatures to their demise (me screaming the entire time). See attached pictures. We have also encountered tarantulas, reptiles, and snakes in our home. Needless to say, every single day here is an adventure in the animal kingdom that’s for sure.

My goodness. I consider myself to be fairly brave in the face of most bugs – I can squash ‘em with the best of ‘em. However, when the bugs begin to approach the size of a small dog and they have hair of their own and small things that resemble horns-things change. YUCK!!! I get the heebie-jeebies just reading about them on your web site.

As for the reptilia I have so bravely encountered in my shower each day….let me just say – NO!!! I adore anything with fur (okay maybe not bugs with fur), I can tolerate things with feathers and fins…but ANYTHING that falls into the reptile category HAS GOT TO GO!!! YYYYEEESSSSHHHHHH!!!
In any case….can you please just tell me if the pictures I’ve attached of these creeepy crawly things are poisonous???
Muchas gracias,
CactusGirlBecky
Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico

Icky Long Bug: Millipede


Big Ugly Bug: Multicolored Centipede

Dear Bugged Out Cactus Girl Becky,
At the risk of seeming insensitive, I just love your letter, and the photos are great. Please continue to send us photos of Mexican fauna whenever you want.
Your Icky Long Bug is a millipede, and it is harmless. On the other hand, your big ugly bug is a centipede that is capable of inflicting a painful and poisonous bite. At least yours is not as big as they grow in other parts of the tropics and in the Oklahoma desert where they are reported to reach upwards of eight inches. Yours appears to be a Multi-Colored Centipede, Scolopendra polymorpha. Little is known about their biology. The last pair of legs is capable of pinching. The reptile looks like a gecko, and will probably eat insects in your shower.

(10/14/2003)
Dear most Knowledgeable Bugman,
Ooops. Sorry I see that you addressed my "bug letter" on your bug site already, so please ignore the email I just resent to you.

Thanks you so much for responding to my email on your website. It is much appreciated. At least I now know which bugs are poisonous (and require screaming AND running) vs. the bugs which are not poisonous (only require screaming).

I will continue to capture strange Mexico bug pictures and email them to you. Thank god my camera has a giant zoom lens. You can bet I won’t be getting close to any of these gawd awful slimy things.

On a more pleasant note…..we had another snake invade our house this week. My heroic husband managed to skewer it with his pool que. Now there’s creative reptile/bug killing! The last time we had a snake in our house, it managed to hide in the bathroom until I had to tinkle. Guess who REALLY woke up at 5:30 a.m. in the morning when it crawled across the tops of their bare feet? Yes, that’d be me. I ended up perched on top the of the toilet with the snake between me and the only escape route (the door, of course). Screams can’t even begin to describe what sounds my husband woke up to that morning. When he opened up the bathroom door it slithered across his feet too (serves him right for sleeping through my snake trauma). He ended up whacking that one in half, and then stood there in total shock while both halves kept moving. Utter horror! Right out of a Steven King novel. I kid you not. Maybe someday when I am brave enough, I will tell you about the story of the cockroach nest in our water tank. Shivvvvvvver.

Posted 12 September 2003 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Centipedes and Millipedes

Bugman, I found what I have identified as a centipede but im not sure what kind. I found it on a lady’s porch. It is about 6" long and about the width of a mans index finger, or mine anyways. Color is dark brown and has two sets of legs for each body segment. I live on the coast of North Carolina and have never seen a centipede anywhere close to this size. Is this native to this area?…is it even native to the U.S.? I can take some pictures of it and send them in if this would help or if you are interested in seeing it.
Thank you

Dear Erik,
Please send the photos. There is a large desert centipede known as Scolopendra heros. S. heros has three subspecies. The S. heros "family" are the only centipedes in the continental United
States that can attain lengths larger than 8 inches. They are normally reported from desert areas especially Oklahoma and Texas, but they are also kept as pets by people. Perhaps your
specimen escaped or perhaps the range is much greater than expected. We would very much like to see a photo. For your information, centipedes have only one pair of legs per segment, and millipedes have two pairs per segment.
Daniel

