multi-colored centipede?
Below is a centipede found yesterday in my livingroom in upstate South Carolina. (Our home is surrounded by woods, if that helps ID.) It is about 2.5 inches long and speedy. Sorry about the lighting changes in the photos. He was moving so fast, I had a hard time just getting a picture in which his/her legs weren’t blurred. After browsing through your awesome site, I’m guessing it is some sort of multi-colored centipede. Would you agree? I’m unsure and emailing primarily because I keep reading elsewhere that they live in the western U.S. I have two very enthusiastic little nature "collectors" (photos only) that I don’t care to see bitten. Thanks,
Robbin Dawson
I’m too impatient. I just found him on bugguide.net. He’s a Florida Blue Centipede (Hemiscolopendra Marginata). Thanks anyway. Your site is invaluable to our bug ID efforts.
Robbin Dawson
Hi Robbin,
We are happy you have correctly identified your Florida Blue Centipede, Hemiscolopendra marginata. We do not stay tethered to the computer, and only post new letters once a day.
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Scolopendra h. arizonensis?
Hi Bugman,
My roommate found this beauty digging a garden in the neighbors yard in Gisela, AZ. It is aprox. 9-10 inches long. None of us want to get close enough to measure it accurately. We decided to house it in a 20 gallon aquarium for a little while and observe it, take pictures, video etc… and then release it on the opposite side of the Tonto Creek from our house, just to be safe. We can find a few crickets about to feed it, but we do have lots of scorpions, a nest of them actual, on the property, will it eat scorpions? or will the scorpion kill it. My roommate is a vegetarian/Buddhist so he won’t let me fed it any mammals such as mice or lizards, or amphibians, which we also have running about. But he is O.K. with feeding it scorpions and other insects I can find. I tried stink beetles but the centipede didn’t seem to like those. Also, did we identify it correctly? Luv your website, really cool! Thanks,
Ardra
Hi Ardra,
We are certain this is Scolopendra heros, but we are not sure how the subspecies are identified. One color variant of this species is called the Giant Redheaded Centipede, but your specimen is one of the black headed ones. The primary food of these Desert Centipedes consists of small arthropods, so crickets should work nicely. We are not sure who would eat whom in a centipede/scorpion match.
house centipede??
I assume this is a house centipede as from the front page of the website.
Sorry about the quality, only had the camera on my phone. cheers
Michael A Davis
Hi Michael,
Yes, this is a House Centipede.
1
??
We found this interesting critter in the bathtub. Looks like a combination of a centipede and a cricket. Not sure what it is though. It’s about 2" in length.
Mike
Hi Mike,
The harmless House Centipede is one of our commonest query subjects, and we always keep a photo of one on our homepage. Yours will remain until we get another great image.
Tiny little worms…
I’m hoping you can help me identify these tiny little worms that have made my children’s bedroom their breeding ground. The pics attached were taken on the patio just off the bedroom. There are hundreds of them outside in the cracks all around the backyard. They have made their way in from the outside and are all around the baseboards. I don’t know what to do about them and can’t identify them. I hope you can help.
Lisa Enriquez
Hi Lisa,
These are not worms, they are Millipedes. They feed on organic material in soil and help break it down. Perhaps you have a new flower bed filled with bags of soil and amendments which has caused this population explosion.
Update: (01/20/2008) Millipede ids.
Here are ids. for the millipedes on the millipede page. Most are quite old; don’t people submit new ones more often than this? 2/19/07 . representatives of the order Julida. Can’t tell family from photo; they are probably introduced as they occur around a home
Rowland Shelley
North Carolina State Museum of Natural Science
Can you identify this bug?
We see them in SE Arizona. ~ 7-9" Long. Thank you,
Len
Hi Len,
What a gorgeous Centipede. This is probably a subspecies of Scolopendra heros, the Giant Red Headed Centipede. BugGuide also has one photo of this color variation, which might be considered a separate subspecies or just a color variation. Thanks for sending us your wonderful image. We wish the head was in the shot.
What sort of Bug/insect is this
Hello,
Was wondering if you help me with identifying this bug/insect that we found in our home? I have attached three photos to help out never have seen any thing like this before it looks like a cross between a centipede and a silver fish! Your help is much appreciated. Regards
Ty and Larelle
Hi Ty and Larelle,
This is a House Centipede, one of the most common identification queries we get. For that reason, there is always a photo of a House Centipede on our homepage. Yours will replace the current image. House Centipedes are harmless predators that will kill and eat many other household intruders.
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Indonesian Centipede
Hi Bugman!
My daughter Alexa and I live in Kona, Hawaii where we get a fair number of these giant centipedes. You’ve already got some great pictures on your site of these, (Indonesian centipede, right?) but none of them truly capture the size of these critters. We have been waiting months to try to get a good picture of one of these guys, but they never seem to cooperate. Finally, this big one came wandering into our garage. Alexa (age 6) carefully put her plastic sand bucket over him while I ran and got our camera and a tape measure. To our mutual surprise, when we took off the bucket the centipede did not move and allowed me to take his picture several times. If you really stretched him out, I think he’s pushing 7 inches from antenae to rear legs. I know these centipedes can give you one hell of a bite, (the pain is supposed to last a couple of days) but they are really non-aggressive. I’ve had one stroll accross my bare foot. Plus, don’t these things eat cockroaches? Anyway, keep up the great work!
Jeff Lanterman
Hi Jeff,
We really want to thank you and your bug wrangler Alexa for supplying us with these wonderful photos. Yes, Tropical Centipedes do eat cockroaches.
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