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Why It Is Not A Good Idea To Squish Centipedes
Centipedes do a LOT for the environment - more so than you think! - so think twice before you squish them.
Jonathan Maes
05.18.17

When people see a spider, a cockroach or any other small animal that isn’t exactly friendly-looking, we tend to take a shoe and simply squish it. Squishing centipedes, however, isn’t always a good idea.

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Wikipedia Commons
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Wikipedia Commons

Now admittedly, centipedes aren’t exactly the appealing to see and some might even be scared of the mere thought of having centipedes around the house, but they actually hate spiders and other crawling bugs just as much as you do.

Simply put, roaches aren’t fun and centipedes tend to agree.

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Wikipedia Commons
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Wikipedia Commons

Unlike centipedes, roaches and spiders like to hang out almost everywhere in the house. They prefer cold and damp spots with a lot of moisture, and could even settle in your toilet if they wanted to.

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Western Exterminator
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Western Exterminator

The thought of a bug-infested bathroom doesn’t exactly sound appealing. So if you see a centipede, it might be a good idea to just leave it alone – despite it being gross and fast, it takes care of these other nasty bugs.

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Wikipedia Commons
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Wikipedia Commons

Centipedes aren’t very large but do come with an impressive amount of legs – it’s understandable why you’d have the instinct of squishing. Instead of doing so, consider taking a jar and just putting it outside the house or in your backyard, as it will decrease the number of bugs around. It’s particularly fond of ants, spiders, bedbugs, cockroaches, and silverfish – all bugs that people generally don’t really like.

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Wikipedia Commons
Source:
Wikipedia Commons

So the next time you think that your place is bug-free, you might have to thank a couple of centipedes for that. Centipedes may look frightening, but they’re completely harmless – aside from possible mental trauma, of course. If you leave a centipede alone, in all likelihood, the centipede will leave you alone as well.

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