What is centipede?
Centipede has a long body and many pairs of feet. It is a really poisonous insect, which is one of the "five poisonous animals" with the other four animal, including snake, scorpion, toad and spider. The bite of small centipede may causes redness, swelling and pain in people’s skin. However, if one gets bitten by a tropical large centipede, he or she can get an inflammation of lymph vessel and tissue necrosis, and even death in severe cases. After centipede bite, you need to wash the wound with soapy water immediately, or apply cold and wet compress around the wound. Besides, you can mash the houttuynia cordata and dandelion and apply them on the wound. Those in severe cases should go to the hospital for treatment.
How do centipedes appear in your bed?
Centipedes are afraid of sunlight and usually come out at night. The dark, warm, damp and ventilated places provide the favourable habitat for them. Most of the wild centipedes stay in hillsides, fields, roadsides, places with weeds, or between firewood piles. If you find a centipede in your bed, that’s because your bed may be suitable for Centipede's living. Centipedes possibly crawl to your bed because of the poor hygiene and musty smell of your bed.
Measures to help you keep centipedes out of your bed
Keep the environment dry
Centipedes like to stay in the warm and humid environment. There is basically no trace of centipede in dry places, so the room should be kept dry to avoid centipedes’ appearing. In the plum rain season in summer, air dehumidification is especially needed in the house. Some bamboo charcoal bags and dehumidifiers can be used for household dehumidification, and the air conditioner can also be turned on to reduce the amount of moisture in the air.
Choose the proper bed
The centipedes are easier to creep onto the floor-standing type of bed along the bed skirt. Therefore, if the bedroom is large enough, you'd better choose a bed with four feet on the ground, so as to reduce the chance of centipedes crawling to bed.
Block all holes of air conditioning pipe and windows on the wall that can connect the outside
In order to prevent centipedes from crawling into the house, these holes must be blocked. In addition, you can screen the window to keep out them while make sure ventilation. Plus, there should be an elbow at the sewer pipe, so that centipedes are hard to creep in through the pipe.
Sprinkle quicklime around the house:
For rural families, their house is adjacent to the outside ground, and the centipedes can easily enter. In this case, you can sprinkle quicklime powder outside around the house, which keeps the outside environment relatively dry, and the centipedes will not get in. For those urban households, you can sprinkle some quicklime around the water pipe joints, doors and windows.
Maintain good hygiene
Centipedes prefer a dirty environment, so the home should be kept clean. The corners under the bed and sofa should be cleaned regularly, cleaning up the dust and cobwebs in time. And don't pile garbage and junks at home. The quilt on the bed should be often exposed to the sun, removing the moisture within it.
Apply essential balm on the bed legs
Insects and centipedes are afraid of balm. You can apply some essential balm on the four legs of the bed every few days to keep centipede away. In addition, it's better not to place the bed against the wall.
In the market, some toxic sprays to kill centipedes are not only harmful to human beings, but their efficacy is easy to fade. Besides, some physical methods such as centipede trap is not effective at all because its catching speed is far behind the breeding speed of centipede. Here some natural centipede repellents are introduced as follows:
Some natural centipede repellents
- Rooster
If you are a rural family, you must know that the most feared thing for centipedes is roosters. If got a yard, you can raise a rooster to catch centipedes, which is the best way. But if don’t have such condition to raise roosters, you can consider raising birds, which can also kill centipedes.
- Wormwood
Since the smell of wormwood can repel insects, you ou can also try burning wormwood around your house. You may burn pile some wormwood nearby the place where the centipede possible show up while keeping the place closed to leave all the smell of wormwood inside, which can achieve the purpose of repelling the centipede for a period of time.
