What Attracts Centipedes?

You may wonder why you see so many centipedes darting around your home. “Where did they come from, and why are they here?” you may ask yourself. “What attracts centipedes, and how did they get in?”

The best way to prevent a centipede infestation or to formulate a strategy to eradicate centipedes from your home is to learn the facts about “the enemy” so you can “fight smart, not hard.” Continue reading to “get the scoop on” these 30-legged pests that are stepping all over “your turf.”

Click on the link to learn the answer to the commonly asked question, “What is the difference between a centipede and a millipede?”

What Attracts Centipedes to My House?

The reasons you see centipedes in your house are much the same as for other pests: they seek food, water, warmth, shelter, and a place to lay their eggs and start up a whole new generation of “30-legged freaks.”

Where do you typically find centipedes in your home?

Any of these locations are a common place to spot them:

Any moist, shady environment will do. And sometimes, centipedes will even trap themselves in tubs and sinks, which is lucky for you since it makes it easier to target them with pesticides!

Note that centipedes will wander in looking for prey to feed on, which will normally be other small insects and spiders. And they frequently show up during the hottest and driest periods of the year.

An air-conditioned house with plenty of water and bugs to eat is too much for them to resist!

Where do they come from?

If you have centipedes in your house, rest assured you also have them out in your yard. And, as there are thousands of species of centipedes dwelling in a wide range of climate-types, you likely live in a region that centipedes call home.

More specifically, centipedes in the wild live in moist dirt, leaf piles, and in dead trees or logs. Their contribution to the ecosystem is immense, being (as they are) some of the largest invertebrate predators on the planet.

But that doesn’t mean you want them to be part of your “in-house ecosystem.”

Another way to answer the question, “What attracts centipedes come from?” is to say that they hatch out of eggs laid in damp soil in the spring or summer. Each mother centipede will lay 30 or more eggs at a time. The larvae will emerge from the eggs, and then progress through six distinct life stages.

So, what attracts centipedes to enter my house?

The main cause of centipedes entering your house is that they cannot remain outdoors in extreme conditions without being in danger of drying out and dying.

Centipedes do not have the waxy protective “cuticle” covering that many other insects and spiders possess. This means that they rapidly dehydrate and must seek out places with plenty of moisture.

Heat will also, of course, speed up the dehydration process and drive hoards of thirsty centipedes into your house.

What are house centipedes attracted to?

A second reason centipedes enter a building is that they are attracted to other pests already in it. What prey especially attracts them in?

Here is a basic “centipede menu”:

But almost any small bug will do. Centipedes rush their victims and grab onto them with their two front legs, which contain a venomous substance that is fatal to other insects but (in the common house centipede at least) not too dangerous to humans.

Click on the link to learn the true answer to the pressing question, “Do centipedes bite?”

How do they get in my house?

Outside, centipedes may live in your firewood supply and hitchhike a ride into your home when you bring wood inside for your wood stove or chimney.

Centipedes may also linger and lurk about under piles of leaves you rake up and don’t immediately dispose of or burn. Put that pile too near your house, and it could be a centipede magnet.

Rocky crevices near your home also attract centipedes, and once living in those rocks, they can crawl through cracks in your home’s foundation.

If you have a dead, rotten tree near your home or a tree with thick, grooved bark, that can also bring them near the house and lead to an infestation.

Centipedes also enter your house by crawling up drain pipes and sump pump hoses. And they are not shy about sneaking in through the gap under the front door or through gaps in your windows.

Stop Attracting Centipedes and Get Rid of The Ones You Have

The first step in protecting your home from centipedes is to clean up your yard (remove clutter, leaves, and dead wood) and be careful when bringing in firewood or anything outside.

Next, you need to seal off cracks in your foundation and other likely entry points. You will also need to reduce moisture levels in problem areas, and if you can increase lighting, that will also help.

Click the link to learn all about the best centipede repellent options.

Here are the main tricks to centipede control:

Finally, you can use “sticky traps” to catch centipedes and their prey. Place the traps in corners, along walls, and behind furniture.

Once you identify what your centipedes are feeding on, invest in pest management measures against those other insects infesting your home. That will both rid your premises of several unwanted guests and cut off the food supply of centipedes, forcing them to forage elsewhere or starve to death.

In sum, centipedes are a nuisance in many homes in the U.S., startling unsuspecting residents and threatening a possible bite if handled or threatened.

Centipedes are like moist, dark, cool crevices and shelters in which to live. . They retreat into (invade) your home when conditions outside threaten to dehydrate them or come in search of other insects that may already be infesting your home.

You can resort to many strategies to cease attracting centipedes or find and kill those already inside your house. However, when DIY methods fail, contact a pest management professional with expertise in centipede extermination.