Best ways to trap house centipedes?

[scutiger]

Hi folks- I'm new to the forum. About a year ago I caught a torpid house centipede outside our home- an adult female that may have been dying- it had largish mites on its ventral surface. Eventually I let it go on our humid downstairs floor, and I never saw it again.

This summer I saw a juvenile scampering across the computer keyboard, and just a few weeks ago a different adult on the bathroom wall. When I turned around to grab a container to capture it it fled while I wasn't looking. That was the last time I've seen it.

Around the same time we fixed a leak in the feed pipes for our washing machine that had kept the bathroom very humid. It may be that the remaining population has skedaddled since its now very dry- they might be in the garage but hard to know- very cluttered.

I want to set up live traps there to capture one or more. But I don't know where to start. Obviously the trap has to maintain humidity levels, and perhaps also provide food.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Jess Tauber

 

[Smokehound714]

You can try soaking sections of old carpet in water until nice and waterlogged, then loosely fold and place them carpet-side-down, so there are plenty of humid hiding places. This is actually a great way to catch centipedes. I'm not sure if scutigera dig scrape-retreats, but i have seen some under rocks.

 

[zonbonzovi]

They don't seem to invade homes in my area but everywhere I've captured them has been a warm and dry climate...moist areas under rocks, debris, esp. manmade stuff. Discarded lumber and the like. You must have a catch cup on hand as you've noted how quickly they scamper off.