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HELP
Found this in my house this morning hiding under a shoe? Been all of the web and cannot find one like it. Have found some similar but not this one.
Misty
Hi Misty,
You neglected to tell us where this was found, other than under a shoe. It looks like a Multi-Colored Centipede, Scolopendra polymorpha, which vary from dark olive yellow to greenish brown. This centipede can grow to 3 or 4 inches in length. They can bite painfully.
What is this bug?!?!?!?
Dear What’s That Bug:
I found this bug in my bathroom. Is it some sort of centipede or millipede? I couldn’t find a picture of it on the web. I tried to kill it but it wouldn’t die. Mean, huh? Its legs moved in waves. We live in Iowa. I have never seen this before – do you know?
Thanks for being on the web – great site!
Brea Lewis
Sioux City, Iowa
Hi Brea,
You have a centipede. They do contain poison glands and some species, especially the large centipedes from Texas and Oklahoma, can give a painful bite.
INTERESTING INSECT
Apologies for the bad photo; I used my camera/phone. The insect is brown with darker brown stripes length-wise down its body. Its legs are striped width-wise. He’s soft-bodied (like a caterpillar), and quite clean, cleaning each leg meticulously. Not knowing what to feed it, I gave it strips of fresh carrot, and a few pieces of dry dog food. It has 14 pair of legs, 2 antennae in the front, and 2 antennae-like in the rear. His legs move in a wave-type motion. It has a pair of claws in the front, 2 eyes, and a ’round’ face (for lack of a better description). I searched different sites trying to ID this creature. I was unsuccessful. Would you assist me in identifying this great insect?
Thank you!
Judy
Hi Judy,
Your House Centipede pet is not an insect. Try feeding it live insects, like flies. You can even buy crickets from the pet store as food. They will not bit. Most people who send us letters concerning House Centipedes are terrified. Your letter was refreshing.
What in the world is this thing?
Hello! I hope you’ll be able to help me out here. A friend of mine took a picture of this…insect in her basement, and from the description and the photograph (link included in this message) it looks to be some sort of caterpillar. Of course, that is a maybe. I’ve never seen anything like it before and neither has anyone else I’ve questioned.
Location: Minnesota (St. Paul area)
Thank you for your time and patience.
Sincerely,
Michelle y. Richardson
Hi Michelle,
Sorry for the delay. I am very amused that your friend named her poor dead House Centipede “Satan” which might explain why it is dead. They are harmless, though they often startle people when they run across a floor at night. They are very fast, but will kill and eat spiders and cockroaches and other undesireable household intruders.
Unknown Bug on Lesvos Greece
Hi
I was wondering if you could help me identify a bug. Attached is a
picture of an unknown bug I found on my mothers farm in Greece.
Many thanks
Pippa
Hi Pippa,
Your Lesvian Millipedes are surely beautiful. They can be distinguished from centipedes as millipedes have two legs per segment. Sorry, we am not familiar with all the exotica of Lesvos, and do not have a species name, but we will continue to research the matter.
Update: (01/20/2008) Greece millipedes
While scrolling through sites tonight, I came across yours, and I can answer many of the questions, though it is late. Anyhow, there are two pictures of a lovely black millipede fro, Greece with bright yellow spots down the midbody and yellow-spottwed margins. This is a species of Melaphe (order Polydesmida: family Xystodesmidae).
Rowland Shelley ,North Carolina State Museum of Natural Science
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
