Ever since the weather started warming up, these yellowish-grey 30 legged creepy crawlers have been popping up more and more frequently in Montreal homes.
Officially called Scutigera Coleoptrata, chances are you've found at least one of these "house centipedes" hanging around your bathroom sink or shower drain.
While most people, myself included, assume they're just another annoying pest that we'll have to deal with, it turns out that they're actually not all that bad, and maybe even kind of useful.
Here is everything that you need to know about Montreal "House Centipedes:
- They won't actually bite you...strictly speaking, it's more of a sting. But the sting has been compared of a Bee.
- They prefer to live in cool, damp places, so you'll most likely find them in your basement and bathrooms
- They can live anywhere from 3 to 7 years (yikes!)
- They eat spiders, bed bugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish, ants, and other household arthropods
- So, you can generally control the number of centipedes by controlling the number of those household pests
- They can administer venom through their legs
- In general, they're considered harmless to humans since most aren't strong enough to penetrate human skin
- But if they do sting you, it's essentially like a bee sting, with the venom causing redness and a bit of swelling
- They're nocturnal, so you're more likely to have one come across your path at night
- Apparently, people in Japan are keeping them as pets
- They rarely live indoors in large numbers (thank god)
- They will retreat to a darker hiding spot if light is shone on them
- When threatened, they'll emit a foul smelling odour
- They frequently hide in cracks, so fill those in around your house if you want to avoid them hanging around
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