Perimeter sprays around a building’s foundation may help keep centipedes and millipedes from moving indoors. Look for products with such active ingredients as deltamethrin, permethrin, bifenthrin or cypermethrin.
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If you have mulched flower beds against the home, occasionally turn the mulch to allow it to dry out. Seal any accessible areas that may allow centipedes and millipedes to move into the home. Check seals around doors and windows as well as pipe penetrations for any points of access. Make sure that crawl spaces or areas under the home are properly ventilated to allow for air flow through the area. To prevent millipedes and centipedes from moving indoors, move objects providing harborage such as compost piles, firewood and stones away from the structure. Create a band of gravel, or similar material between the foundation of the home and any flower beds that touch the structure. Millipedes feed primarily on decaying organic matter, though some are carnivorous. Homeowners may experience large numbers of millipedes moving into their home after heavy rainfall or during periods of drought. Millipedes are not poisonous, but have glands that produce a smelly fluid that can be irritating, especially if rubbed in the eyes. If handling millipedes, hands should be washed with soap and water until the odor is completely gone. Millipedes are able to live over ten years. They lay eggs in soil singly or in small groups. These animals prefer cool, moist environments such as leaf litter, mulch or compost piles. A house centipede (Photo by Peggy Lawson). House centipedes are beneficial, but many people consider them a nuisance pest in the home.įigure 3. This species of centipede reaches about 1 ½ inches in length and has fifteen pairs of long, slender legs. The back legs are used to capture prey by using a “lassoing” technique. The house centipede (Figure 3), Scutigera coleoptrera, is often seen in and around homes where dampness occurs such as closets, bathrooms or areas underneath homes. House centipedes are nocturnal and search for insects at night. The best rule of thumb is to never handle centipedes. A poison produced from the attachment point of each leg may be dropped into the wounds resulting in an inflamed and irritated condition. Each walking leg is tipped with a sharp claw capable of making tiny cuts in human skin.
Most centipedes can only bite with their poison claws located directly under the head resulting in a bee-like sting however, Scolopendra can harm a person with the sharp claws of its many walking legs. A few species give birth to living young.Ĭentipedes are predaceous with many species feeding on other arthropods, such as insects. Their modified pair of legs, or claws, is directly under the head, allowing prey to be injected with venom. Eggs are usually laid in soil and covered by a sticky substance. They spend the winter as adults and lay eggs during the warm months. Centipedes prefer moist, protected habitats such as under stones, rotted logs, leaves or bark.
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The first pair of legs have become modified over time to function as claws used to capture prey. The claws are connected to poison glands that can inject venom to subdue captured prey. Although most centipedes found in Texas are relatively small, a larger species, Scolopendra heros (Figure 1), can reach over nine inches when full grown.Ĭentipedes live from one to six years.
Centipedes do have the first pair of appendages modified into claws which can inject poison. The bite of larger species of centipedes may cause discomfort. Millipedes occasionally damage seedling plants by feeding on stems and leaves.īoth centipedes and millipedes have a head with one pair of antennae connected to a long segmented body.Ĭentipedes are wormlike with flattened bodies. Color can vary from brown to grey to red to greenish-blue. Centipedes have only one pair of legs per body segment. *Extension Agent-IPM, The Texas A&M University System.Ĭentipedes and millipedes are members of the subphylum Myriapoda, which means “many legs”. Other myriapods include symphylans and pauropods, both which are similar in appearance to centipedes. The majority of these creatures live in humid, moist environments and can commonly be found in soil, leaf litter or under rocks or wood.Ĭentipedes and millipedes do not transmit diseases to plants, animals or man. These arthropods are more of a nuisance than a destructive pest.
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