How to Treat for Centipedes

Centipedes are ugly but not dangerous.

Centipedes are often found in basements and cool, dark places. Seeing a centipede in your home can be disturbing. But centipedes are largely harmless. In fact, they may feed on other insects and may be keeping other pest populations in check. On rare occasions, they do bite. However, they are not venomous and their bite is comparable to a mosquito's. If you're simply sick of seeing them around, they are relatively easy to treat in home environments. But you must also make sure to seal of points of entry or they'll invade again.

Things You'll Need

• Insecticide

Instructions

1. Dry out damp areas. Find any sources of leaks, drips from taps or other moisture sources. Pay special attention to unfinished basements, the areas around potted plants and under cabinets. These are places where centipedes thrive. Also, clean up any waste or debris in those areas that could provide food for insects that centipedes come inside to prey upon.

2. Seal off the entries to your home. Centipedes, as a rule, live and breed outdoors. Place weather-stripping on doors to close gaps. Caulk gaps or cracks around windows and fix any cracks in the walls or around the foundation.

3. Reduce the outdoor population near your home. Try to create a dry, clean area in a 1- to 2-foot perimeter around your home. Remove any mulch, plant debris or weed stands around the perimeter of your home. Apply as little moisture as possible to plants or grass near the perimeter of your home. Move moist stacks of firewood away from your home and help them dry out by placing them on a tarp.

4. Kill or catch and release individual centipedes that you see. Most centipedes that you see in your home wandered in from outside. Sealing entry points and drying out your home will prevent new individuals from entering.

5. Control severe infestations by treating the outside of your home with an insecticide approved for use on centipedes. The University of Idaho Extension recommends insecticides that contain bifenthrin, carbaryl, cyfluthrin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, esfenvalerate, gamma cyhalothrin or permetrhin. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for application rates and amounts. Each treatment of one of the above insecticides will provide 10 to 14 days of control. Re-treat as necessary, but be aware that insecticide alone may not provide effective control if the sealing and drying methods listed above are not taken.

Tips & Warnings

• Large numbers of centipedes are often a sign of another insect infestation, upon which the centipedes are feeding. Control these pests and centipede populations will dwindle.

References

• University of Idaho Extension; Centipedes and Millipedes; Edward John Bechinski; November 2009
• Michigan State University Department of Entomology: Pill Bug, Sow Bug and House Centipede
• University of Missouri Extension; Sowbugs, Pillbugs, Millipedes; Richard M. Houseman; August 2007