The house centipede is one of the more alarming-looking insects you’ll encounter in a Perry home — long legs in pairs radiating from a fast-moving body, capable of getting across a bathroom floor before you can react. Most people’s first instinct is to get rid of them immediately. But here’s something worth knowing: house centipedes eat other insects. Finding them regularly means you have a moisture problem, a harborage problem, or a broader insect population supporting them. Miller Pest Solutions treats the centipede issue and helps identify what’s driving it.

Signs of a Centipede Infestation

  • Seeing centipedes in bathrooms, basements, or bathtubs — The most common discovery. House centipedes end up in tubs and sinks because they fall in and can’t climb the slick surface. Seeing them regularly means the population is established somewhere nearby.
  • Activity near floor drains and sump pump pits — These high-moisture areas attract centipedes and their prey. Persistent sightings near plumbing areas point to moisture and harborage at the source.
  • Finding them in crawl spaces or unfinished basement areas — These are core centipede territory. If you don’t go into those areas often, you may have a much larger population than you’re aware of from casual sightings upstairs.
  • Multiple sightings across different rooms — An occasional centipede in the basement is fairly normal. Seeing them regularly throughout the house — living areas, bedrooms, kitchen — suggests a larger underlying issue.
  • Presence of other insects — If you’re also seeing silverfish, spiders, or flies, you’ve confirmed that there’s a food supply supporting the centipede population.

Why Centipedes Are Common in Perry

House centipedes are found throughout Iowa, and Perry homes — particularly those with basements, crawl spaces, or older construction — provide ideal conditions. They need high humidity (above 70%), and Iowa’s summer moisture regularly delivers that in below-grade spaces. They also need prey: silverfish, spiders, small cockroaches, flies, and other insects that inhabit the same moist environments. A house centipede sighting is almost always a secondary indicator of a broader pest ecology happening in the lower levels of the home. Iowa’s winters don’t kill them — they simply move deeper into the structure and remain active in the warmest, most humid areas year-round.

Our Centipede Control Process

Treating only for centipedes and ignoring the underlying conditions that support them produces temporary results at best. Miller Pest Solutions approaches centipede problems holistically.

We apply residual insecticide treatments to harborage areas — basement walls and floors, crawl space perimeter, behind stored items, and around plumbing — targeting both the centipedes and the prey insects supporting them. Products are selected for residual performance in humid conditions.

Moisture reduction is the most important structural recommendation: dehumidifiers in basements and crawl spaces that maintain humidity below 50% make the environment inhospitable to centipedes and most of their prey. We’ll be direct about what treatment can accomplish versus what moisture management will add long-term.

Entry point sealing at the foundation level reduces the flow of new centipedes coming in from outside. We identify the most likely entry zones as part of our assessment.

Why Choose Miller Pest Solutions

Miller Pest Solutions has served Iowa homeowners since 2001. Joel Miller has been in pest control personally since 2007. We’re QualityPro Certified and NPMA members. We don’t just treat what’s visible — we figure out the full picture and give you honest recommendations about what it will take to actually solve the problem.

Get a Free Phone Bid Today

House centipedes showing up in your Perry, IA home? Call Miller Pest Solutions at (515) 329-8801 for a free phone bid. Tell us what you’re seeing and we’ll tell you what’s likely going on and how to fix it.