House Centipedes: Good!
They’re like the only kind of centipede thing that has a good ol’ face like a roach or a beetle. They can see nice and they’re really smart. But their butts have fake antennaes so you can’t tell which way they’re looking.
They look really scary! The first time I ever saw one, I thought it was some kind of demon spider cockroach centipede! They scuttle and their legs are too long and they’re terrible to look upon.
But!
They are not aggressive or poisonous! They normally will stay out of your way! (They can live in your house for like seven years and you might not know they’re there!) Guess what they eat?
They’re natural pest control! They eat roaches, ants, spiders, wasps, silverfish, bedbugs, termites, like goddamn everything that you hate. And they really only hunt at night, which is even better! You can go to bed at ease knowing the house centipede is a one-man cleanup crew!
Think of him as your exterminator buddy! Yes, they’ll always be scary-looking and absolutely the stuff of nightmares, but it’s what’s inside that counts! They are friends!
[Note: I’m not saying they never bite. But they’re non-aggressive and smart enough to recognize that you’re too big to try to fight, so if you’re nice to them, they’ll leave you alone. Bites are pretty rare, and not a big deal.
Also, important to understand that one or two house centipedes in your home are helpful! But if you start noticing a lot of house centipedes, you have a big underlying problem: lots of house centipedes means there’s lots of food for them to all eat. Which means you have a major pest issue on your hands and they had to call in backup. You should probably do something about it at that point]
