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What Are House Centipedes?

House centipedes is a centipede specie that are obviously found inhibiting homes or shelters. They are categorized as arthropods and commonly referred as the "Spiderman" of the house. The good thing about them is that, they do eat other insects that they can find around the house such as ants, termites, cockroaches and etc...

The scientific name of a house centipede is "Scutigera Coleoptrata" in which they fall under the Scutigeromorpha group of centipedes. Their common color is yellowish-grey and usually have a total of fifteen legs. They can actually grow a size of up to 25 mm (one inch) to a total of 35 mm ( one and a half inches). However, with their long nimble legs and antennae, they may appear to have a size of up to 85 mm (four inches) long.

The most impressive characteristic of house centipedes is that, they can easily able to crawl all over the walls, floors and even on the ceiling at the rate of an impressive 0.4 meters per second (or 1.3 feet per second).

How House Centipedes Lay their Eggs?


House centipedes only choose to lay their eggs in the spring season. Within months after laying their eggs, between 83 to 151 number of baby centipedes are born. The baby scutigera coleoptrata look-like mini me's of their parents and only few of them have four pairs of legs at birth.

Baby house centipedes can grow additional number of legs once they started molting. Their first molting stage allows them to grow one to two pairs of legs. By their fifth or sixth molting stage, they finally have their complete number of legs.

Scutigera Coleoptrata usually live between one year and up to three years of age.

Do House Centipedes Live in Colonies?


Unlike ants, termites and bees that lives in colonies, house centipedes does not. They prefer to live on their own the reason why researchers refers to them as "Solitary Hunters". In fact, even centipedes in the wild are solitary predators.

Ant Colony

In comparison to the ants, they won't be able to survive alone. Researchers actually claim that when their queen dies, the entire colony also follow. As for the centipedes, they don't need a colony because they themselves are the kings and queens. They do not have underlings where each one of them are born with equal capability to survive alone on their own separate ways.

A centipede's capability to survive on its own is due to its excellent hunting skills. They possess the speed, power and venom that can disable their prey in an instant. Although, house centipedes is not as strong as their wild counterpart but they still reign as the supreme predator amongst all bugs inside a house.

Either house or wild centipedes, they don't live in colonies it's not because they don't like one another but due to their characteristics of simply being the top predator. In short, they possess the traits they need in order to survive as individual creatures of their own.

House Centipedes Inside your Home


The main reason why house centipedes are being attracted into your home are the array of bugs that can be found inside. This can be beneficial because they actually prey on any insects and arthropods that they can find around the house. Some of these insects includes ants, bed bugs, spiders, cock roaches and other annoying and creepy creatures that inhibits your home.

house_centipede

Just like other species of centipedes, the scutigera coleoptrata captures their prey by biting them and injecting their powerful venom. This paralyzes their victim allowing the predator to feast on its prey.

House centipedes do not attack humans and generally, they avoid being near you.

Are House Centipedes Harmful to Humans or Pets?


If you are worried about the house centipedes lurking around the corner of your house that they might hurt you or your pet, they are actually not harmful as you may think. But if you really want to get rid of them, the best method is to keep your home always clean and dry to prevent them from staying around your house.

Since house centipedes are not as harmful as the species found in the wild, it is advised that you (or home owners) should safely pick them up and place the creatures in the garden. As opposed to killing the centipedes, you have to know that they pose more benefits than harm.

Despite of their benefits, allowing house centipedes to freely roam around your home can cause serious infestation. This can lead to an unnecessary biting and extermination as a result of their high breeding population.

Moreover, if your home is infested with a number of house centipedes, you have to blame yourself for inviting them in the first place. You might not be aware that you have invited them but by simply leaving your house untidy, you are sending them out a message of invitation for them to come around.

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