Few household insects cause as much alarm as the house centipede — a fast-moving creature with up to 15 pairs of long, banded legs that can sprint across a wall faster than most people expect. Finding one in your Ankeny bathroom at midnight is memorable. Finding them regularly means your home has conditions supporting not just centipedes, but the other insects they feed on. Miller Pest Solutions addresses both.

Signs of a Centipede Problem

  • Seeing house centipedes regularly in bathrooms, basements, or laundry rooms — especially at night when they’re most active.
  • Centipedes in bathtubs or sinks — they fall in while hunting and can’t escape the smooth sides. Finding them here is common.
  • Activity in basements and crawl spaces — especially in areas with higher humidity or moisture intrusion.
  • Multiple sightings per week — a single centipede is incidental. Regular sightings mean a population is established and there’s enough prey to sustain it.

Why Centipedes Are Common in Ankeny

House centipedes are predators — they eat spiders, silverfish, flies, cockroaches, and other small insects. Their presence in a Ankeny home tells you something useful: there’s enough prey to make your home worth hunting in. Iowa’s humid summers drive moisture into basements, and basements with high humidity support the populations of silverfish, spiders, and other insects that centipedes follow.

Ankeny’s older housing stock is particularly susceptible — homes with unfinished basements, stone or concrete block foundations, and limited vapor barriers in crawl spaces offer ideal centipede habitat. But even newer homes with humidity issues in the basement are attractive.

Our Centipede Control Process

Miller Pest Solutions takes a two-part approach to centipede problems. First, we treat the centipedes directly — residual insecticide applications in basement harborage areas, along the foundation, in crawl spaces, and in other moist areas where centipedes hunt and shelter. This reduces the active population quickly.

Second, and equally important, we look at what they’re eating. A centipede population can only sustain itself if there’s enough prey. We assess the broader pest picture in the home — looking for signs of silverfish, spiders, or other prey insects — and include those in the treatment plan. Address the prey population and the centipedes lose their food source.

Moisture management is the third piece. We provide specific recommendations for dehumidification, ventilation, and moisture control that make the basement environment less hospitable for the entire ecosystem of pests that centipedes are part of.

Why Choose Miller Pest Solutions

Miller Pest Solutions has been serving Ankeny and central Iowa since 2001. QualityPro Certified and NPMA members. Joel Miller has been in pest control since 2007 and takes a diagnostic approach — understanding why a pest is present and addressing the underlying conditions, not just the symptom in front of you.

If centipedes are showing up regularly in your home, it’s worth knowing what’s driving them. We’ll give you a straight answer.

Get a Free Phone Bid Today

House centipedes taking over your Ankeny basement or bathroom? Call Miller Pest Solutions at (515) 329-8801 for a free phone bid. We’ll talk through what you’re seeing and recommend a practical course of action. Find us at millerthekiller.com.