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...is different! I moved into my new home this past June. In a few months time I have killed 5
CENTIPEDES!!! inside my house. Never mind that my house is not a "post & Pier" home...this just to many Centipedes to have in a new home, right!? Nobody else is going through this are they?
This morning I was setting up my youngest to a watch 'Sesame Street" DVD. I had put my wife's exercise mat on the floor with several Hawaiian Quilt pillows my wifey made on it for him to be comfortable while watching his DVD. Just as I was starting to lower him down onto the mat..out of the corner of my eye I see a Centipede crawl briskly to get under mat. Less than three inches away from my baby boy(1 & 8months old)!!!!!
Does anybody have a solution? I try to spray Ortho's "Home Defense" at least once a week around outside of house. But where are they coming from? This really bothers me! Could these little bastards be coming through the cracks between baseboards and the floor? I assume I need to do some caulking today?
This is disturbing too..
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...9430213933
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Centipedes are evil! I'm allergic and have been biten on places unmentionable while sleeping. I take antihistimine and pain medication immediatly, because if I scratch just once the bite swells for weeks. I've been biten by a baby centipede less than an inch long with the same painful results. Local lore has the smaller "electric blue" centipedes as the most painful.
I believe they like concrete slabs, and caulking will help. Also try periodic spraying around baseboards with a "safer" pesticide.
That's awful and scary!
Yes, I have had an even worse centipede problem than that, in Waikoloa, where they had been multiplying and colonizing and the old owners ignoring them. We would spray the perimeter and find 50 dead ones the next day ... they would crawl up to the second story and come in open sliders.
I never put on a shoe, a glove, or picked anything up there without checking and watching for one. It wore on me.
They were in the walls, if you took off an electrical cover plate, there were dead ones curled up around the outlet.
This is a tough one because you are already moved in and you have a baby, and it sounds like you should bomb the whole house.
Short of that, caulk and seal everything.
What I recommend and how we dealt with it in that house -- we bit the bullet and got a pest company contract where they sprayed the outside monthly at first and then bimonthly. We didn't allow any spraying inside.
The perimeter spray they do holds up really well and absolutely kills the beasts when they cross it. I think it's borax based (not really toxic to humans).
For us, in that house, the peace of mind was worth $50 a month.
If you have either chickens or ducks around, they eat 'em, but if you have the perfect host environment and have no predators and inherited an established colony ... they will continue to be a problem ... like I said, call the pros.
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I heard that coqui frogs favorite food is centipede larva. Maybe you should get more frogs on your property?
Well, best thing you can do is try to seal up any cracks under the outside doors in your home... maybe put down poison like around the outside door entrances... Concentrated poison. Make sure all your screens on your windows are tight. They usually enter in from under the doors... They can squeeze into any small crack .... Next time buy a home on post and pier... Just the aspect of less bugs is worth it to me, plus you can get under and poison the crap out of it
Good Luck!
I hear chickens also like to eat them (adult ones).
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I used a pump bottle of insecticide to spray a circle around the foundation of my home and have had little or no problems for several months. Apply and repeat 2x a year.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
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Google "diatomaceous earth centipede" to see if that would suit you.
One link:
http://www.epinions.com/content_100422749828
Diatomaceous earth is basically naturally-occurring powdered glass that is irritating and dessicating to creepy-crawlies of all types. (No idea what it does to coquis!
)
It's not toxic, but use a dust mask during application. It can be sprinkled in out-of-the-way spots that centipedes like to hang out. It can also be used outside, but washes away with rain, so that's not helpful unless it's really dry under your eaves.
I haven't heard about it being used in Puna for centipedes, but I know some folks on the BI use it in carpets to control fleas.
Might be worth a try!
ArtM
Edited by - ArtM on 10/10/2007 13:24:13
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quote:
I used a pump bottle of insecticide to spray a circle around the foundation of my home and have had little or no problems for several months. Apply and repeat 2x a year.
Rob, what type insecticide do you use around the house? I currently use Ortho's 'Home Defense' about once a month around my place. I use it once a month because it seems not to smell much at all,nor doesn't seem that toxic for humans either(yeah right!) 
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quote:
...is different! I moved into my new home this past June. In a few months time I have killed 5 CENTIPEDES!!! inside my house. Never mind that my house is not a "post & Pier" home...this just to many Centipedes to have in a new home, right!? Nobody else is going through this are they?
This morning I was setting up my youngest to a watch 'Sesame Street" DVD. I had put my wife's exercise mat on the floor with several Hawaiian Quilt pillows my wifey made on it for him to be comfortable while watching his DVD. Just as I was starting to lower him down onto the mat..out of the corner of my eye I see a Centipede crawl briskly to get under mat. Less than three inches away from my baby boy(1 & 8months old)!!!!!
Does anybody have a solution? I try to spray Ortho's "Home Defense" at least once a week around outside of house. But where are they coming from? This really bothers me! Could these little bastards be coming through the cracks between baseboards and the floor? I assume I need to do some caulking today?
This is disturbing too..
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...9430213933
EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!
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Hi Beachboy,
What really seems to work for us are Combat Large Roach Traps, that way you don't have to be spraying stuff all over. I guess with a kid you would have to be careful about placement - not sure a kid could get into them though. You will still see some centipedes around but they will be just this side of death. I think these traps contain boric acid so just making your own with boric acid would probably do the thing.
For bites, I use a slurry of porcelain clay that I let dry up on the bite, it draws the venom out immediately.
Outside, we have noticed centipedes eat the semi-slugs - even a worse nightmare. So we are thankful to have them there. One invasive species eating another, I love it.
Aloha,
Sherry
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quote:
Google "diatomaceous earth centipede" to see if that would suit you....
it does work - when we replaced my mom's pool filter we cut it open and spread the DE around her house.
Now I havent seen many centipedes down here at all in Kapoho until this last few weeks - seems to be more than usual.
