Just Some Centipede Questions

Leviathan103

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 29, 2018
Messages
4
I have recently found a new interest and respect for centipedes and have taken the time to research the creatures. I am very new to the hobby and am trying to gather as much information as possible. I live in a dry area of Colorado where S. Polymorpha are fairly common. This is the only species I've ever seen and recognized in person here and I really want to have one as a pet. I am aware of the dangers these creatures pose and don't plan on ever handling one if I ever have one, but I am seriously interested in them. Anyway, because I live in such a dry area, I was wondering what kind of substrate I should use for a terrarium. I've seen a lot of people use peat or spagnum moss to hold moisture and spray the substrate to keep it moist, but in my area the ground is mostly clay or hardened dirt, not moist at all, and the centipedes manage just fine. Do polymorphas need as much moisture as other species? I'm scared of my centipede getting mycosis from too much moisture or doing something wrong. If you have any answers or information for me I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
 

NYAN

Arachnoking
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Dec 23, 2017
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Hi, welcome to the boards. Centipedes are amazing pets, but are not like any other invertebrate.
It is important that you have an escape resistant enclosure first and foremost.

Anyway, let me address your questions.

I I am aware of the dangers these creatures pose and don't plan on ever handling one if I ever have one, but I am seriously interested in them.
This species in particular isn’t very venomous compared to other centipedes, in fact it is one of the least potent of its genus. The bite is as bad as a bee sting pretty much.


Anyway, because I live in such a dry area, I was wondering what kind of substrate I should use for a terrarium.
For any centipede you should offer substrate that it can burrow in. Many people will mix stuff up. What I use for mine is coco fiber, sand, gravel and small rocks. You might even be able to mix in some of their clay-like soil from the wild if you can be sure it’s chemical free.


Do polymorphas need as much moisture as other species? I'm scared of my centipede getting mycosis from too much moisture or doing something wrong. If you have any answers or information for me I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
This species is very resistant to dry conditions in nature. They are able to utilize deep burrows and microclimates to avoid desiccating. In captivity, I would keep them on the mostly dry side, but offer a water dish and some moisture under a hide. They are prone to mycosis in too moist of an enclosure.
 

chanda

Arachnoking
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I live in Southern California, where we have native S. polymorpha too.

I just use the native dirt/sand from the same area where I catch them - it's easy enough to bring a small hand trowel and a bucket along on a collecting trip and collect some dirt - and mix in a little coconut fiber. I give them several inches of dirt (so they can burrow) and a piece of cork bark at the surface for a hide. All my centipedes also have a small water dish which I have occasionally seen some of them using.

I soak a portion of the substrate by spraying water directly on the glass on one side of the tank a couple of times a week, until I can see the water soaking down toward the bottom of the tank through the glass. This does not soak all of the substrate, but it allows it to sink down to the bottom layer of the tank and then spread out from there. That way, there is a moist layer at the bottom, while the surface is allowed to dry out, allowing the centipede to choose the level of moisture it wants to hang out in.

They do not have any supplemental heating - the do just fine at room temperature.

The only thing is, when they are appropriately housed, they do tend to hide a lot, so don't be surprised if you don't see them very often! My current polymorpha is just a little guy - and I haven't seen him in months! I hope he's busy molting under there. (It's just the nature of centipedes to hide away. I also haven't seen my Scolopendra heros in a few weeks, though I did see the S. dehaani just this afternoon.)
 

NYAN

Arachnoking
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Dec 23, 2017
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In a manner of speaking. I "found" one available for sale from another user here on AB! (And he's a beauty!)
Thats sweet! They are such great Pedes. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine.
 

Leviathan103

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 29, 2018
Messages
4
Hi, welcome to the boards. Centipedes are amazing pets, but are not like any other invertebrate. It is important that you have an escape resistant enclosure first and foremost.

Anyway, let me address your questions.

This species in particular isn’t very venomous compared to other centipedes, in fact it is one of the least potent of its genus. The bite is as bad as a bee sting pretty much.

For any centipede you should offer substrate that it can burrow in. Many people will mix stuff up. What I use for mine is coco fiber, sand, gravel and small rocks. You might even be able to mix in some of their clay-like soil from the wild if you can be sure it’s chemical free.

