What feeling overwhelms you when you spot an insect in your home? The immediate impulse might be to grab something and squash it, and that’s not without reason. Some insects can deliver fatal stings and carry harmful toxins.
Particularly unsettling are the creepy crawlers; those small, unsettling creatures with numerous legs often make you want to eliminate them quickly. However, having read this article, you might reconsider squashing those intimidating centipedes you find in your bathroom.
The sight of centipedes scurrying around can be quite jarring. But after learning about their beneficial role in your home, you might opt to spare them in the future as a token of appreciation.
Interestingly, these wriggling, fast-moving creatures have been silently safeguarding your home from other tiny pests. There’s a unique type of centipede in homes that’s slightly smaller than its counterparts and boasts around 20 legs.
These little creatures act as your home’s unseen pest control, keeping cockroaches, spiders, silverfish, bedbugs, and ants at bay. They consume almost every arthropod they come across due to their insatiable appetite.
However, being beneficial doesn’t mean you should welcome centipedes en masse into your home; it simply means you might want to spare the occasional one or two as a sign of gratitude.
While their presence can be startling, especially to young children or those who find them unsightly, instead of crushing them, consider letting them be or gently relocating them outside.
