What prevents centipedes?

How to Get Rid of Millipedes and Centipedes in Your House

Anything with more than a couple sets of legs is never welcome in your Central or Southern Maryland home.

That’s why when you see multi-legged, worm-like insects crawling around your basement or coming out of a moist box in a crawl space corner, you want to run in the other direction. Who doesn’t? Millipedes and centipedes have enough legs to give you the shivers.
Unfortunately, just like you can find these bugs in dark, damp places outdoors, such as under a log pile, your moist, dim basements, crawl spaces, and attics are also quite attractive — and you always offer lots of storage boxes to lounge in and access to safe hiding places. From an insect’s perspective, what’s not to love?

But they aren’t invited. So let’s look into some of the best ways to control and prevent millipedes and centipedes in your home.

Understanding Millipedes and Centipedes

Let’s start by taking a closer look at these two pests.

Centipedes are 1 to 1.5 inches long, but their antennae and long pairs of legs can make them seem nearly 2 inches in length. They move fast, which can make you jump when you stumble upon them.

Millipedes also have worm-like bodies and hundreds of tiny legs. While centipedes tend to be more gray-ish in color, millipedes can be brown, black, or even reddish.

Millipedes eat decaying plant material, but centipedes prefer to dine on other small insects like spiders.

Both of these insects crave moisture. In fact, they usually move indoors when the outside becomes hot and dry. They’ll use cracks in the foundation or around ground-level windows to get in.

Now that you know what you’re looking for, you can get rid of millipedes and centipedes indoors with these tips.

How to Get Rid of Millipedes and Centipedes

While these multi-legged creatures are primarily outdoor pests, they can certainly wander into your home.

And while they might not cause a ton of damage or bite you, your reaction to finding them is often one of disgust. You want them gone. We don’t blame you.

You might be asking yourself, “How do I get rid of millipedes and centipedes in my house?”

Well, we have some answers.

Start With Prevention

Your first step to ensuring millipedes and centipedes don’t make your house their home is to diligently seal all of the cracks, holes, and gaps in your foundation or near your windows and doors. This limits their entry points.

To keep them away from any tempting small crevices you may have missed, ensure the outdoor areas near your foundation are free of leaf litter and firewood piles or other debris or vegetation. You also want to make sure the ground around your home foundation dries out completely between watering plants and shrubs.

Indoor Pointers

When it comes to getting rid of millipedes and centipedes indoors, start by making sure you use a dehumidifier to keep the air dry. You also want to manage any basement or crawl space water issues. Since they are drawn to humidity and moisture, these two tasks will eliminate their favorite types of places from your home.

Next, cardboard boxes are also hot spots for these creepy bugs. Keep cardboard boxes stored up and away from basement wall edges. Make sure they aren’t wet and damp. Better yet, converting your storage containers to well-sealed plastic tubs can eliminate this draw for these pests all together.

Bring in Professional Pest Control

When you see enough of these bugs to cause concern, you may want to bring in a professional to control and prevent millipedes and centipedes.

What an exterminator can do is conduct a full inspection, checking common hangouts and gauging your level of infestation. Then, a pest control pro can find entry points and help seal the small ones or point out anything you need to address that could be a draw for these pests.

Next, they can apply a product around your home foundation to discourage millipedes and centipedes from seeking refuge in your abode. Refreshing this perimeter quarterly can keep these bugs away.

Got Pests With Too Many Legs? We Can Help

Tired of millipedes and centipedes giving you the heebie-jeebies every time you walk into the basement or grab your holiday decorations out of the crawl space? Not sure what to do to keep them away?

Let Natural Green Systems help. We are very familiar with all of the common Central and Southern Maryland pests and have years of experience fighting them and keeping them out of local homes. We know where to look to find them and how to react to all levels of infestations.

We know you want to enjoy your home without the surprise of rogue pests, and we’re happy to help make that happen for you.

Get rid of millipedes and centipedes indoors for good. Get started today with a free quote. Together, we’ll prepare a customized plan that you’re comfortable with so you can sleep easy again knowing your home is free of these bugs.

How to Get Rid of Centipedes in Your House

When you hear the term “creepy and crawly,” one of the first things that comes to mind is a centipede. Fun fact: Centipedes aren’t actually insects; they’re arthropods (creatures with no spine, joint segments and hard shells — like spiders). However, that doesn’t make them any less icky. Below is some more information, along with some tips on how to get rid of centipedes in your house.

Where do centipedes come from?

If you have centipedes in your home, they are likely seeking one of three things: moisture, shelter or food. Centipedes like damp environments, so they may be attracted to a leaking pipe in your kitchen or bathroom – or you may find them in your basement or floor drain. They tend to come from other secluded and damp areas like leaves, stones, tree bark or mulch. So while centipedes can survive outdoors, they prefer taking shelter inside people’s homes once they’ve made their way past the foundation.

What do centipedes eat?

This brings us to the third and most important reason you might find a centipede in your house: food. Unlike millipedes, centipedes are carnivorous – so if you’re asking yourself what centipedes eat, they feed on bugs. This can be good for your garden, but it is often a nuisance for your house. As nocturnal creatures, centipedes hide during the day and emerge at night to prey on insects like silverfish, cockroaches, spiders, crickets, termites, roaches and moths.

Therefore, while they are harmless, the presence of a house centipede could very well be a sign of a bigger pest problem.

Here are some DIY methods for killing centipedes:

Capture Them

Since centipedes don’t usually invade in large numbers, you may be able to capture one under a jar or cup and then either relocate it or squash it. Just don’t do it with your bare hands, or it might bite! You could also try using a sticky trap (the kind used to capture mice).

Ventilate

If you’ve come across a centipede, consider improving ventilation in crawl spaces or basements with humidity issues. Keeping the windows open and leaving the fan on are other ways to maintain good air circulation.

Buy a Dehumidifier

If you haven’t already done so, invest in a dehumidifier as well as exhaust fans for your bathroom or attic. Doing so will eliminate moisture and kill not just centipedes, but also other rodents.

Use a Spray

Use an expanding foam spray to seal any cracks or gaps arounds your doors, windows, siding or pipes. Along with caulk and mesh screens, this creates a barrier to prevent entry of centipedes as well as other pests.

You can also use an insecticide and apply it around baseboards, doors, windows or any other crevices you see.

Just be careful when using chemical sprays and dusts, as not all are approved for indoor use. One must also practice caution when using these substances around children or pets.

Bottom Line:

Although these methods may help you get rid of centipedes in your house, you want to ensure that you resolve your centipede problem quickly and completely. That’s why we recommend hiring a pest control service like Dominion. We are professionals that will not only help you eliminate your existing problem, but also prevent centipedes and any other critters from returning. Remember, the main reason you have these unwelcome house guests is because they’ve come to prey on other insects in your home.

Call us today at (717) 393-7879 or contact us here to learn about our pest control services and how we can help you get rid of centipedes for good.