THE PREDATOR WITH MANY LEGS

While I watched, the house centipede stopped, remained magically in place on the wall, and then activated it’s many legs and disappeared from view.  The name "centipede" refers to what look like a 100 legs.  I was especially pleased to see this centipede in the pristine house I was visiting; evidence that even a tidy, new home can have this visitor.  Scutigera coleoptrata is a predator.  It hunts down unsuspecting insects before injecting them with venom.  Don’t worry, the bite of a house centipede is unlikely and doesn’t hurt any more than a bee sting unless you are a silverfish, firebrat, carpet beetle larvae, cockroach, spider or other small arthropod prey.  If you don’t feel as friendly towards the house centipede as I do, you should consider reducing it’s food source.  Sticky insect traps are a good way to go.