Question from Bonnie
Centipedes are invading my older home. What can I use? They seem to be multipling every year. Three years ago when I inherited the home I saw several. We were doing some remodeling so we figured they just left after that. No so. Last year quite a few and they are coming up stairs. Ick, Ick, Ick. Someone said spray the basement but with what? It is such an old home there is no way to caulk every spot they might come in. I need help. I killed one in my bedroom last night.
Debra’s Answer
Well, first keep in mind that centipedes are a highly beneficial insect, eating lots of fleas, ants, flies, silverfish, roaches, ticks and other pests. One site I was researching on said, “Forget about using insecticides against them, they ARE insecticides! Get rid of your centipedes and you will almost certainly increase the number of TRUE indoor pests in your home.”
If you don’t want them in the house, just catching them by putting a drinking glass on top and slide a 3×5 card underneath, so you can pick it up and take it out to the garden, where it really belongs. Centipedes can live as long as five or ten years—eating pests all the while.
If you must kill them, use diatomaceous earth, an abrasive powder made from the fossils of diatoms (tiny sea creatures). It works by cutting open the exoskeleton of crawling insects. With their exoskeletons damaged, the bugs dehydrate and die, usually within 48 hours. It works on slugs, earwigs, millipedes, centipedes, silverfish, cockroaches and ants. You can use it safely both indoors and outdoors. Just sprinkle the powder where pests are likely to crawl, live, or hide.
But if you can appreciate the the benefit of their presence in your ecosystem, and simply take them back to their home when they stray into yours, that is the best option.
Thanks Debra. I used to do that when they kept their creepy selves down the basement. I figured they were eating spiders. Now they are coming upstairs so I have to get rid of them. I will try the stuff you mention. I do have a lung disease so I will have someone else apply it. I was thinking all along the baseboards in the basement area and along some entry way areas up the stairs. That picture you posted is exactly what they look like.