This species is very resistant to dry conditions in nature. They are able to utilize deep burrows and microclimates to avoid desiccating. In captivity, I would keep them on the mostly dry side, but offer a water dish and some moisture under a hide. They are prone to mycosis in too moist of an enclosure.
Thank you so much for the help! It's good to know that they aren't as venomous as I thought. I'll probably use a substrate mixture like yours. I don't want to risk taking soil from outside just in case. I'm also curious how I can catch one. I was just planning on taking a bucket and tongs out in early morning or late afternoon and search the surface of the soil around my house. This helped a lot. Thank you again.
 
Last edited:

chanda

Arachnoking
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Thank you so much for the help! It's good to know that they aren't as venomous as I thought. I'll probably use a substrate mixture like yours. I don't want to risk taking soil from outside just in case. I'm also curious how I can catch one. I was just planning on taking a bucket and tongs out in early morning or late afternoon and search the surface of the soil around my house. This helped a lot. Thank you again.
Taking the soil from outside is fine for a wild-caught animal, if you collect the soil in the same area where you collect the animal. If you're worried about it, you can also bake the soil in the oven for a few hours (until it's hot all the way through) to kill any hitchhiking organisms. Just be sure that it cools completely before introducing the animal.

If you're trying to catch one, you're better off going out with a flashlight at night - after the weather warms up, of course. I have sometimes found them active at the surface right around dusk, as the sun is going down, but find them more often at night, particularly during the summer.

As far as catching them goes, I wouldn't bother with tongs. While tongs are great for catching a 'pede in a small, confined space like a cage, I find them hard to use with a fast centipede on open ground. For smaller polymorpha (up to 4") I've just hand-grabbed 'em and popped them into a bucket or catch cup. For larger ones, I've had good luck with a large, clear plastic cup (around 7"-8" diameter). I drop it over the pede and push it down into the dirt to eliminate gaps, then slide a piece of cardboard or plastic under the edge of the cup. I then lift the whole thing, cardboard and all, enough to slide the lid for the cup underneath, slide out the cardboard, and press the cup down into the lid. I also have some leather gloves that I've brought along on a few trips just in case I got lucky and found a big centipede that I wanted to grab - but I haven't had the opportunity to test them yet.
 

chanda

Arachnoking
Old Timer
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Thats sweet! They are such great Pedes. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine.
I love him! He was hanging out on the surface quite a bit in the late afternoons for a while, so I got to see him fairly often - but it's been a couple of weeks since I've seen him now. Could be preparing to molt. Could be the change in the weather or the length of the daylight or something. While the temperature outside has gotten noticeably colder the past few weeks, the temperature inside the room is actually a little warmer because the cold weather has the heater going off more often. The thermostat keeps the temperature in the rest of the house pretty uniform, but that room is closed off from the rest of the house (to keep the cats out) and experiences greater temperature fluctuations when the furnace or a/c are going.
 

Leviathan103

Arachnopeon
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Dec 29, 2018
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If you're trying to catch one, you're better off going out with a flashlight at night - after the weather warms up, of course. I have sometimes found them active at the surface right around dusk, as the sun is going down, but find them more often at night, particularly during the summer.
Oh, alright. I'll try that. It's a pain having to wait though. . . oh well. Thank you for helping.
 

Scoly

Arachnobaron
Joined
Dec 4, 2013
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488
Thank you so much for the help! It's good to know that they aren't as venomous as I thought. I'll probably use a substrate mixture like yours. I don't want to risk taking soil from outside just in case. I'm also curious how I can catch one. I was just planning on taking a bucket and tongs out in early morning or late afternoon and search the surface of the soil around my house. This helped a lot. Thank you again.
There is no better soil than soil from its native habitat! The only thing to bear in mind is that a plastic tub, even with air holes, has far less air exchange than even a secluded spot under a rock in the great outdoors. This means that even the slightest bit of water in the container will likely bump the humidity way higher than it would be outdoors, and your air will also be fare more CO2 rich and stagnant. Outdoor soil will obviously react differently to such conditions, and it may become susceptible to fungi and other micro-flora/fauna which it wouldn't otherwise. Even plain sand can become covered with fungus and mites.

