A centipede is a worm-like pest that has poisonous jaws where they inject venoms into their prey. On the other hand, vacuum cleaners work in killing almost every pests and bug in your house. So, does vacuuming a centipede kill it? Can we be confident that the same action would be effective in killing a centipede?
Some people believe that we should never kill a centipede. The rests believe that killing centipede is okay because they are pests. Before we delve into deeper topics on these, let us see things that may cause centipedes in a house.
What causes centipedes in the house
Centipedes love to dwell in anywhere dark and damp. As a result, house areas with high moisture levels and minimum lightings, such as closets, bathrooms, kitchens, and anywhere in basement levels, are centipedes’ favorite habitats.
While forgetting to clean up can be one of the problems, drying water after cleaning is another thing that causes centipedes to come into your house. Centipedes eat spiders, ants, flies, earthworms, and other insects around your areas. If there are any of these insects in the place you lived recently, chances are centipedes will come to you.
As long as you haven’t figured out how to deal with the insects that centipedes eat, your house will more likely attract centipedes. Even if the insects are dead, centipedes will invade your residence if you forget to clean the insects’ corpses.
Do centipedes die when vacuumed
Even though centipedes don’t naturally eat humans, they have venomous bites that can irritate our skin. That way, some of us want centipedes to die.
Still, the main question which the answers we seek is, “Does vacuuming a centipede kill it?” In other words, do vacuum cleaners, the most popular and (allegedly) effective ways to get rid of pests, also work for centipedes?
Unfortunately, “no” is often the answer. Vacuum cleaners only suck the centipedes in disposable vacuum bags. The centipedes will remain alive as long as they don’t starve or suffocate in the vacuum bags. Some vacuum cleaners don’t even have the spinning fan blades for killing pests, including centipedes.
Can you vacuum a centipede
Of course, you can vacuum everything in your house. After all, it’s your house, and you know what tools are best for cleaning up the areas around you. Thus, you can vacuum a centipede at any time and wherever you want.
However, keep in mind that vacuuming alone is not enough. The centipedes are unlike roaches that would die in no time when you use vacuum cleaners on them. At some points, even starvation and suffocating won’t make the centipedes die, even though the vacuum cleaners have sucked them in.
Another thing that you should do is to mind the effect when you decide to kill them. For example, centipedes prey on ants and flies, so that it helps to preserve your foods and to maintain your sleeping quality. They don’t cause you any fatal diseases apart from minor skin irritation. Then, again, those situations are rare.
How to get rid of house centipedes
Now, you already know that house centipedes can bring benefits to your health and your house condition. Yet, there are some occasions where you can’t accept these “uninvited guests” that you want to know, how to get rid of house centipedes?
First thing first, acknowledges that centipedes love to live in moist areas. So, drying furniture and spaces around the house is an integral step you should take. Pay attention to holes, cracks, and gaps around you since these things can be the entry portal for house centipedes. If necessary, seal them and create some barriers around them.
Using natural ingredients is also advisable to get rid of house centipedes. Next, we’ll discuss some of the natural ingredients for getting rid of house centipedes.
Does vinegar kill centipedes
Many people have proved vinegar can kill many pests. Often, they mix water and vinegar both to kill pests and to clean up their houses. So, can we use the same method to get rid of centipedes in our houses?
We can use vinegar to help us in killing centipedes. Nonetheless, the vinegar for getting rid of centipedes works differently than for killing other pests. All you need to do is to spray pure vinegar several times to the centipedes. Remember: Pure vinegar means no water and no more combinations in it.
Does salt kill centipedes
Salt is a must-have ingredient for every house apart from sugar and some other spices. More amazingly, you can use salt to kill centipedes.
However, as with vinegar, you can’t mix salt with water when trying to eliminate centipedes. The more portions of water in your solutions, the more likely centipedes will survive. Instead, use rock salt or common table salt to finish them.
Spread the salt around pets’ foods or watering dishes to block their access to food and water. If you’re going to use table salt, make sure you use either one or two-band salt.
Does bleach kill centipedes
Bleaches are homecare products for cleaning. Sometimes, when you know how to use them, they can kill pests. Yet, you can’t use them to kill centipedes. The only thing that you can do to deal with centipedes if you choose to use bleaches is to keep them away from some properties or furniture around your house.
If you’re going to use bleaches to keep centipedes away from your properties or furniture, you’d better pair them with 1/2 cup of baking soda. Add some cups of white vinegar and pour the mixture on the areas where centipedes often dwell, such as kitchen sinks.
Since bleaches are reactive substances and the presence of baking soda produce bubbles that increase their reactiveness, you shouldn’t spray the bleaches all over the room. After cleaning the impacted fields, you shouldn’t cover them with tarps. While you can kill centipedes this way, you’ll risk losing plants that are even more beneficial for your health.
Does light keep centipedes away
Centipedes are nocturnal pests. There are huge chances that they invade our houses while we’re sleeping. Sudden lights will “wake” them up and keep them away, depending on the duration of the lights.
This situation means you can discover where centipedes hide by using lights to your advantage. Some centipedes, though, will instantaneously run to dark wall cracks, vents, or other darker and damper places after you “shoot” them with light-bringing devices.
The most effective way to use lights to keep centipedes away is through using a flashlight. In this sense, turn on the flashlight while you clean up or inspect the furniture at night. If your flashlight has features to adjust the light powers, make sure you set them as near to 100% as possible.
How to get rid of house centipedes naturally
Even though chemical pesticides can deal with house centipedes, they tend to have negative impacts on the environment. So, you want to avoid using them by going for the natural ways to get rid of their populations.
Traps are excellent ways to shoo almost every pest, including house centipedes. Best of all, you can create DIY traps to make house centipedes go away from your house. Petroleum jellies are the best and most popular products to create a DIY trap that works for pests around your areas, and centipedes are no exception.
To create the DIY trap, you need to spread a layer of petroleum jelly on top of cardboard surfaces. Make sure the cardboard surfaces have colors and patterns that resemble the background you want to protect. Then, place a couple of insects, food wastes, or other foods that centipedes tend to go for, somewhere around the petroleum jelly.
By doing these ways, the house centipedes will come to the cardboard surfaces thinking that they have the foods they want. They will die as long as they consume petroleum jelly. Finish this step by immediately throw the cardboard and mop the floors with vacuum cleaners.
How to keep centipedes out of your bed
We frequently see centipedes around kitchens and bathrooms because these two rooms tend to have higher moisture rates than the others. However, there are times when we can find them around our bedrooms. In such cases, they may lurk and invade around our beds that we can go insane afterward!
Unfortunately, vacuuming isn’t the only answer as they will keep on coming. Worse, those centipedes can get up to our beds. If you want to keep them out from your bed, you should install fans, aircon, or similar related appliances and turn them on as you finish cleaning your bedrooms.
There are times when you sweat or shed drops of blood from your bodies for whatever reasons. In such cases, cover your beds with blankets or similar coverings so your beds won’t have high moisture levels.
So, does vacuuming a centipede kill it? Not really, unless you have access to vinegar, salt, light, fans, and other tools to keep them away. After all, these things eliminate centipedes faster than only vacuuming them.