Centipedes Are Actually Good To Have In The Home

Squash

Their numbers had only gotten worse over the week. Now even a centipede had decided to appear out of nowhere. It wasn’t the first time they’d seen it but it was still a dreadful sight.

Out of fear it’s time to do the thing that you need to do. It’s nothing personal but the adrenaline means that you’re willing to do anything to save yourself. Except the centipede has more tricks up its sleeve than anyone knew.

Enemy Or Friend?

Centipedes are obnoxious. Just be honest: they are. They are venomous, have 30 legs, and have antennae. They can bite, although they’re not overly harmful to people.

Good, good, good! Even though they rarely bite, it still hurts a little. They have thirty legs. Although it’s unpleasant to consider them as pals, that is precisely what they are.

A Harmless Critter

A centipede won’t hurt you unless you pick it up and repeatedly try to irritate it. Even then, there won’t be much of a bump from the bite.

Centipedes save the ferocity of their venom for their prey. They simply want to live in harmony with humans. Most of the time, they do wish to coexist with us in a pleasant setting.

Symbolism

Since centipedes are nocturnal, they may typically share a house with their blissfully unknowing owners. Additionally, they enjoy damp, gloomy environments, thus the bathrooms and basements are the most likely places to discover them.

However, as they also represent luck and wealth, you could occasionally see them tattooed on people’s faces and bodies.

A Helper

Seeing a centipede running around your house may be a terrible experience. especially if you suffer from entomophobia, the fear of insects.

Here’s a quick tip: pretend that frightening multi-legged bug is actually your adorable little teddy helper. Because that’s precisely what you’ll think after you learn what he’s really up to!

A Fight You Can’t Win

However, this tactic won’t always work, and it probably won’t at first either. You quickly start pursuing it with a sneaker once your instincts take control.

The small boy is terrified yet persistent in escape. You keep attempting to kill it despite your fear and determination. You both have no life and are playing a lose-lose game. Unfortunately, you don’t realize that you’re pursuing the wrong individual.

Silently Watching

A few days later, you see something dart across the room as you use the restroom in the middle of the night. You leap out of there and turn to face the rear. Again, it’s just that annoying centipede.

You start to imagine the worse as you consider what may happen if it approaches you while you’re sleeping. You return to bed anxious. However, the centipede has other interests than you.

At Its Peak

The conflict between humans and centipedes is at its peak. You devise a strategy because you want it gone.

Although you haven’t seen any of the centipede’s buddies around for a while, you are worried that he may start inviting them over soon even though he has lived in the house for a long. You don’t realize it, yet there is nothing to be scared of.

Goes To Hell

Once more in the middle of the night, you awaken with your gear in hand and walk for the bathroom to prepare to carry out your plan. The conflict is brief. It is in your corner. However, you now only have two options: kill it or take it outdoors.

You decide to take this little boy outside since you’ve had enough of him but don’t believe he should perish. It’s done. Then everything goes to hell.

Another Issue

After a few days, you notice that more insects are beginning to enter the house. You suddenly remember that you haven’t seen these critters for weeks!

from ants and cockroaches to spiders, flies, and moths. All you need right now is another centipede, perhaps even the same little bugger, but thus yet, not a single one has been seen.

Insect Invasion

More days pass, and more pests are spotted. Now, a centipede has arrived. A familiar and unwelcome sight. You gear up, getting ready for round two.

When the centipedes come in, that’s when action is needed. But that’s not very logical or true. In fact, the centipedes are only trying to protect you and your house. And here’s how.

Nature’s Pest Controllers

Centipedes are only after one thing, and one thing only. Yup, you guessed it – other bugs! They are nature’s very own pest exterminators.

Unlike pest control services, the centipede is not invasive and won’t put chemicals in the air or turn your house upside down. And there are a few other perks that may surprise you!

An Insect With Manners!

Centipedes don’t feed on wood, destroy clothes or spin webs. They’re not even attracted to leftover food, just other bugs that are harmful to your house.

Centipedes are also solitary creatures, so unless you have a big pest problem on your hands that have attracted a few centipedes to your home, they’re not likely to live among other centipedes, so you never have to worry about an infestation. Still not convinced?

The Enemy Of Your Enemy…

If you kill a house centipede, the life you save won’t be your own. It’ll be those of the spiders, roaches, bedbugs, termites, silverfish, and ants all around you.

