In the past week my cat and I have had some excitement when I turn on the kitchen light in the morning. Sometimes we’re startled by a 100-legged bug that zooms across the floor to hide. I jump back and Emmalina (Emmy) jumps forward to chase it.
Eeewww! I’m repulsed by house centipedes but a book called Despicable Species by Janet Lembke taught me these critters help me indirectly.
House centipedes (Scutigera coleoptrata) are nocturnal raptors, the owls of the bug world. They eat a wide variety of live prey including spiders, silverfish, ants, termites, bedbugs and cockroaches which they catch by running them down. For this they need to be fast.
With rigid bodies their speed comes from their legs. Amazingly house centipedes don’t have 100 legs. Adults have 15 pairs of very long jointed legs (yes, only 30) with extra muscles that allow them to achieve a top speed of 1.3 feet per second very quickly. The two longest legs in the back mimic antennae and the two shortest in the front are modified to sting and kill their prey. The stingers sound scary but are very small and harmless to humans. House centipedes can even lose a few legs to get away if captured.
Because they don’t have wax on their exoskeleton, centipedes must rest during the day in damp, dark environments so they don’t dry out. They prefer basements and crawl spaces (I have both) and are sometimes found in the bathtub because they look for a damp place to rest.
Like many other bugs, house centipedes have a spurt of visibility in the spring. It’s the sight of all those legs that make my scalp crawl. I couldn’t even use an illustration of the entire bug for this post because I can’t bear to look at all those legs.
It’s reason against emotion. Now that I know they help me, I am trying very hard not to say “Eeewww.”
(close-up of a house centipede from Wikimedia Commons. Click on the photo to see the original)
I would still say eewwww. And they are escorted firmly outside when they show up in my house!
Ahhhhhhh. . . . bugs have to eat too! 🙂
Great post Kate! Sorry you have to say “Eww.” Gives us something to think about while waiting for peregrine eggs to hatch 🙂
Oh my goodness! I love knowing these are the “owls of the bug world”! I’ve only seen one twice in the house, but sure did scare me. Now that I know what they are, and what they do, I’ll leave them alone. Thank you!
I live in a stucco house so they love it here. From time to time I have seen the little creatures in my first floor bathtub. I knew that they loved bugs so I too let them be but when I knew company was coming I would swoop them up in a kleenex and throw them outside knowing they could have a banquet on bugs out there.
Ew! I can’t wait until this post clears the front page of the blog. I think I have a diagnosable reaction to these things. They can eat all the bugs they want outside of my house.
Eeewwww! yuck! eeeek!, etc. I hate all those little creepy crawly spiders & bugs. Especially those. I just seen one the other day in my bathroom. I ran to get the bug spray & a shoe, taking only 2 -3 seconds. When I got back it was gone. They are really fast. I looked for that thing for hours & couldn’t find it. I cannot stand those things. They give me the heebie jeebies! Well, all spiders do. I couldn’t sleep that night & not to good the following night either, knowing that thing was crawling around in my place some where. I got the heebie jeebies now again just thinking of them & seeing that picture & reading this article. My very first apartment was a basement apartment & it had what seemed like a ton of those things in it. Needless to say I didn’t stay there very long. But that experience of those things crawling around everywhere really got to me. & ever since I freak out when I see any kind of spider or bug in my place. I’m on the 2nd floor now & this is the first one I’ve seen in a long time here. I just hope I don’t see any more for a long long time. I also heard that they eat the junk inside the pipes too & like to be in/around the drains because its damp. I keep covers over my drains & it does seem to have cut down on them a lot. I always thought they were called thousand leggers. I never heard them being called 100 leggers before. But either way, you’re right, the sight of all those legs really creeps me out.
Candi, house centipedes EAT spiders and usually stay hidden in the dark. That’s why I’ve changed my mind about them.