# Dear House Centipede on my closet wall **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 22, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-house-centipede-on-my-closet-wall/625915 "2012-06-22T02:55:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-house-centipede-on-my-closet-wall/625915/41 "2012-06-23T02:20:47Z")
Arthropodal critters in general don’t bother me, but centipedes do. I’m OK with spiders (they mostly just sit there in their web in the corner), but the zooming about of centipedes squicks me out. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-house-centipede-on-my-closet-wall/625915/42 "2012-06-23T02:48:04Z")
The really ambitious ones will take care of your snakes too. [Link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooFSFR2s7Ig) (Warning: Cannot be unseen once seen.) ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-house-centipede-on-my-closet-wall/625915/43 "2012-06-23T02:53:28Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > The really ambitious ones will take care of your snakes too. > > [Link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooFSFR2s7Ig) (Warning: Cannot be unseen once seen.) Oh dear freaking God. I made it through five seconds of that. No no no no. ---
**Author:** ![FalconFinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@FalconFinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FalconFinder)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-house-centipede-on-my-closet-wall/625915/44 "2012-06-23T03:15:50Z")
Problem with centipedes for me is, they initially LOOK like spiders (only worse) and I am PHOBIC about spiders. So, unfortunately, they get squashed (with a fly swatter) almost immediately because I think they’re a huge spider. I am with the OP on most counts about living with them, as well. Though, now that I know they bite (didn’t know that before) I’ll be less forgiving of them as they skitter across my floor like flying mustaches… ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-house-centipede-on-my-closet-wall/625915/45 "2012-06-23T03:21:29Z")
IIRC, they’re poisonous, so if you have pets, smash 'em! Do NOT let your cat or dog after them! ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-house-centipede-on-my-closet-wall/625915/46 "2012-06-23T05:09:30Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > IIRC, they’re poisonous, so if you have pets, smash 'em! Do NOT let your cat or dog after them! House centipedes can bite but they’re pretty harmless. I didn’t know that when I got bit so I put the sucker in a little jar with alcohol for identification purposes in case I needed a doctor. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-house-centipede-on-my-closet-wall/625915/47 "2012-06-23T14:05:37Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > I can’t imagine any roach or spider problem so bad that I would welcome a centipede in my home. It seems a problem far worse than the one it’s supposed to solve, on the level of “boy, these rotting corpses in the front yard sure do keep the door-to-door salesmen away.” What you have to do is import these Bolivian Tree Lizards to eat the centipedes. Then when the lizard problem gets too much, you can send in Chinese Needle Snakes, and to take care of the snake problem, there’s this kind of snake-eating gorillas you can buy. Ah, but what happens with the gorillas you say? That’s the beauty of it. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-house-centipede-on-my-closet-wall/625915.md?page=2)