Posted 30 July 2003 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Centipedes and Millipedes

Hi there,
This thing wasn’t in my home thank goodness. I was staying in a hostel in Toronto a couple weeks ago. When i arrived at the hostel way earlier than standard checkin time, they let me settle into a room anyhow because it was completely empty. they had cleaned it the day before and so there was no one staying in there at the time. Later that day another girl moved into the room, and she told me that she had been staying in there a couple days earlier, but had been moved out so they could clean the room because she had been getting weird rashy-looking bite marks all over her arms and legs. she showed me – just large red patches. no one else in the room had been bitten/stung/affected, but they decided to clean the room anyhow. a few days later, i was changing in the room one morning when something moving caught my eye. I glanced at the floor to see something dash out from the general area of a pile of luggage and run across the floor in front of me. i was stunned for a moment watching this bizarre thing and then, not having anything with which to really catch it, i tried to grab at a shoe to give it a whack (i’m not much for killing bugs though, but i didn’t feel i had much in the way of options just then). before I could get it though, it ran underneath a pile of luggage under a girl’s bunk. and she was sleeping in it at the time, so I didnt think it would be very good of me to go through her luggage, have her wake up and smack me thinking I was stealing something. The thing was never seen again during my stay. My first impression of it was that it looked like a translucent brown shrimpish thing. kind of like root beer candy, that sort of translucent brown. it was quick, it had something clawlike off the front. I didnt get an accurate leg count unfortunately… it had a small tail that was sticking out the back of it. like a shrimp. and it was certainly a couple inches long. I described this thing to a few people in toronto, and more than one of them said ‘oh that’s a silverfish!’ I’ve seen silverfish before, theyre tiny and silver and fishlike. but these people insist silverfish in toronto look like brown shrimp things. i dont know if that’s just a common torontonian nickname or what. My dad seems to think it might have been some kind of scorpion, which I guess half fits the description. I was looking at photos of pseudoscorpions and thought perhaps that was it, until i saw that those guys are much much smaller than the critter i saw. my beast looked a bit thinner and longer as well. Also, being a hostel, people come from all over the world. This bug could have i suppose hitched a ride from anywhere on earth..?! Any thoughts on what this might have been? I’m just really really curious. The hostel might like to know what’s creeping around in their rooms as well. Thanks for your help!
Andy Scheffler

Dear Andy,
What an awesome letter. I hope I can help. I’m guessing house centipede. Very quick, transluscent, about 30 legs. We get lots of questions about this one. They are predatory, eating small insects, and not dangerous to people. No way it caused the girl’s rash.

Posted 01 July 2003 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Centipedes and Millipedes

this centipede was found on a trail at the Rancho Mission Viejo Land Conservancy reserve about 5 miles off the 5 Freeway down Ortega Highway. Got a Latin name?
Thanks···.

The multicolored centipede is the common name for Scolopendra polymorpha. Here is some information from the website
http://www.goldenphoenixexotica.com/cent.html
Scolopendra polymorpha This Scolopendra polymorpha is a local Arizona species. Polymorpha is Latin for ‘many form’ and it lives up to its name. We have seen these entirely yellow, orange, blue, and any gradation in between. In December of 2000 we spotted a baby blue polymorpha with bluish black bars within the Phoenix city limits. We were recently pleased to see a specimen at the Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute about seven inches long and about as big around as a finger. We keep these on soil just damp enough to change the color. A bit of sand in the soil mix is ideal. Keep the substrate shallow if you wish to easily view your centipedes. These creatures are voracious predators that inject venom with forelegs which have been modified to function as fangs. They thrive on a diet of crickets or cockroaches that have been fed nutritiously. Humidity is easily supplied by daily misting. Even a very small polymorpha is capable of administering a bite capable of causing sharp discomfort. Pain arising from the bite of larger polymorpha may well be proportionate, and additional effects remain unknown. Handling is therefore NOT recommended. The picture to the left above is one of the low desert forms. Those to the right are high desert forms. The rightmost centipede is coiled around a clutch of eggs. She will continue to hold her young in this manner until dispersal.

