handle silverfish with house centipedes?

[Jeff7]

House centipedes are scary. If they don't scare you they will surely scare your guests. I would never go to a friend's house who had those running around.

Spiders are great for pest control since you never see them. So are frogs if your problem is in the bathroom like with ants coming in and using your bathroom as their water supply. The best are geckos if you have any where you live. It's amazing what a gecko can do. You'll see a spider and before you can even react to the spider the gecko will come out of nowhere and eat it.

What kind of spiders do you have?
They like to hang out next to the bed. Or by the sink faucet. Or over the shower.
If I'm out of town for a few days, I'll come back and run into several strands running across the bathroom door.
Black jumping spiders will brazenly run down a white wall.
At least the big orb weavers stay outside, though they will sometimes spin a big web across the few feet between the building and my parked car, presumably hoping to score a feast.

 

[nixium]

House centipedes are scary. If they don't scare you they will surely scare your guests. I would never go to a friend's house who had those running around.

Spiders are great for pest control since you never see them. So are frogs if your problem is in the bathroom like with ants coming in and using your bathroom as their water supply. The best are geckos if you have any where you live. It's amazing what a gecko can do. You'll see a spider and before you can even react to the spider the gecko will come out of nowhere and eat it.

Hmm.. A green gecko wouldn't be so bad, it kinda looks cute.

http://www.digitalapoptosis.com/archives/hawaii/Gecko.jpg

The problem is, can it handle the silverfish? Wouldn't it need more than silverfish?

Would these eat house centipedes?

It looks like they would:

http://site.cleanairgardening.com/info/geckos-for-natural-pest-control.html

Wow, I think this is a better option than the house centipede. Ideally, I should be able to put a small RFID tracker or something on him so that I can release him in closets and such. After he's done, put in him back in his cage/tank.

And he's green, the color of military. Very fitting indeed.

I wonder if they'll allow petting/carrying?

 

[nixium]

In my house I noticed a few of the slow-moving, big-segment centipedes; they're not like the super-fast hairy ones, but seem to be bigger and the segments are fat and shiny. I read online these are called "garden centipedes". They freaked my wife out pretty good, they only seemed to pop up in the house this year after excessive amounts of rain the past few months.

This thing?

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/Arthropods/Garden Centipede/garden centipede

It's also good for pest control, though it appears to be a little bit more "biting" than the house centipede. And more horrifying.

 

[Juddog]

This thing?

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/Arthropods/Garden Centipede/garden centipede

It's also good for pest control, though it appears to be a little bit more "biting" than the house centipede. And more horrifying.

Yeah it disturbed my wife more than the usual fast-moving cousin. I don't think these things last long in houses, since they were a lot easier to catch, but man they look huge in comparison to the usual hairy-looking ones.

 

[nixium]

EDIT: added poll to gauge ATOT sentiment.

 

[nixium]

Currently, I'm thinking:

Silverfish << House Centipede << Gecko.

Reasoning: The silverfish are tiny and fast. They need someone as agile and quick as themselves, something out of their worst nightmares. The house centipede is blazing fast, can beat smaller insects, and uses poison. It can slip through cracks easily. I'm not sure the gecko can beat the centipede in terms of size and agility to capture silverfish.

However, I think the Gecko can handle the centipede easily. The reason is that the centipede is bigger than the silverfish. It's fast, but so is the gecko, and it's size makes it an easier target. The centipede's sting probably can't penetrate the gecko skin, so it loses the venom advantage.

 

[TwiceOver]

You still haven't mentioned why you can't just get an exterminator? That's my selection. Why do you want bugs running around your apartment chasing after other bugs?

 

[nixium]

Uh Oh.

It appears things are not all rosy on the gecko front.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/12/nyregion/buyers-snap-up-geckos-a-cockroach-s-tyrannosaurus.html

The geckos make noise and are known to bite.

Dammit!!!!! So close to a solution.

 

[nixium]

You still haven't mentioned why you can't just get an exterminator? That's my selection. Why do you want bugs running around your apartment chasing after other bugs?

It's a giant PTA. Either the exterminators do nothing or they need to fumigate/nuke the place and it's disruptive to me.

Plus using bio warfare seems *way* cooler.

 

[TwiceOver]

It's a giant PTA. Either the exterminators do nothing or they need to fumigate/nuke the place and it's disruptive to me.

Plus using bio warfare seems *way* cooler.

I'm married, but either way bugs crawling all over my place is seriously going to hinder me getting a piece of ass. That's pretty fucking disruptive in my book. Call the pros, get it done right, tap an ass or two.

 

[nixium]

I'm married, but either way bugs crawling all over my place is seriously going to hinder me getting a piece of ass. That's pretty fucking disruptive in my book. Call the pros, get it done right, tap an ass or two.

Generally that would be true. Currently dating a geek chick though, and she's not *too* fazed by the things. She's even tried to corner a baby house centipede in her house for me. We tried to grab it but it escaped. But even she has limits.... hmm will pitch the gecko idea to see what she thinks.

 

[lxskllr]

This is my order of preference...


Introduce house centipedes
Get more spiders
Boric Powder/Diatomous earth

wildcard - Get a pet green gecko

Centipedes are on the same level as silverfish, so I think they'd be more effective than spiders, but spiders are cool.

I don't believe in better living through chemistry, but the two you listed are non-toxic, so I'm fine with their use.

A gecko is cool, but wouldn't suit my lifestyle. If my place were smaller, and I didn't have cats, I'd go with geckos.

 

[Ruptga]

Poll is bugged, diatomaceous earth is not a chemical option.