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So I just found one near my bed on the wall--and it has escaped my clutches into some crevice near the floorboard. Now I'm anxious--can these things actually bite you? Are they centipedes or millipedes or what? It is about three inches long, with tiny reddish hair-like legs and goes like a million miles an hour (shudder).
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Is this what you mean? They are called "Silverfish" or "house centipede" http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/House_centipede.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverfish They usually come in from the yard.. As far as I know they don't bite, but they do eat paper.
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Ah, house centipedes. They were our freeloading roommates in my first apartment. They can bite although I don't think it's common and they're not poisonous. They're mostly just hideous-looking. They eat other insects so they apparently keep your house free of other pests, but, you know, you're still stuck with scary centipedes. Not much of a trade-off. We were cheap and lazy but I'm sure an exterminator could get rid of them.
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They're hunters and eat bad bugs. Let him do his job.
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we have a roommate of the many-legged type as well. he emerges from the corners every now and again, but is pretty uninterested in us. since weve let him stay though, we have had zero other bugs. they like the dark, and if you have radiator pipes running from floor to ceiling, they like to live between the floors of apartment buildings and will come out of any cracks around the pipes. if you really dont like them, steel wool in crevices will keep them (and any other crawlies) out. but if you can take the rare sighting, they arent harmful
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gah, the scary hairy centipede. i was brushing my teeth the other day, and as i leaned down to get water from the sink i came eye to eye with one. they freak me out.what would you tell me, if i could hear you speaking?--t.r.
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I prefer the human variety..
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We've got a few of those guys running around our garden apartment. We kind of have a mutual agreement to ignore one another. They do their thing and we do ours. As far as I can tell they don't bite or cause any bodily harm to humans. They do seem to keep the house clear of other crawlies though, which is cool. I say live and let live.
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i feel that way about spiders. then again, i'm not freaked about spiders running across me while i'm sleepingwhat would you tell me, if i could hear you speaking?--t.r.
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House centipedes are one of the good guys, showing up when you have roaches and then decimating them one by one. If you see the scary guys, thank them for being nature's exterminator (but don't look at them too long). House centipedes and spiders are the only insects I save from my cats.I believe in peace, bitch.
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Anonymous
Posts: 9,622I'm looking at one right now work its way around the upper part of my wall. Wiki says "House centipedes feed on spiders, bedbugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish, ants, and other household arthropods"....so they are cool with me. I find it hard to believe one of these things can take down a giant cockroach (although those are often slow), but if he does his job just by deterring them, he's welcome to stay at my house (just not in my bed or my food, please) -
According to Wiki, they can inject poison into their prey... hence giant cockroaches are toast.
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booklaw » According to Wiki, they can inject poison into their prey
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Anonymous
Posts: 9,622booklaw » According to Wiki, they can inject poison into their prey... hence giant cockroaches are toast.
Good. I have only seen one in the past year, so maybe my creepy crawly is doing his job. -
Does anyone know how to get rid of centipedes? I don't care what other bugs they eat; they're disgusting and I don't want them in my house. The cat kills them when he can get one. But all remedies I've found online are banned in NY.
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If you get bedbugs you will be praying for buckets of these things.
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this thing definitely bites! I got bit by it and it's swelling, at the beginning i thought it's a fire ant bite or a spider, but the fact that I never saw any ants or spiders in my apartment, but saw these creepy crawlies often near my bed! and we still have cockroaches!!!
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It won't bite you unless you crush it or it feels threatened.
Relax; you probably only have bed bugs -- you can't see those
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I see one occasionally, but it tends to stay up by the ceiling and do its own thing. I call it Dobby, the House Centipede.
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Boric Acid? The stuff that kills roaches, that might work. Plus you need to close up (spackle, patch etc..) any place along the walls and windows and floorboards where they are getting in. They live in the walls, you have to make sure your place is sealed tight and kept clean.
I call BS on anyone saying you should live with them and that they are so good because they take care of the other bug problems. Really? No way, you still have a bug problem. You should not have roaches, mice, bed bugs or any of these if you don't want them. This is what bug sprays, cleanliness and modern technology (zappers!) were made for.
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I guess 'problem' is pretty subjective, as is 'bug'. Like the others, I hold our crustacean comrades the house centipedes in high regard. I've witnessed them dispatching other pests, including flying insects. There is one that hangs out on the main support beam in our basement and snatches flies in mid-air.
They pose no risk of harm to any household members or food items, and their population is naturally controlled by the relative scarcity of their food sources in human dwellings. They also have exceptional lifespans, seven years is not uncommon. So make friends with your house centipede and he or she will be a good house mate for years to come.
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