Posted 27 May 2003 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Centipedes and Millipedes

I’m hoping you can help me out with a bug identification. We live in York, PA, in a brick house that’s about 150 years old. We have these "creatures" that emerge in various places… I’ve seen them in the basement laundry room– usually when I pick something up off the floor– but also in the living room and dining room, scurrying across the floors or up the walls. They look kind of like the silverfish drawing, but they are longer and thinner, probably a little less than a half inch wide. They range in size from 2-3 inches long, but once I swear I saw one that was at least 4 inches long one time in the basement. They are gray in color, very flat, very fast, with lots of legs, but they don’t seem to have the tentacles off the front and back like the silverfish drawing. I wish could get a picture of one– unfortunately when I see one I’m so darn startled that I end up crushing it to an unidentifiable pulp!!! Any help available? Tricia

Dear Tricia,
You have house centipedes (Scutigera coleoptrata). They are harmless, and actually eat other tiny pests that enter your house. We have some nice photos on our site www.whatsthatbug.com which you can view by clicking the centipede button.

Posted 15 May 2003 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Centipedes and Millipedes

I have been searching the web to see if I could find out what these weird, ugly bugs are that we have seen in our house. Alex wrote to you on 6/2/02 and describe the exact things we have. These bugs were NOT on the links you had attached. We live in Raleigh, NC. The bugs are FAST! I mean you see them and then they are gone. I thought is was some form of millipede or centipede, but I haven’t been able to close enough to one to find out. They have MORE than 8 legs and the legs are at least two jointed because they hold the bug up off the ground like a spider more than a centipede or millipede. They are between 2 and 4 inches long. The legs are slender and black and I honestly haven’t seen too much of the body except that it is thin, almost like it is only there to attach the legs. Thanks for any help you can give us.

Dear Liana,
I have contacted our local Museum of Natural History, and the entomologist I spoke with is also stumped. However, he did foreward this contact person in your area who might be able to assist in your identification. The really confusing part of your description is the size of your creature. 4-5 inches is huge, not for the tropics, but for the continental U.S. at least. The only possibility I have if your description is accurate, is that somehow you have acquired an exotic import that is happy with its new environment, and that is reproducing and moving with you from house to house, perhaps when you pack. Has either you or your roommate been to the Amazon, Sub-Saharan Africa, or Tropical Asia? Something fitting your description could originate in any of those places. Please keep us informed if you ever get a proper identification, or better yet, send us a photo of the creature if possible. You might also want to write to www.cryptozoology.com because those folk specialize in strange sightings. Here is the reply I got from Brian at the Natural History Museum:

Hi Daniel
Thanks for sending the letters. There is a guy in North Carolina who specializes in Millipedes named Rowland Shelley. He’s at the North Carolina State Museum (at least as of 1998) P.O.Box 27647, Raleigh 27611. Unfortunately I don’t have a phone number or e-mail but perhaps a website for this college will list his number(s) or someone there can forward these messages to him, etc… That’s all I could come up with for now! GOOD LUCK!! Brian Harris ___________________________________
Brian P. Harris
Entomology Section
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Posted 18 October 2002 § ‡ Comments (0) °

picture of creapy crawler

Please look at the attached picture. I live in VA and these are in my house. I used to think these were silverfish because the smaller ones don’t have such large legs/antennae…but I really have no idea what they are.
Thanks for your time!
Mike
What’s That Bug? is cleaning house, posting images that slipped through the cracks, and we though you would enjoy Mike’s photo of a house centipede.

I think they are called house cenitpedes. And from what I read on the net, they can "?bite/sting?" people. But they are normally very shy and fast.

Dear Liana,
House centipedes do not get four inches long, but often things are not the size they appear. Also, your initial letter from Alex said they were not house centipedes, so I never even suggested that possibility since I thought he was certain your creatures were not house centipedes. House centipedes have about 15 pairs of legs, and the final pair are elongated. They are not harmful, and are actually beneficial as they devour unwanted insects.

Posted 16 August 2002 § ‡ Comments (0) °

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