# What is this bug, and should I kill it? NEED ANSWER FAST!!!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 9, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635 "2010-10-09T20:15:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/1 "2010-10-09T20:15:07Z")
The bug in question:
[Leggy little thing](http://www.flickr.com/photos/oninomaggie/5065236637/)
He’s about an inch, maybe an inch and a half long in the body - he’s currently parked over my bedroom door.
Should I kill him? If he’s not bitey, or germy or destructive, I’d rather not. OTOH, all those legs really wierd me out.
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### Author:  [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/2 "2010-10-09T20:21:22Z")
Okay, I think I found him: [Scutigera coleoptrata - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutigera_coleoptrata)
He seems to be harmless-to-beneficial. He may live.
As long as he doesn’t try to get in my bed, or crawl on me.
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### Author:  [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/3 "2010-10-09T20:24:10Z")
_You are a braver man than I, Gunga Din_
I would have killed it.
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### Author:  [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/4 "2010-10-09T20:27:31Z")
I use to hate those things, but I had a cat that loved to hunt them at least. My apartment was really close to a creek and they were always around and creeping us out.
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### Author:  [@toodlepip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toodlepip)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/5 "2010-10-09T20:34:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> House centipedes feed on spiders, bedbugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish, ants
Eats bedbugs! He’s a keeper.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/6 "2010-10-09T20:34:43Z")
I knew this was going to be a house centipede as soon as I saw the title.
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### Author:  [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/7 "2010-10-09T20:44:10Z")
They are evil creatures. They bite and are the fastest sons of bitches I’ve ever seen. We had an infestation in our old apartment and they were disgusting. We put out glue traps and caught most of them that way.
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### Author:  [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/8 "2010-10-10T00:35:48Z")
I’m surprised that someone has never seen a 'pede before. I hate them and they gross me out in a way that I can’t explain. However, I have found peace with them due to their aforementioned roach and bedbug eating. Now when I see one I am grateful I’m not seeing something much, much worse.
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### Author:  [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/9 "2010-10-10T00:52:42Z")
MOTHERFUCKER!:!LKJ:L!KJ :eek:
You have no choice but to burn down your house and move, I’m totally serious.
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### Author:  [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/10 "2010-10-10T01:39:46Z")
Ah, house centipedes. I love 'em. Sure, they’re creepy as shit, but they kill and eat silverfish. Silverfish eat books. The choice is obvious.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/11 "2010-10-10T01:43:18Z")
SCARY! Saw one crawl across my living room floor the first week I lived in my new house. Went out the next morning and sprayed the foundation for bugs and vigorously cleaned every nook and cranny of the basement. Never saw one again.
Way too many legs to co-habitate with me. EEEEKK!
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### Author:  [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/12 "2010-10-10T02:12:39Z")
I absolutely hate these things. I don’t care what they eat, they have too many legs and they move too fast. I kill them. If yours is only an inch long, then it’s a little one.
I check my room for these every night before I turn out the lights. Just looking at that picture on Wikipedia made my heart rate shoot up. HATE them.
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### Author:  [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/13 "2010-10-10T02:23:36Z")
I’m in the tiny minority that finds house centipedes rather pretty–there’s something about how all those legs move that’s just fascinating. That, plus their dietary habits, means we’re friends. I actually ran a bit of water in the basement when I saw one the other day, just in case he needed a drink. (He did, but then I scared him off because I was afraid he’d drownded hisself. :smack:)
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### Author:  [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/14 "2010-10-10T02:36:45Z")
Horrid nasty things I hate more than any living thing on Earth.
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### Author:  [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/15 "2010-10-10T03:01:14Z")
I have one in my bathtub right now. We have it trapped under a plunger for fun.
I rarely kill them, but I only see them in the tub, usually, and only the one downstairs.
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### Author:  [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/16 "2010-10-10T03:24:12Z")
I will gladly move back to the land of house centipedes and away from the land of “palmetto bugs”. They’re American cockroaches, people! Please, give me back my harmless, relatively sanitary house centipedes.
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### Author:  [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/17 "2010-10-10T03:51:11Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#):
>
> As long as he doesn’t try to get in my bed, or crawl on me.
I had one of these fuckers jump on my head while I was at the computer. I have no idea where it came from as there’s nothing that overhangs my chair but the ceiling.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/18 "2010-10-10T04:07:53Z")
No bed bugs in our area, but western PA is going through an infestation of _gag_ [stink bugs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_marmorated_stink_bug). My grandmother’s freaking out because because she HATES bugs and is on a quest to bomb them back to the stone age. And you can’t squash the little buggers because that would only release the stench.
(Fortunately, I heard a method of getting rid of them is creating a solution of water and Dawn dish soap, and they spraying them.)
Ugh! So far, the few ones I’ve found I’ve been able to pick up with a napkin and dump outside.
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### Author:  [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/19 "2010-10-10T04:11:20Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#):
>
> I had one of these fuckers jump on my head while I was at the computer. I have no idea where it came from as there’s nothing that overhangs my chair but the ceiling.
Probably the ceiling. I watched one hang out on the ceiling above my computer desk for a fairly long time before he dropped, without warning, onto the desk and scurried away. :eek: I like the things and this was a little bit unsettling–I got the feeling that while they can do the ceiling thing, they may not be particularly good at it.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-bug-and-should-i-kill-it-need-answer-fast/556635/20 "2010-10-10T04:35:00Z")
> [@chizzuk](#):
>
> I absolutely hate these things. I don’t care what they eat, they have too many legs and they move too fast.
Yeah, me too. I’m resident spider control, but I can only tolerate creatures with up to 8 legs. Centipedes are on my short list of creatures I hate, though unlike sowbugs which are also on the list they actually bite so there’s a reason not to like them. Centipedes are horrifying, so my method of dealing with them can best be summed up as “cry and kill.”
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