Why Do I Have Centipedes at Home?

Have you ever come across elongated earthworm-like creatures that seem to walk on tiny, furry legs? If yes, then you have seen a centipede in your house.

Honestly, most people can deal with rodents like rats and mice in their houses. They can even deal with tiny insects like bed bugs or carpet bugs. However, centipedes look disgusting and frighten most people to their cores. So if you find one in your house, you probably want it gone right away. But before that, you should know why you have centipedes in your home.

Centipedes walk creepily on so many legs and have a habit of getting everywhere. You look at walls, and they’re crawling on them. You turn to your floors, and you see them there too. So, let’s tell you why you see all these house centipedes on your property.

 

What is a centipede?

Centipedes belong to the arthropod group known as Myriapoda. Most people think that these are regular insects, but they are quite different in reality. These creatures have segmented bodies, and each segment of their body has a pair of legs.

The word “centipede” literally means “a hundred legs.” However, in reality, these arthropods don’t have a hundred legs. Instead, most house centipedes can have anything between 15 - 150 pairs of legs, each pair attached to each segment of its body.

Most centipedes are usually an inch or two long, though their legs can make them appear longer. They are also nocturnal creatures, so you may not easily find them unless you are a night owl too.

There are different species of this arthropod, like the feather-tail, aquatic, and the giant red-headed centipede. The centipede we see in our homes is the house centipede.

 

 

What does a house centipede look like?

Here are some of the characteristic features these arthropods have.

Body

You can easily spot this creature by its distinctive body. House centipedes have long, earthworm-like bodies. The difference is that the bodies of centipedes have many segments, and each comes with a pair of legs. They can have anything between 15 and 150 pairs of legs, but usually, they have an odd number of pairs.

Color

Most house centipedes are brown or reddish-brown in color. However, they can be of other colors too. For example, some are yellowish and can have stripes on them, which are usually darker than the body’s color.

Size

Usually, they are about 1 or 1 ½ inches long, which is about 25-38 mm. However, the size also depends on the species. Some of them can also be about 152 mm long.

Physical features

The head of a house centipede is very distinctive. You’ll find a pair of long, hairy antennae on their heads. They also have claw-like structures and a tiny mouth. Centipedes’ claws have venomous glands, which they use on small vertebrates like worms to paralyze them. Some house centipedes have well-developed eyes on each side of their body. On the contrary, some don’t have any at all.

If you’re asking the question, “what does a house centipede look like,” these features should help you identify them quickly when you see one on your property. Are these poisonous? While they do carry venom in their claws to attack their prey, they usually don’t cause any harm to humans. Unless you are handling them very closely, they will also not bite you. And if they do, you will experience pain much like that of a bee sting. However, sensitive people might develop allergic reactions, for which they might have to visit the doctor. But you will not die from a centipede bite.

 

What causes centipedes in the house?

Are you wondering how to get rid of these? Well, before that, you have to know what causes centipedes in the house. Here are some reasons why you see these in your home.

1. There’s moisture everywhere

Centipedes need damp and humid areas to stay alive and active. If you see too many of them in your house, it means that your home is probably producing lots of moisture. Your basement, kitchen, and bathroom are the areas where you want to look for excess dampness. Make sure to keep your house dry to prevent infestation.

2. Food source

All living creatures need food to survive. One of the things that attract centipedes is the right food. Do you have a garden with flowers in them? These may attract smaller bugs and spiders, which in turn make an excellent diet for them. So, if you see centipedes around your house, you may be having other bug problems too.

3. Temperature variations

What do you do when you feel cold outside? You look for shelter within your home. Centipedes are pretty much the same. When they find the exterior of your house too cold to survive, they can creep inside and hide there to stay warm.

 

Where do you commonly find centipedes?

Let’s look at the places where you should begin searching for centipedes.

1. Your garden is where most tiny bugs come to feed, and centipedes feed on these bugs. So, the first place to start looking for centipedes in your garden.
2. House centipedes need moisture to survive. If your bathroom is a damp place, you will find them hiding there in the corners. They can easily climb up through the drain pipes and enter your bathrooms, leading to an infestation in your house.
3. Most basements are dark and damp. So, the basement of your house is another place where you can find house centipedes.
4. Sometimes you can also find them under your bed in your bedroom. This place usually does not get enough light and is cold enough for centipedes to seek shelter.

 

Final thoughts

House centipedes are not dangerous and do not cause any severe harm to humans. But a large-scale infestation can damage your property. Centipede infestation also often means an infestation of other bugs in your house. In order to keep them away, make sure to follow all the proper precautions by keeping your place clean and dry.

In severe cases, professional help is necessary. You can rely on professional pest control services like Bug Guy Services. For a FREE estimate, contact us now.

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Rodent Infestation: Difference Between Mice and Rats

Did you see a large rodent scurry away and hide under the closet in your kitchen? It can be a mouse or a rat. There are subtle differences between these two rodents, and you need to be careful in identifying them. Unless you recognize the rodent infesting your house, you will be unable to choose the right solution. You also have to check how serious of a problem you have.