Put the broom down and hang on for a second. Remember the old adage: the enemy of your enemy is your friend. What house centipedes care about and hunt are the creepy things that you’re living with — and make no mistake: you are.

Creep Factor Of 10

Even though they do have a Creep Factor of 10, which can cause even the most rational person to roll up a gasoline-soaked newspaper and set the house on fire, you should leave them be.

A house centipede is capable of moving 1.25 feet per second, so chances are you won’t catch him anyway. Here’s what to do instead.

Deal With The Damp

As we’ve said before, centipedes love damp, dark places. So, you might want to invest in a dehumidifier to keep your home dry and free of centipedes. A dehumidifier will also help keep your walls free of mold.

It’s also a good idea to clean your house of debris to remove any unnecessary sources of moisture.

Don’t Worry Too Much…

If you do allow one centipede to run around your home freely, you don’t have to worry about being overrun by them. Unlike ants or cockroaches, these guys don’t enjoy overpopulation.

However, if you’re still not happy about these guys running rampant around your home, then you can do a few things to try and keep them away. Start by closing any cracks you may have in your walls and floors. Still not sure?

Healthy Respect

Something that helps calm an irrational fear is to learn more about what you are afraid of – we humans tend to fear what we do not know.

But, when you get down to it, centipedes are actually pretty impressive creatures… are you ready to find out some surprising facts about your many-legged companion?

Smaller Than You Think

The thing about house centipedes is… they’re really not that big. It’s those long legs and their antennae that make them look a lot bigger than they really are.

And, although their name means “100 feet,” they do not actually have 100 legs… but those legs do some impressive work.

Cowboy Style

Their front two legs double as fangs that are filled with venom to inject their victims with (don’t worry, we don’t mean you).

Their other legs allow the centipedes to attack and trap insects. They scoop them up cowboy style… their hunting technique is called the “lassoing method”. So, how many legs do centipedes actually have?

…It Depends

Depending on the species, a centipede can have as few as 15 pairs of legs or as many as 191 pairs. However, regardless of the species, centipedes always have an odd number of leg pairs. Therefore, they never have exactly 100 legs.

In fact, the house centipede will keep growing legs throughout its entire lifetime. The common house centipede can live as long as five to six years, so that’s a lot of legs. But how are centipedes at parenting?

Centipedes Make Good Moms

You probably wouldn’t expect a centipede to be a good mother, but a surprising number of them dote on their offspring. Female centipedes lay an egg mass in an underground burrow.

Then, the mother wraps her body around the eggs and remains with them until they hatch, protecting them from harm… how sweet!

They Are Sometimes Kept As Pets

It’s surprising but true. There are even centipede breeders, though most centipedes sold in the pet trade are wild-caught. The most common centipedes sold for pets and zoological displays come from the Scolopendra genus.

They require a built substrate of soil and coconut fiber for burrowing, and they can be fed crickets, cockroaches, and mealworms weekly or biweekly. There is, however, something to heed about centipedes.

A Friendly Warning!

If you do notice a centipede in your house, however, don’t ignore the warnings they give you. This means that you may have a pest problem in your house that you’re unaware of.

Good news is, you’ve already got a harmless little friend tending to the problem. And all services are free of charge! What a great deal!

The Wild Outdoors

But if you really just don’t want these helpful little guys in your house, then there are some very easy things to do – just take it outside. Whether you do that with your hand or not is completely up to you.

Once it’s out, keep the pests it feeds on out too, and make sure to reduce the moisture in and around your house. But sometimes, critters can get into your house no matter how hard you try. Here’s a story about a girl who had such an encounter and had no idea until her friends had to point it out.

Blindsided

She was always getting likes and shares on her pictures. Friends, family, and even strangers would always leave a comment.

She was popular on social media. But one picture was different. It attracted a massive amount of attention overnight and wasn’t just seen by her friends. But what was so unsettling about this photo? Why was everyone talking about it?

Dreams

Ever since she was little, Olivia Nunn dreamed of becoming famous. She avidly watched all the latest celebrity news and gossip and became obsessed with the lavish lives of American stars.

But, as a teen growing up in the town of Middlesbrough, UK, she was beginning to feel like her dreams were out of reach. Little did she know, she would become an internet sensation… just not for the reason she had envisioned.

