Help centepede got a neighbor

[Cindy Blankenship]

We've just been here a week and had a centipede in the house. My cat warned me (stalking behavior). Scared for the cat, I yelled for my son, and he helped me get both cats out of the room. The neighbors downstairs probably thought I saw my first cockroach lol. All I had was a broom and hoped to push the centiped outside because it was crawling onto the bottom of the slidnig glass door, but in the chao with the cats, I looked away a minute and it was gone. I had managed to open the door, so I'm
hoping it slithered on outside, but I think it may have gone under the entertainment center next to the door. My cat came back out, sniffed around the floor, and then went over to the entertainment center and sniffed the carpet there :-( It's too close to the wall to see if it went under, and I don't have a flaslight anyway. Does anyone know if the cats will kill them or if the centipedes will hurt the cats? I'm sleeping in this room too for three more nights :-( My son's in the bedroom, and they can't get in there. But in the living room, there are some small gaps in the open beam ceiling. I'm sure that's where it got in. My bug repeller's doing a great job keeping away roaches, but it's supposed to work with centipedes. It was about 5 inches long and brown. I think a dark, reddish brown, but I'm not sure because it was in the shadows. I've lived off and on in Hawaii for 9 years, mostly in Puna and only found one in the house once - on Kauai, upstairs,under a small pile of laundry.
I'm really nervous now sitting here barefoot and I'm gonna be scared to go to sleep.
Other than that, I love it here.

Cindy


Cindy
http://www.CoconutRoads.com

[aprild]

Clay is an excellent remedy on centipede bites. Another good one is to cut an onion in half and hold that on the bite. Right away.



april

[Cindy Blankenship]

Thanks April. I'd never heard of the onion remedy. I want to prevent getting bitten though,and I wonder if anyone can help me with an idea I have for protecting us in our beds.

If the bed and bedding isn't touching wall or floor, then we just need to put something on
the legs of the frame that the centipede can't climb over. And something that wouldn't attract other bugs. Any ideas?




Cindy
http://www.CoconutRoads.com

[Carey]

Cindy, I have heard of 2 ways to keep them from climbing the bedposts but haven't needed to try either, yet. The least practical (to me) is to put the bed legs into pans of water (most metal or wood legs would not like this, I think), the better one was to wrap 2 sided sticky tape up the leg, covering at least a couple of inches (carpet tape would work, or even single sided wrapped tight, sticky side out), kinda like a sticky trap on the leg. You probably will catch a number of other critters, so replacing as needed would probably be in order.
Aloha, Carey

[Cindy Blankenship]

Thanks Carey! I don't know what carpet tape is, but I'm guessing it's pretty strong. Do you think it would deter the centipede or hold it there? And it sounds like they don't like water then. But as you mentioned neither would the bed posts.

"You probably will catch a number of other critters, so replacing as needed would probably be in order."

You mean other bugs crawl into our beds while
we're asleep? Guess we'll find out lol.

I was going to get good mosquito nets and tuck them under the mattresses but after seeing the centipede in the living room, I wnat to do something right away. Besides our
cats would hate the nets around us.

Cindy

Cindy
http://www.CoconutRoads.com

[Cindy Blankenship]

My landlady had some sticky mailing tape and
duct tape, and I didn't want to wait till morning, so I just rolled the pieces to make them double sided and just got done taping all the wheels/posts on my son's bed frame. I tucked the blankets in so that nothing on the bed is can provide a ladder for the centipede. I won't have my bed set up till tomorrow (using my mattress against my son's window to block the downstair's tenant's dog's barks), so I guess I'll be braving one more night out here on the couch with that thing under the entertainment center. Or maybe it got back outside however it got in. Tomorrow I get my car, so then I can pick up supplies for the soundproofing and lots of tape for the centipede proofing.
And then, hopefully we will get our first full night's sleep since we've been here.

Cindy

Cindy
http://www.CoconutRoads.com

[Carey]

Cindy, we're around tomorrow, so if you want to call, or stop by to try out the reeflex...
hope the tape works (carpet tape is fairly tough double sided tape) & yes little insect critters may also get stuck, little fruit flies, ants & things that are just here, but don't bug you much.
have a good night,
Aloha, Carey

[Cindy Blankenship]

Thanks Carey! I emailed you. My son's bed posts at the floor are all sticky taped. Haven't seen the centipede since the other night. (And I haven't seen one cockroach since we moved here on the 20th). I think the bug repeller's working.

Cindy

Cindy
http://www.CoconutRoads.com

[Momi]

I like to keep a scissors handy so when I see centipedes which is rare in our post and pier house, I just start by cutting off their stinger first then I use the scissors as a tongs to cut the rest of it up and give it the royal flush down the toilet. Then, I don't have to worry about it coming back to haunt me at night.

[bystander]

quote:

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I like to keep a scissors handy so when I see centipedes which is rare in our post and pier house, I just start by cutting off their stinger first then I use the scissors as a tongs to cut the rest of it up and give it the royal flush down the toilet. Then, I don't have to worry about it coming back to haunt me at night.

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Which part of the centepede is the stinging part. I thought it was the mouth but the tail looks like it could be used as a stinger as well.