The mere thought of a centipede can be uncomfortable for most people and actually seeing one on the bed can make you run. These thin, yellowish, and brisk creepy crawlies may seem scary but they are not as harmful as they look. However, that doesn’t mean that you should keep them as pets and let them breed in your house. Nobody would like to have a centipede crawling on their face while sleeping.

If you are wondering how to keep centipedes out of your bed, you can actually follow a few simple ways to get rid of them.

What to Know About Centipedes

House centipedes might be hard to catch as they are superfast. They have 15 pairs of legs which enable them to travel 1.3 feet per second. So, the question that arises is how to keep centipedes out of your bed and your house if you can’t even catch them? The simple answer is that you should know what they survive on.

Centipedes originated in the warm tropical Mediterranean region as they blossom in damp and warm places. However, as with all the other living things, centipedes quickly adapted with time and can survive in all parts of the world now.

They do not make webs or nests around your house, but they will take shelter anywhere where it is dark, humid, and warm. These creatures do not like the dark so you might spot more of them during the night.

Centipedes don’t usually bite humans, and even if they do, their bite is harmless to humans. House centipedes prey on other insects, which can help to reduce the number of pests in your house. This can be the one benefit of co-existing with centipedes in the house.

House centipedes breed in the spring season and can lay 65 eggs on average. So, if you have spotted one around your bed, you might want to act quickly.

Why Do They Breed in the House?

A warm house is quite welcoming not only for the guests you invite but also for the uninvited guests such as centipedes. So if you have spotted a few around your bedroom, then it is probably because you have set a warm and cozy temperature.

There might be other reasons because of which you are finding it hard keeping centipedes away from your house. For instance, there might be some cracks around letting them in. Perhaps there are numerous damp and humid places in your house. Maybe the bathrooms are not kept dry enough or you are using humidifiers in your bedrooms. All these reasons can be inviting the centipedes in.

Another reason for centipedes in your bed could be a bedbug infestation. As centipedes feed on bugs and insects, a bedbug-infested bed might seem like a buffet to them.

How to Keep Centipedes Out of Your Bed

Now that you know about your enemy and some major reasons why they have invaded your house, we can get to the ways of getting rid of them and keeping them away.

Get an Air Dehumidifier

As mentioned earlier, centipedes are especially attracted to warm and humid places. That is because it is the most favorable environment for them. So, the first and foremost measure to take to keep centipedes out of your bedroom is to invest in a high-quality dehumidifier.

Dehumidifiers do exactly what their names suggest: they take in the air, remove moisture from it and then release it back out. By reducing humidity, air dehumidifiers help in keeping the centipedes away. It is comparatively a cost-effective method too. Other measures, such as hiring professional pest control services, are much more expensive.

Install Bathroom Fans

If you have found a centipede on your bed, it’s not necessary that they are living there only. A bathroom is one place that stays damp all the time. It is where centipedes tend to accumulate most. Therefore, it is another popular way for such organisms to get into your living space.

An inexpensive way to control the moisture in your bathroom is to install bathroom fans. Installing exhaust fans improves ventilation and allows the air to move around and escape. This will prevent the humid air from gathering in your bathrooms, keeping away centipedes and other insects too.

Moreover, installing fans in your bathrooms will guard your fixtures against excess moisture by preventing molds and mildew.

Seal Off the Cracks

These little critters are very small and slender and they can easily navigate through the tiny nooks and crannies of the walls in your house and into your bedroom. So, to keep centipedes out of your bed, seal all their entry points into your house.

Take a thorough stroll around your house and bedroom to identify any cracks present. Usually, cracks are found more around the windows and other openings. Seal all the cracks shut using any type of sealant that is available. This is another economical method of keeping the centipedes away.

Clean Regularly

One of the most common reasons why you might see an infestation of any pest out there is because of poor hygiene. When was the last time that you completely cleaned our bed in and out? Improper hygiene is arguably one of the biggest issues, and it generally attracts critters such as centipedes.

Therefore, if you want to avoid such creatures from moving out and about your bed, one of the best things that you can do is to maintain proper hygiene. This starts by cleaning the bed from top to bottom on a daily basis, and making sure that you replace the bed sheet after every few days.

Cleaning doesn’t mean that you just shake up the bed sheet and put it back on. Cleaning the bed means making sure that you dust the surroundings too, as that’s what attracts centipedes over time. Ideally, you will want to clean your bedroom as properly as you can.

Also, another common error to avoid is to make sure that you stop eating in and around your bed. No matter how careful you are, there are always going to be crumbs left strewn around. If this continues, it’s going to attract more than just centipedes; you will also have to deal with a host of other pests that are going to be attracted to your bed. Avoid these things, and you won’t have much to worry about!