House centipedes are essentially harmless to people, pets, and your home. They are venomous, but their venom delivery is weak, bites are extremely rare, and they cause no property damage whatsoever. In fact, they actively hunt pests you probably want gone. The short answer: they look far scarier than they are.
They Can Bite, but Almost Never Do
House centipedes belong to the order Scutigeramorpha, described in entomology literature as “fast but delicate.” They have a pair of modified front legs that function like tiny pincers to deliver venom into prey. Technically, they don’t bite at all. They pinch. And those pincers are often too weak to break human skin.
When a house centipede does manage to puncture the skin, the result is typically a mild local reaction: some redness, minor swelling, and a brief stinging or burning sensation that resolves within a few hours to a few days. The overall experience is comparable to a minor bee sting, and far less intense than a sting from larger tropical centipede species. The genera most commonly reported to bite humans are Cryptops and Otostigmus, not Scutigera (the house centipede). House centipedes would rather sprint away from you at impressive speed than stand and fight.
One useful number puts their venom in perspective: it would take the contents of roughly 1,000 centipede venom glands to deliver a fatal dose to an average adult. A single house centipede poses essentially zero systemic risk. That said, allergic reactions are possible with any venom, so if you notice hives, throat swelling, or difficulty breathing after a sting from any arthropod, treat it as a medical emergency.
They Won’t Hurt Your Pets or Your Property
House centipedes don’t harm cats, dogs, or other household pets. They don’t chew fabric, damage wood, contaminate food, or compromise your home’s structure in any way. Unlike termites, carpenter ants, or carpet beetles, house centipedes are not destructive. They’re classified as nuisance pests purely because people find them unsettling to look at.
They Actually Eat the Pests You Hate
This is the part that surprises most people. House centipedes are aggressive predators of other household pests. Their diet includes silverfish, firebrats, carpet beetle larvae, cockroaches, spiders, and other small arthropods. A house centipede living in your basement is essentially running a free, 24/7 pest control operation. If you’re seeing a lot of them, it often signals that there’s a healthy population of prey insects in your home, which is the real problem worth addressing.
Why They Show Up in Your Home
House centipedes are moisture-seeking creatures. They thrive in damp, dark environments and tend to congregate in basements, bathrooms, crawl spaces, and laundry rooms. They enter homes through cracks in the foundation, gaps around doors and windows, and openings where pipes or wires pass through walls. A consistently humid basement is one of the top reasons they stick around once they find their way inside.
How to Keep Them Out
Because house centipedes follow moisture and food, the most effective strategy targets both. Start with humidity. Running a dehumidifier in your basement makes the space significantly less hospitable. Fix leaky pipes and improve drainage around your foundation so water flows away from the house rather than pooling near it. Clean gutters regularly and make sure downspouts extend several feet from the foundation wall.
Next, close off entry points. Walk through your home and look for cracks along floors, gaps around doors and windows, and openings where utilities enter. Seal them with caulk, weatherstripping, or spray foam. Outside, clear leaf piles, dense ground cover, and woodpiles away from your home’s perimeter. These provide the damp hiding spots centipedes use as staging areas before moving indoors.
Finally, reduce their food supply. If you’re seeing house centipedes regularly, you likely have populations of silverfish, cockroaches, or other small insects that drew them in. Addressing those prey species with traps or targeted treatment removes the centipede’s reason to stay. Once the food and moisture are gone, the centipedes typically move on without any direct intervention.
When a Bite Does Happen
If a house centipede pinches you, clean the area with soap and water. A cold compress can help with any swelling or discomfort. Most reactions are purely local and resolve on their own within hours. You don’t need to capture or identify the centipede. Larger tropical centipede species (Scolopendra, for example) can cause more serious symptoms including intense pain, swelling, headache, nausea, and fever, but house centipedes lack the size and venom potency to produce those effects in most people.