More free cat toysā¦
Oh man I donāt mind them all over the yard eating bugs but they need to stay the hell out of my house. Time to vaccum the basement rafters.
I would like to read that article, but I cannot with all those images of spiders. Why is there no plugin or greasemonkey script to block all pictures of spiders?
HAH. Not in my house they wonātā¦ because itās also the season for these little buggers to come in as well.
They really do seem to wreak havoc on all the other crawlies, including spiders which is the only reason I begrudgingly tolerate them (they freak me out a tiny bit less than spiders, so itās a deal).
I havenāt noticed many spiders in the house, but I love the fact that this is the time of year when I see so many outside around the house. Many of them, I know, are females, and I especially enjoy spotting Aranea cavatica, because, hey, who doesnāt love Charlotteās Web?
Actually it makes me a little sad because I know the reason Iām seeing them, the reason their webs have gotten so big (big enough for me to throw them the occasional katydid), is because theyāre about to pass on.
I have immense respect for those big suckers when I see them outside. When I see them run under my bedside table as Iām preparing for bed is another story. There will be no sleeping to be had while the possibility of a gigantic hairy spider walking across my face is a significant possibility.
You do know those things are venomous, I hope? Iād rather have twenty wolf spider bites than be clawed by a house centipede once.
Interestingly, thereās a female pholcus phalangioides in my house that I got a few pictures of with her last litter who recently took up with a new beau. They were doing some kind of mating dance while she was still swollen up with eggs, and then they moved, together, to a new web in another room. Since then, theyāve moved again, still together to a third room. Itās really sweet.
Weāre in Canada, so we donāt have the poisonous tropical ones. The ones here very rarely bite people and, if/when they do, arenāt more dangerous than a bee (and weāre not allergic). Iāve never had issues with themā¦ aside from the creeps.
I think itās all about the light conditions, humidity, and connecting spaces.
Where I am, If thereās consistent light, even if itās pretty dim, there seem to be a couple of species of little jumpers that completely has their way with everything else, I donāt think anything else gets much past the ādot with legsā stage unless something big wanders in from somewhere else, except the occasional corner weaver.
The wolf spiders here seem to be on more of an internal clock and are often that āsomething big from somewhere elseā from dusk to dawn outside, I think we notice them a lot because thatās when weāre out and about.
Meanwhile, where itās usually dark and damp youāve got the house centipedes, and they can be that āsomething big from outsideā too, theyāre not afraid of light but theyāre pretty useless at catching the little jumpers and seem to be at a disadvantage against the wolf spiders, who seem to railroad them from the side if they happen to meet.
The cellar spiders are . . . weird. It seems like they tend to replace the centipede niche in some places Iāve been, but are more active in a smaller zone during the day. . . but Iāve seen them owning a room when itās well lit too. They make a messy web but will wander about and take out nearby weavers and such as well. Theyāre surprisingly brainy critters.
Then you have the male weavers, who really have no business being out in that mess. Theyāre like everything elseās potato chips. There must be a bunch of 'em to make up for it, because they seem to be the token non-insect-victim this time of year. There seem to be a lot that look like gangly wolf spiders but move like . . . like food, apparently.
Iām pretty sure all centipedes are venomous. Certainly all the ones here in the mid-Atlantic US states are! They donāt really bite or sting - instead they have a pair of specialized front limbs, called maxillipeds or āpoison clawsā that are connected to a venom gland at the base. The bigger the centipede, the more painful the bite. Your average house centipede probably hurts about as much as a bee sting, though, so that was a very apt comparison!
I know they have venom. I meant theyāre not āsend you to the ERā venomous 
Hm. Whenās house-centipede mating season? I donāt have as many of them as I do spiders, but I get a few. The cats think theyāre great toys, until they get played with a bit too roughly and breakā¦
Iām so glad Iāve never seen any of these centipedes in my house yāall are talking about (Seattle area). But thanks for making me paranoid now.
Iāve heard, anecdotally, that smaller centipedes deliver a worse ābiteā on account of the venom being more concentrated. Or maybe that was scorpion stings? I dunno.
I allow Pholcus phalangioides to live in the corners of my place, because theyāre far preferable to the houseflies and mosquitoes that they keep under control. I wish theyād clean up their webs when they relocate, but itās a small price to pay. Aside from being untidy theyāre not bothersome.
I encourage the Lycosidae for the same reason. They are pretty tidy except for the shed skins.
Iāve heard that story about the young having more concentrated venom told about rattlesnakes and copperheads, but my Grandfather told me it was a myth. His explanation was that people who got bitten by baby copperheads were typically bitten many times, because theyād disturbed a nest or fallen into a snake pit. I dunno about baby centipede venom but my uninformed hunch is that itās also a myth.
My house used to get INFESTED with house centipedes in the spring and fall - weād find 1-2 a day, and not just in the basement or ground floor of our house, but in our BEDROOM. We re-did our backyard, tearing out the deck that connected to the house, and found that the grading of the backyard underneath the deck actually drained water TOWARDS the house, resulting in lovely dark and damp conditions that house centipedes absolutely love. Since we got rid of that deck? We now only see maybe 1-2 a month in the busy season. Iām not sad to see them go, and havenāt seen an uptick in spiders or other buggies either. So Iām guessing all that damp under the deck was also a nice breeding ground for all those other bugs too.
Edit - despite being so infested with them, nobody in my house was ever bitten by a house centipede, for what itās worth.