Usually, three types of rodents plague our house - the ordinary house mouse, the Norway rat, or the roof rat. But, how to tell the difference between mice and rats? Learn about mice and rats and the different ways you can identify them. Do you also need solutions for severe rodent infestation in your house? Read on to discover those as well!

 

Identifying rats vs. mice

Most homeowners will say that rats and mice are the same things, but they are not. Both mice and rats are small, furry and have a long tail. So, what’s the difference between them? The most significant difference is possibly the size of the rodents. The common house rat or Norway rat is much larger than the house mouse.

Apart from that, here are some other differences you can look out for when you are trying to identify rats vs. mice infestation in your house:

1. Rats have rougher coats of red, brown, or black color and a furless tail. On the contrary, mice have smoother fur, bigger ears, and small black eyes.
2. Mice droppings are more frequent but smaller in size. You will find them in dark areas where mice can hide. Rats poop less frequently, and their droppings are larger.

These are some of the visible differences between these two rodents. You can learn more about them in our article here.

 

Signs of infestation

Most house owners only catch glimpses of the rodents in their house when they scurry across their properties. There’s often no time to identify rats vs. mice physically. That’s why you look for other signs.

Let’s talk about the various signs by which you can tell the difference between rats and mice infestation:

1. Droppings

Rodent droppings are usually the easiest way to figure out an infestation in the house. If the droppings you see are smaller than 1/4th of an inch, you have a mice infestation. But if the droppings are larger and about 1/2 an inch in size, you have rats in your house.

Also, remember that mice poop more regularly than rats. So, if you see droppings all over your house and at all times, it’s probably mice that you have.

2. Odor

A nasty odor could mean that you have a rodent infestation. Rat and mouse urine have a strong, pungent smell. The bigger the infestation, the worse the smell.

If you can smell this musky odor, find out where it’s coming from. Look in the darker places of your house, like under the beds and closets. Urine smell is one of the earliest signs of infestation, so don’t ignore it.

3. Gnaw marks

Rodents leave gnaw marks. If you see gnaw marks in your gunny bags or other fabric lying around the house, it means you have a rodent problem. You can easily distinguish between the gnaw marks of mice and rats. If it’s a mice infestation, you will see tinier marks and neatly cut holes. But with rats, the holes are larger and cut more roughly.

 

 

Can rodents cause medical problems?

Sometimes mice or rat fur and droppings can trigger severe allergic reactions in human beings. In addition, these rodents can also cause significant medical problems like the following:

1. According to the CDC, Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome is a respiratory disease that can even be fatal at times. If the rats or mice infesting your property carry the Hantavirus, even breathing the air around their urine or droppings can cause health risks to you.
2. Rats and mice carrying the Salmonella germ can also transmit it to people. If these rodents in your house infect your food, you can contract Salmonellosis, a diarrhea-related disease.
3. These rodents can often bite you if you try to throw them out of your house. In such cases, you can also contract Rat-Bite Fever which can be a fatal disease if you cannot detect it on time.

The CDC says that rats and mice can spread almost 35 diseases all over the world. This is why it becomes necessary to know what’s the difference between rats and mice.

 

Damage to your property

Apart from your health, rats and mice can also cause severe damages to your property. As a property owner, you must check whether your property has rats vs. mice infestation. The most damage comes from these rodents chewing and gnawing through things. Mice can gnaw holes through wood, books, paper, or anything else they might find helpful in making their nests. They can also chew wires around your house, which can cause terrible fires.

Rats, on the other hand, can raid your pantry and infect your food items. Their teeth are also strong enough to cut through any metal. Like mice, they can also damage electrical wires leading to dangerous fires in your house.

 

 

Preventing infestation

Now that you know how to tell the difference between rats and mice and the possible consequences of infestation, let’s talk about solutions. Some measures you can take to stop rodent growth in your house are:

• Clean your house regularly. Look under the beds and wardrobes to find possible nesting areas of rodents and thoroughly clean them.
• Find the food sources of these rodents and root them out. If you have cereals in your pantry that you think rats or mice might consume, seal the cupboards properly so that they cannot enter them.
• Block the entryways and runways. If you have pipelines or cracks in walls where you find signs of rat urine or mice droppings, clean them and block the areas so the rodents can no longer pass through them.
• Use the various traps and baits available in the market. Most of the time, the poison in those traps helps kill mice and rats quickly.

You can also read more about controlling rat infestation in our blog here.

 

Final thoughts

Rats and mice can be a cause of serious worry for homeowners. In this article, we gave you information about rats vs. mice in your house. We also talked about how to get rid of them. However, these home remedies may work only to prevent an infestation. If you already have rats or mice infestation in your house, you may need to call professional pest control services like Bug Guy Services. Click here to contact us or for a free estimate!

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