How to Get Rid of House Centipedes (DIY Guide)

The house centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) is that fast-moving, many-legged creature that makes you jump when it darts across your bathroom floor at night. They're 1–1.5 inches long with 15 pairs of legs (yes, they're born with fewer and grow more as they molt), yellowish-gray with dark stripes, and move at startling speed.

The case for keeping them: House centipedes are voracious predators. A single centipede eats cockroach nymphs, silverfish, carpet beetle larvae, spiders, ants, bed bug nymphs, and other small insects. They're essentially a free, chemical-free pest control service living in your basement.

The case for removing them: They look scary, they move fast, and finding one on your pillow at 3 AM is not a great experience. They can also bite if handled (rare and comparable to a mild bee sting), and some people are genuinely phobic.

Our recommendation: if you only see one occasionally, consider leaving it alone. If you're seeing them frequently, it likely means you have a larger pest population providing food — and addressing that food source is the real solution.

• Sticky traps — The most effective centipede catching method. Place along baseboards.
• Dehumidifier — Centipedes thrive in humid environments and avoid dry ones.
• Caulk — For sealing entry points and reducing hiding spots.
• Diatomaceous earth (food-grade) — For treating cracks and crevices in damp areas.

Step 1: Address the Root Cause — Their Food

If you're seeing centipedes regularly, you have other bugs. Centipedes don't eat crumbs, wood, or fabric — they eat other arthropods. Lots of centipedes = lots of prey insects. Identify and treat the underlying pest problem:

• Silverfish? → Reduce humidity, apply DE.
• Roaches? → Gel bait and sanitation.
• Spiders? → Reduce insect prey, web removal.
• Carpet beetles? → Vacuum regularly, especially along baseboards.

Eliminate the prey and centipedes will move elsewhere on their own.

Step 2: Reduce Humidity

House centipedes need moisture — they dehydrate quickly in dry environments. Run dehumidifiers in basements and crawl spaces. Use exhaust fans in bathrooms. Fix any leaking pipes. Getting humidity below 60% makes your home significantly less appealing to centipedes.

Step 3: Set Sticky Traps

Place flat sticky traps along baseboards in basements, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and any other areas where you've seen centipedes. They're fast, but they can't avoid a trap they run across in the dark. Check traps weekly.

Step 4: Seal Entry Points

Caulk gaps around baseboards, pipe penetrations, window frames, and door frames. This reduces both the entry points for centipedes and the hiding spots for their prey.

Step 5: Reduce Clutter in Damp Areas

Basements and crawl spaces with clutter, cardboard, and debris provide perfect centipede habitat. Clean up and organize these spaces. Move items off the floor and use plastic bins instead of cardboard.

• Control humidity — This is the #1 factor. Dry homes have very few centipedes.
• Address other pest issues — Centipedes go where the food is. No prey = no centipedes.
• Keep basement and crawl space dry and clean — Dehumidify, ventilate, and reduce clutter.
• Seal cracks around the foundation — Centipedes enter from outside, often through foundation cracks and gaps around basement windows.
• Clear mulch and leaf litter from foundation — Centipedes live in organic debris outdoors and enter homes from there.

• Spraying pesticide for centipedes — Most residual sprays have minimal effect on centipedes because they move quickly across surfaces and have minimal contact time with treated areas. Physical methods (traps, humidity control, exclusion) work better.
• Killing them without addressing why they're there — Every centipede you kill was eating other bugs. If you kill the centipedes without addressing the prey population, you may see an increase in the pests the centipedes were controlling.
• Panicking over occasional sightings — Seeing one or two centipedes a month is normal in most homes, especially in basements. This isn't an "infestation" — it's a house with a few beneficial predators.