I think that's the bug they put in Neo in the first Matrix film
Everyone is saying they're harmless, but we read house centipedes cam leave painful bites. I've never been bitten, that I know of, but when plagued with centipedes, I'd sometimes wake up with one of two types of mysterious bug bites: itchy, and painful. I know from prior experience that most North American spider bites are only ever itchy, so I always put the painful ones down to house centipedes. I can't prove it, though. Here are the facts I do know about house centipedes, from empiricle evidence:
- They like damp. You'll find them in damp spots, drains, around toilets, around damp areas in basements, etc. Not exclusively, but predominantly.
- They wage a secret war with spiders. Sometimes the spider wins, but usually the centipede does unless it gets trapped by a web.
- Alive, they move like the wind. Shockingly, alarmingly fast.
- When smacked, they explode into air and legs. So many legs, and not much else.
- Despite reports that they control other bugs, they are useless against real nuisance bugs like soldier and stink bugs. And for fly control, spiders do a better job. The only real thing we ever saw centipedes hunting were spiders.
- Small glue traps work really well at controlling them. I caution against large glue traps, as they might catch small rodentia, and if you want to know true horror, find a YouTube video of a mouse caught in a glue trap.
I'm team spider.
This pretty well captures things! Insects that eat other insects are worth rooting for, but like you, I’m on team spider.
Thats a house centipede. Looks creepy, but its a nice house pet. It eats all of the other, undesireable, pests in your house.
Ok, thanks! Unfortunatelly this one doesnt qualify anymore as a pet but i am sure there are others around in the garden eg
It's a common house centipede.
Generally good critters. They do bite though.
I know they're generally harmless (they eat bugs and won't bite you if you leave it alone) but they make my skin crawl and I can't help but kill them with extreme prejudice when I find one.
The big thing for me is it's a sign there are bugs for them to eat in your walls or house.
That's a house centipede. They will leave you alone and eat lots of pests.
Thanks for taking the useful approach, rather than parroting the usual drivel
Edit It turns out they feed on bed bugs - surely that should sway a few people.
...And they can detach their legs? I want one!
Just so people who see them aren't worried, they don't just eat bed bugs. They will eat basically any insect that is smaller than they are up to and including spiders. I even saw one eating a yellowjacket once. So having house centipedes in your home doesn't mean that you have bedbugs.
From the wikipedia machine:
>They use both their mandibles and their legs for holding prey. This way they can deal with several small insects at the same time.
Final boss energy
I wish I had a few of those instead of a multitude of disgusting silverfish }:
I think it's a mindflyer parasite. If you hear it talking to you, make sure not to listen.
just a hard-working protector house centipede I think. harmless
My brother/sister in christ, have you considered nuking your neighborhood from orbit ?
Oh that’s no problem. Don’t worry about it.
Looks like a house centipede to me. Something for scale would be useful
Whenever I hear my wife scream, I know it's another house centipede I need to trap and throw outside (or smash and kill if I'm pressed on time)
Might as well kill it then as they don't survive well outside if at all. They are a good beneficial insect that will hunt and kill bad insects in and around your home.
Spiders are okay, at least they hang around the ceiling. But this thing is giant and crawls on the floor and walls. No thanks.
Do what I did and weld your house out of 20mm steel plate and have tightly controlled, thoroughly monitored and analyzed airflow, with a single two-stage entry hallway for washing off and inspecting your terran exploration suit and all acquisitions before entering your home.
I can pull a serious vacuum on this bitch, nothing's getting in unless I want it in.
a good ol' centipede. they like crawling out of drains and usually completely harmless (they can bite afaik, but never happened to me, even though i liked to rip their legs off as a kid for some reason... also depends on the species)
this one is super chonky tho and has less legs then regular ones I've seen before... ~~probably American one~~ /s
House centipede. They eat other bugs and while scary looking are harmless. They like spiders appear from time to time without anything being wrong. They’re just looking for other bugs to eat.
What’s the size scale here … is that corn??
It's a full sized human head.
I stayed a night in a dorm room before a bike race. I saw one of these before I went to sleep but couldn't catch/kill it. I still slept like a baby.
It's not on fire.
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