What traps work for centipedes inside?

Every other page in this cluster gates its answer on Manchester's first hard frost, because cluster flies, stink bugs, lady beetles and boxelder bugs are aggregating overwinterers whose entire fall behavior is triggered by cooling temperatures and photoperiod. House centipedes aren't playing that game. They come indoors chasing moisture and prey — silverfish, spiders, small flies — and a damp basement or bathroom is attractive to them in July just as much as in November.

That's why this page's Invasion Window looks different from the rest of the hub: instead of a sharp works-then-too_late transition at the frost date, centipede control stays a limited, ongoing effort tied to how wet your house stays, not to the calendar.

Sticky glue traps are a legitimate, low-effort tool. The Illinois Department of Public Health lists them among the standard responses to occasional indoor invaders, and they work exactly as advertised: a centipede crossing the trap's path at night gets stuck. They're non-toxic, cheap, and useful for confirming where centipedes are active in your house — put a few along basement baseboards and check them weekly, and you'll learn a lot about which corner has the problem.

What they can't do is stop the next centipede from coming in. A trap doesn't dry out a crawlspace, doesn't fix a leaking pipe under a sink, and doesn't reduce the population of small insects a centipede is there to eat. Every centipede caught is one less centipede, but the conditions that attracted it are untouched, so more will follow if nothing else changes.

House centipedes are drawn to indoor humidity — basements, crawlspaces, bathrooms, laundry rooms — because that's where the small insects and arthropods they hunt also concentrate. Reducing that humidity with a dehumidifier, improving ventilation with an exhaust fan, and promptly fixing any plumbing leaks removes the reason the space is attractive in the first place. Pair that with sealing foundation cracks, basement window gaps and door thresholds, and you've addressed both the entry route and the draw.

This is overwhelmingly a homeowner project — a dehumidifier and a tube of caulk go further here than any trap, sticky or otherwise, and there's no reason to wait for a service call to start running one.

It's worth saying plainly, because the sight of one is often worse than the reality: house centipedes rarely bite people, and when they do the reaction is typically mild and medically insignificant, similar to a bee sting at worst. They don't spread disease, don't damage the structure, and in fact eat other household pests like silverfish and small flies — arguably a modest benefit if you can tolerate looking at them. None of that changes the practical advice above, but it does mean the stakes here are comfort, not safety.