Aspiring Influencer

When Olivia entered her 20s, she had amassed a small following thanks to social media. She watched makeup and modeling tutorials and taught herself how to style her hair and strike a perfect pose.

She posted her photos on Instagram and Twitter — she was a natural in front of the camera. Soon, her friends were calling her the “Selfie Queen.” But one selfie, however, was about to change everything. You see, Olivia loved to party.

Friday Night Lights

It was a Friday night. Olivia had clocked out early from her day job and was getting glammed up for an unforgettable night out on the town. She carefully applied her makeup and wore her most flattering outfit.

She was going to make sure that she turned heads tonight — after all, she was young and single, so why not make the most of it? But it was the selfie that she took the morning after that would have everyone taking a double-take.

The Life Of The Party

Her best friend, Grace, squealed about her outfit when she opened the door. The pair ordered an Uber driver and set off for the night of their lives. She was the life of the party — shamelessly flirting with strangers and dancing the night away.

With an endless amount of cocktails flowing and the DJ playing her favorite songs under the colored lights, Olivia was unstoppable. Or, at least, she thought she was.

A Rude Awakening

The next morning, Olivia woke up feeling painfully tender. With a blinding headache drilling into her temples, she was sorely regretting her late-night escapades.

She lay in bed texting her friends and thinking that the day couldn’t get any worse. But she had no idea that it was already worse… she just hadn’t realized it yet.

In The Background

Olivia, trying to inject a little humor into the situation, took a photograph of herself and sent it to the group chat. She was still in her makeup and earrings from the night before, but she had pulled on a hoodie for extra comfort sometime during the night.

Little did she realize that she wasn’t alone in the photo. When her friends saw who was in the background, they became hysterical.

Unhappy-Snap

The selfie that Olivia had taken and sent to her friends made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t feeling so great, as can be expected, after a heavy night out.

Staring woefully down at the camera with a pained expression in her eyes, she had no idea that the unhappy snap was about to wreak havoc: in the background was an unwelcome guest.

A Dark Figure

The girls in the chat group that Oliva had sent the photo to were beside themselves when they saw the terrifying guest in the photo.

Fortunately for us, her best friend, Grace Graham, decided to share the photo and story to Twitter. There, only a few inches from her face was a dark nightmare figure.

Going Viral

The photo has since gained over 47.7K likes and 3.7K retweets, leaving thousands of users in utter disbelief. Olivia had become an internet sensation overnight.

But what could she have unwittingly captured that had viewers so equally enthralled and revolted? Well, it’s most people’s worst nightmare. And it was hiding right in the hood of her hoodie.

The Post

Grace shared the photo online and the views racked up in a matter of minutes. Later, she made a comment on her friend’s photo that left Olivia amazed.

In the post, Grace said: “Nearly 24 hours later I still cannot get over Olivia sending a hungover selfie in the group chat, and there’s a spider just chilling in her hood.” But how did Olivia react?

Her Reaction

Now you might think that when Olivia realized the truth about her unexpected guest, she reacted the way that most people would on discovering a creepy crawly in such close proximity.

But instead of quickly whipping off her hoodie or screaming, Olivia’s reaction to the spider that was just inches from her face was absolutely priceless.

An Overreaction?

Twitter users were quick to voice their opinions on the matter, and hilarity soon followed. It seems as if everyone overreacted to Olivia’s unwanted guest.

One user said: ‘No can u imagine anything worse especially hungover,’ Another user stated: ‘Literally, I’d cry for the next 10 days.’ But was Olivia really in any danger?

Painful, But Not Deadly

“There are only three species of spider in the UK that can bite a human – these are the cellar spider, the woodlouse spider, and the false widow spider. No UK spiders are poisonous, and there are no killer spiders living in the UK,” According to heart.co.uk.

“However, their bites can be nasty and cause hours of pain for the victim.”

Spider Season

Unfortunately for arachnophobes, spotting spiders indoors in the UK during early September is a common occurrence. When the weather begins to cool, droves of spiders seek shelter indoors so that they can breed. This period is known as “spider season.”

Prof Adam Hart, an entomologist at the University of Gloucestershire, told the BBC that at least “80 percent of the spiders people see are males”.

In order to protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.