If you live in the Hill Country or northern San Antonio, you may have noticed large, scary, centipedes either in your yard or crawling onto the house.While these creatures are frightening, unless touched or handled, they will not harm you. Centipedes do not come into the house to nest, they enter looking for moisture. Now that we are encountering a drought, the centipedes preferred moist habitat is drying up, and they are in search of a new home.

Centipedes love to live in protected areas such as: under stones, bark, leaf litter, and rotting logs. A good rule of thumb is that if it is a place you are afraid you may encounter a scorpion, it is also a great home for a centipede.

Centipedes are predators, and feed on other arthropods such as insects. They have venom claws under their heads that they use for protection and to kill their prey. If handled, they can use those claws as a weapon against you. Many people describe the pain to be similar to a wasp or bee sting. Although it isn't deadly, it is extremely painful.

A common centipede found in San Antonio is the Texas Red Headed Centipede. These can cut the skin with claws on each leg and drop venom, which can be painful and irritating. The best rule of thumb is to never touch or handle a centipede found in the wild.

Centipedes are different from millipedes because they have fewer legs, and millipedes are harmless.

To prevent centipedes, don't allow their hiding places to be close to the house. Move compost piles, firewood, rocks away from the house. If you have flower beds near the house, overturn the mulch regularly and try placing a band of gravel around the flower bed to prevent centipeds from crossing. Look for any holes in the home that allows light to penetrate and seal them tightly (check around doors and windows especially).

Treatment for homes that are already experiencing centipedes should also follow the guildelines for prevention. In additon, treat crack and crevices and baseboards indoors. Use products that contain the active ingredients: lambda-cyhalothrin, cypermethrin, ermethrin or bifenthrin. Diatomaceous earth in cracks and crevices may also provide some control. Outdoors, do perimeter sprays around the foundation that contain the active ingredients: deltamethrin, permethrin, bifenthrin or cypermethrin. Remember, you must remove hiding places to provide any type of control.

For more information, check out Texas AgriLife Extension publication:

E-217
Centipedes and Millipedes
By Wizzie Brown

http://AgriLifebookstore.org

 

IPM Program Specialist and Entomologist, Molly Keck
Texas AgriLife Extension Service
mekeck@ag.tamu.edu
3355 Cherry Ridge, Suite 212
San Antonio, Texas 78230
210/467-6575

Photos by Extension Entomology unless otherwise noted. For more pictures and full descriptions visit http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/