Skip to content
Close
We'll get rid of whatever's bugging you. Guaranteed. Get A Free Estimate

Centipedes

We’ll get rid of
whatever’s bugging you.
Guaranteed.

NO MORE CENTIPEDES – GUARANTEED.

Despite their frightful appearance, centipedes cause no structural damage to your home and do not contaminate food. In fact, some people consider centipedes beneficial because they eat other household pests, such as cockroaches, silverfish, and spiders. But if nuisance centipedes are bugging you, call Adam’s.

Known Issues

  • Structure Invading

Active Seasons

  • Summer

Centipedes Treatment Options

One-time Perimeter Services

Adam’s exterminates centipedes by applying an EPA proven residual insecticide treatment to the foundation and exterior perimeter of your home to keep centipedes from entering. Particular attention is given to all cracks, crevices, and possible entry sites. When needed, Adam’s will treat interior areas where centipedes may hide, including baseboards, cracks, crevices, and wall voids. The one-time service is warranted for 3 months.

Premier Perimeter

Need to prevent more pests than just centipedes? Adam’s Premier Perimeter Program includes a minimum of 3 preventive barrier treatments around the exterior perimeter of your home for year-round prevention of common household bugs, including insects, spiders, and centipedes. Your Pest Management Professional inspects for pests, and then applies a season-specific, non-repellent, residual material to control common household pests before they can get inside. Comes with a 12-month guarantee.

Premier Home Pest Prevention

Adam’s best value for prevention and control of common household pests, including centipedes! Adam’s Premier Home Pest Prevention service provides year-round pest prevention with a minimum of four visits throughout the year. Service visits focus on the exterior of your home, where most pest problems originate. And should a pest problem ever occur between scheduled visits, the plan includes additional treatments at no additional charge. This program includes common household pests like ants, spiders, sow bugs, and roaches and seasonal pests like wasps, multicolored Asian lady beetles, boxelder bugs, and mice, as well as centipedes.

More About Centipedes

HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE CENTIPEDES?

  • Centipedes are easily seen in moist and protected environments, such as under rocks, leaf litter, and woodpiles.
  • Indoors, centipedes hide in cracks and crevices in walls.
  • Centipedes also hide under carpet edges and behind baseboards in the basement.

WHAT DO CENTIPEDES LOOK LIKE?

  • House centipedes (the common indoor species of centipedes) are grayish-yellow and usually marked with three dark longitudinal stripes visible from above.
  • Centipedes can grow to more than 1” in length.
  • Depending on the species, adults may have from 15 to 191 pairs of legs (Edgecombe and Giribet. 2007).
  • There is one pair of legs on each segment of a centipede’s body.
  • The legs are clearly striped.
  • Centipedes have a pair of antennae that extends forward from the head.

DO CENTIPEDES REALLY HAVE 100 LEGS?

  • Depending on the species, yes.
  • Though centipede means “one hundred legs,” centipedes can have as few as 15 pairs of legs, or as many as 191 pairs.
  • Centipedes always have an odd number of leg pairs, so they never have exactly 100 legs.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CENTIPEDES AND MILLIPEDES?

  • Centipedes have one pair of legs per segment, while millipedes have two pairs of legs per segment.
  • Centipedes are predators of insects, spiders, and small animals; while millipedes are scavengers that eat decaying leaves, decaying plant matter, and some fungi.

ARE CENTIPEDES DANGEROUS?

  • Although not considered dangerous, centipedes can deliver a painful “pinch”, especially when handled.
  • Centipedes do not really bite; they inject venom from modified claws found in their front legs.
  • The injected venom of centipedes is not usually fatal. It causes a slight swelling and irritation similar to that of a bee or wasp sting.

CAN MY HOUSE BE DAMAGED BY CENTIPEDES?

Despite their “fearful” appearance, centipedes cause no structural damage to your home and do not contaminate food.

WHY ARE CENTIPEDES IN MY HOUSE/YARD?

  • During cold weather, adult centipedes overwinter in protected places.
  • Centipedes can survive indoors, especially in damp, moist basements, cellars, bathrooms, crawlspaces or unexcavated areas under the house.
  • Centipedes usually gain access via holes and cracks in the foundation walls or by crawling under door gaps.
  • Centipedes become active during spring and live outdoors in damp and shaded areas.
  • During the summer, centipedes may enter buildings seeking shelter, where they become a nuisance pest.

WHAT DO CENTIPEDES EAT?

  • Centipedes feed on small creatures, such as bed bugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish, spiders, and other household insects, and even small animals.
  • Centipedes bite with their modified front legs.
  • The centipede’s front pair legs are pointed, fang-like appendages called forcipules, which connect to poison glands on the first body segment immediately behind the centipede’s head.
  • Centipedes use their forcipules to pierce their prey’s skin and then inject venom into the cut; paralyzing the prey.

WHAT IS THE LIFECYCLE OF CENTIPEDES?

  • After mating, females usually lay their eggs in the soil or in rotting wood.
  • Some species curl around the eggs to protect and clean them. Other species cover the eggs with dirt and leave them alone.
  • Eggs hatch into larvae, which have four pairs of legs.
  • Every time the larvae molt, the number of legs increases.
  • The common house centipede can live for more than a year, while other species have been known to live for up to 6 years.

8 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CENTIPEDES:

  • Centipedes are not insects; centipedes are arthropods. In order to be considered an arthropod, the animal must be an invertebrate with an exoskeleton (external skeleton), a segmented body, and jointed appendages.
  • Centipedes groom themselves. After a meal, centipedes use their forcipules to clean each leg from base to tip, in order. If a leg is missing, the centipede will still try to clean it in its correct order
  • Centipedes are mostly nocturnal hunters
  • Centipedes hunt their prey by leaping upon it or using their back legs in a technique described as “lassoing.”
  • Centipedes are fast and can reach speeds of 16 inches per second.
  • Centipedes can regenerate lost legs.
  • Centipedes have poor eyesight. In fact, some centipede species don’t even have eyes.
  • Centipedes detect prey through their antennae.