Centipedes are recognizable by their worm-like bodies, many legs, long, sensitive antennae, yellow to dark brown colors, and small mouths that contain venom glands.

As a matter of fact, centipedes can have anywhere from fifteen to seventy-seven pairs of legs that they utilize to scurry across the ground and climb vertical surfaces.

Will a centipede bite if it gets near you? Centipedes can bite and inject venom, but they are not typically a threat to people or animals. Bites may cause moderate soreness or redness, but no serious health problems have yet been linked to centipede bites.

But that doesn’t make centipedes something to cheerily greet. Learn more about centipedes, their natural predator, and why you should never try to kill a house centipede on your own, as well as the benefits of South Portland centipede control and pest control, below.

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Centipedes

These are five facts you might not know about those mystery centipedes in your basement:

1. A centipede’s age is directly proportional to the number of legs it has. This is due to the fact that, during molting, centipedes are able to recover lost legs. They can increase their leg count by molting more frequently. It may take several molts for a centipede to regain the use of all of its legs if some of them were lost during this stage.

2. One of the oldest animals, centipedes can trace their ancestry back more than 400 million years.

3. If a centipede is determined to catch prey or get away from a predator, it isn’t as slow as you might imagine. Centipedes can cover more than a foot of floor in less than a second because to their segmented body, many pairs of legs, and waxy outer covering.

4. Centipedes feed on a wide range of animals. Larger centipedes have little trouble devouring far larger prey than the worms, insects, roaches, and mollusks that smaller species might eat.

5. Certain kinds of centipedes, including the common house centipede, can live for up to six years.

Despite the potential allure of their history, you probably don’t want these unknown beings skulking around in your cellar.