To avoid this you need to balance keeping the soil quite dry, and ensuring there's enough ventilation. For an arid species like polymorpha, you should keep the substrate completely dry in a small tub (because the water dish will raise the humidity enough) and in a larger you can occasionally spray under its hide.

If this is your start into the centipede hobby, you may still be under the misguided impression all centipedes need moisture and humidity, but that is a vile myth that needs to die, as far more captive centipedes die of problems caused by excess humidity than desiccation, especially (but not only) desert centipedes. If you zoom in on my avatar photo you'll see the substrate is bone dry (but always with access to clean water) and that's how that one was raised from pedeling to adulthood, if you keep that species wet and they drop like flies, but that's perhaps an extreme example.

As for venom, think of centipedes like scorpions, it's all to do with the species! A bit from a polymorpha is nothing, a bite from a subspinipes, dehaani or hardwickii will have you crying in agony and possibly needing hospitalisation.
 

Scoly

Arachnobaron
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Dec 4, 2013
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488
As for catching them, if it's a stony area and you go lifting rocks, you are likely to injure and even kill as many as you catch, as well as squishing a few geckos and other critters in the process. You might get lucky with traps, such as buried glass jars, and tend to catch a lot of other beasties too, and can end up with injured animals.

If you actually spot them running around at night, the safest way to capture them is with rags and tongs:
  1. Cut a dozen strips of clothes or an old dish towel (rinse well and leave outdoors or in dirt a few days so they smell natural).
  2. Bring as many tubs as you have strips of cloth, and a bucket.
  3. Open a tub, and place it in the bucket along with the lid.
  4. Hold the rag with your tongs in one hand, and go looking for centipedes.
  5. When you spot one, quickly shove the rag in its path so it is forced to go over it, at which point you lift the rag in the air and as often as not the centipede will be clinging onto it.
  6. (Put the bucket on the ground if you were carrying it because you'll need both hands).
  7. Prop the rag + centipede into the tub which is in the bucket, and quickly close the lid.
  8. Get your next tub in the bucket, and next rag in the tongs, and go find the next pede.
This is an effective method of getting a centipede off the ground, and into a tub, and buying you a bit of time to close the lid because it is most often still clinging to the rag. It is also the method least likely to damage the centipede, and the least stressful to it because it gets lifted then put down, and before it knows it it is in a tub with a rag to cling on to (which will make it feel safe, and stop it being knocked around the tub - never place a pede in an empty tub if its going to move about). Far less stressful, or time consuming, compared to being grabbed by tongs, thrown in a bucket while you find a container, then doing the dance to get it in there etc...

This technique is also useful for capturing a pede which makes an escape during feeding/maintenance and bringing it back to its container, and often better than faffing with bits of cardboard and tubs that it refuses to crawl into all while getting dangerously close to your fingers. It's a good idea to have a small tub of rags nearby. To be fair moss, bark or twigs also work for that - but then you need the right sized one (i.e. a small pede won't run onto a large twig, and moss won't hold a large pede) but a rag works for all sizes.
 

Staehilomyces

Arachnoprince
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Mar 2, 2016
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1,514
I have never went out collecting pedes myself (one of the first things on my bucket list for when I get my driver's license), but I have found them in the wild before, and caught/released them. What I can say is don't just flip logs/rocks - actually look inside things. If a log is nice and crumbly, tear it open. Try peeling bark off logs as well.
As for actually catching them, what Scoly said sounds very effective. If you see one wandering around, I definitely suggest you plan ahead and don't just go for it. If you mess up the first time, you'll spook the pede and it'll likely be gone in a flash.
 

Leviathan103

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 29, 2018
Messages
4
There is no better soil than soil from its native habitat! The only thing to bear in mind is that a plastic tub, even with air holes, has far less air exchange than even a secluded spot under a rock in the great outdoors. This means that even the slightest bit of water in the container will likely bump the humidity way higher than it would be outdoors, and your air will also be fare more CO2 rich and stagnant. Outdoor soil will obviously react differently to such conditions, and it may become susceptible to fungi and other micro-flora/fauna which it wouldn't otherwise. Even plain sand can become covered with fungus and mites.
Thank you so much for the information. I greatly appreciate all the help I'm getting. I am very new to the hobby and it really helps. I'll have to put more thought into the enclosure.
 
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