How to Get Rid of House Centipedes Without Losing Your Mind

I'll never forget the first time I saw one. Middle of the night, stumbling to the bathroom, and there it was—this alien-looking creature with what seemed like a thousand legs, frozen on my bathroom wall like some prehistoric nightmare. My first instinct was to grab the nearest shoe, but something made me pause. That pause led me down a rabbit hole of understanding these misunderstood creatures, and more importantly, figuring out why they'd chosen my home as their personal hunting ground.

House centipedes are nature's little contradictions. They're simultaneously one of the most beneficial insects you can have in your home and one of the most universally despised. After years of dealing with them (and yes, occasionally still jumping when one scurries across my peripheral vision), I've developed a philosophy about centipede control that might surprise you.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Why They're There

Your house centipede problem isn't really a centipede problem at all. It's like blaming the smoke detector for the fire. These leggy hunters show up because your home is basically advertising a free buffet of their favorite foods: silverfish, cockroach nymphs, spiders, bed bugs, and pretty much any other small arthropod that's made itself comfortable in your space.

I learned this the hard way when I spent months trying to eliminate centipedes from my basement, only to discover a thriving population of silverfish behind my stored boxes. The centipedes weren't the problem—they were actually trying to solve it. This realization completely changed my approach.

The moisture factor plays into this ecosystem too. Centipedes need humidity to survive, which is why you'll often spot them in bathrooms, basements, and laundry rooms. But here's what most people miss: they're not just seeking moisture for themselves. Their prey loves these conditions too. It's an entire micro-ecosystem playing out in the forgotten corners of your home.

Making Your Home Less Appealing (The Smart Way)

The traditional advice you'll find everywhere talks about sealing cracks and reducing moisture. Sure, that works, but let me tell you what actually moves the needle based on real experience.

Start with the prey, not the predator. I once helped a neighbor who'd been battling centipedes for years. We ignored the centipedes entirely and focused on eliminating their food sources. Within six weeks, the centipede sightings dropped to nearly zero. No poison, no traps, just strategic pest management.

Dehumidification is your secret weapon, but not in the way you think. Most people slap a dehumidifier in their basement and call it a day. What you really need is targeted moisture control. Check behind your washing machine, under sinks, around water heaters. These micro-environments are where the real action happens. I discovered a slow leak under my kitchen sink that had created a perfect breeding ground for various insects. Fixed the leak, dried the area, and suddenly that corner of my kitchen wasn't Grand Central Station for creepy crawlies anymore.

The lighting situation in your home matters more than you'd expect. Centipedes are nocturnal hunters, but their prey often isn't. By switching to yellow or sodium vapor bulbs for outdoor lighting near entrances, you'll attract fewer insects overall, which means fewer centipedes following them inside. This single change reduced my summer centipede encounters by probably 70%.

When Direct Intervention Becomes Necessary

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you need to take direct action. I'm not talking about chemical warfare here—that's usually overkill and often counterproductive.

The vacuum cleaner is your best friend for immediate removal. It's quick, effective, and doesn't require you to get close enough to count their legs. But here's a pro tip nobody mentions: empty that vacuum bag or canister immediately and outside. Centipedes are surprisingly resilient, and I've seen them crawl back out of vacuums hours later.

For those who can't stand the thought of sharing space with these hunters, sticky traps placed strategically along baseboards can be effective. But placement is everything. Don't just scatter them randomly. Watch where you see centipedes most often—they tend to follow the same hunting routes. Place traps perpendicular to walls, not parallel, since centipedes run along edges.

Diatomaceous earth gets recommended a lot, and it does work, but with a major caveat that nobody talks about. It only works when it's dry, and it needs to be food-grade if you have pets or kids. I've seen people dump it in their damp basements and wonder why it's not working. You might as well be spreading flour down there. Use it in dry areas where centipedes travel, like along the edges of carpeted rooms or in closets.

The Nuclear Option (And Why You Probably Shouldn't Use It)

Chemical pesticides are available, sure. Synthetic pyrethroids will kill centipedes on contact. But here's what the pest control companies don't emphasize: you're essentially carpet-bombing an ecosystem. Those chemicals don't discriminate. They'll kill the centipedes, but they'll also kill spiders and other beneficial predators, potentially making your overall pest situation worse in the long run.

I've seen this play out in real-time. A friend went nuclear with pesticides on his centipede problem. Six months later, he was dealing with a silverfish explosion that made his original centipede issue look like a minor inconvenience. The centipedes had been keeping them in check.

If you absolutely must use pesticides, spot treatments with botanical insecticides like pyrethrin (derived from chrysanthemums) are less environmentally persistent. But honestly? In twenty years of dealing with various pest issues, I've rarely seen a situation where chemical intervention was truly necessary for centipedes.

Living With the Reality

Here's something that might be hard to hear: if you live in certain regions, especially older homes in humid climates, completely eliminating centipedes is about as realistic as completely eliminating dust. They're part of the ecosystem, whether we like it or not.

I've made peace with the occasional centipede sighting. They're actually fascinating creatures when you get past the initial revulsion. They're one of the few predators fast enough to catch and eat brown recluse spiders. They don't spread disease. They don't eat your food or damage your home. They're basically tiny, terrifying-looking exterminators working the night shift for free.

That said, I get it. Not everyone can channel their inner naturalist when faced with fifteen pairs of legs scurrying across their bedroom wall at 2 AM. The key is finding a balance between acceptance and action that works for your comfort level.

The Long Game

The most successful centipede management I've seen comes from playing the long game. It's not about winning individual battles with a rolled-up newspaper. It's about making your home gradually less hospitable to the entire food chain that supports them.

This means regular home maintenance that you should be doing anyway. Fixing leaks promptly. Ventilating humid areas. Storing items in sealed plastic containers instead of cardboard boxes (which silverfish love). Using a flashlight to check dark corners periodically. These aren't dramatic actions, but they add up to an environment where centipedes simply don't thrive.

I've noticed that homes with consistent maintenance routines rarely have significant centipede issues. It's the homes where problems are allowed to compound—a little moisture here, some clutter there, maybe some cracks in the foundation—that become centipede highways.

The truth is, getting rid of house centipedes isn't really about getting rid of them at all. It's about understanding why they're there and addressing those root causes. Do that effectively, and they'll eliminate themselves from the equation. And if you still see the occasional one? Well, maybe that's not the worst thing in the world. At least you know they're out there, hunting the bugs you really don't want in your home.

After all these years, I've come to see house centipedes less as invaders and more as indicators. They're telling you something about your home's ecosystem. The question is: are you listening?

Authoritative Sources:

Jacobs, Steve. "House Centipedes." Penn State Extension, The Pennsylvania State University, 2019.

Potter, Michael F. "House Centipede Control." Entomology at the University of Kentucky, University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, 2018.

Roe, Richard M., and Charles Apperson. Urban Entomology: Insect and Mite Pests in the Human Environment. Chapman and Hall, 1993.

Rust, Michael K., and Donald A. Reierson. "Managing Household Pests." Integrated Pest Management for the Home and Landscape, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2017.

Vetter, Richard S. "Arthropods of Medical Importance in the Home." Clinical Microbiology Reviews, vol. 28, no. 2, 2015, pp. 449-461.