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Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read once they get into beds by crawling up the bedposts and by putting something smooth like aluminum cups around the posts, the bugs cannot crawl up. What do you think of that?
Might as well use this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth
But I hope we never have to try this.
We had a house centipede infestation when I lived in NYC. It was awesome. No bed bugs. No roaches except in the end of summer, (the giant flying variety and it was really just the month of August when the humidity is out of control they would come out of the drains.) No bugs in general. Those house centipedes ate everything.
I once awoke to see a large spider running away from me on my bed. I was a bit displeased with that until I learned that they hunt roaches. I figured if it was running away from me, then it figured (perhaps incorrectly) that I was not to be messed with and so the food chain in my house remained as it should be.
We had a house centipede infestation when I lived in NYC. It was awesome. No bed bugs. No roaches except in the end of summer, (the giant flying variety and it was really just the month of August when the humidity is out of control they would come out of the drains.) No bugs in general. Those house centipedes ate everything.
They are creepy, but they eat baddies. The last time one showed up in our bathroom, my wife yelled at me to "Stop marveling at it!" It was the biggest one I had ever seen, close to 3 inches. RIP Uber-coleoptrata scutigera!
Personally I've had great difficulty getting rid of Silverfishes. Despite plugging all crevices with diatomaceous sand, making sure indoor temperature does not exceed 18°C, removing any specimen on sight, I still encounter one every now and then just chilling on the wall or floor. They've eaten my underfloor isolation (the floor sags at those spots now), but other than that they're harmless - I can't imagine the horr…
I believe humans are not part of their diet. ;) But they can process cellulose, starch and even mold, can survive months without any food, so it is next to impossible to starve them. Low room temperature and low humidity might help a bit.
We had a house centipede infestation when I lived in NYC. It was awesome. No bed bugs. No roaches except in the end of summer, (the giant flying variety and it was really just the month of August when the humidity is out of control they would come out of the drains.) No bugs in general. Those house centipedes ate everything.
I did a quick search online about how to get rid of them, and I mostly found stories of the form "Help, I got rid of all my house centipedes and now my home is infested with other bugs! How do I get the house centipedes back?"
So we let them be.
These creepy, long-legged brown centipedes were familiar to everyone I knew growing up in the northeastern US. They are shy of people and tend to stay in the basement at night and only come out at night when it's dark, cool, and quiet (increasing their creepiness).
The upside? They eat other bugs, including many pests like termites, cockroaches, and bedbugs.
I worked pest control for a few years until 2021. We all knew that pesticides basically don’t work on bed bugs—it was old news. The article glosses over heat treatments, which is odd, because it really does work, and usually in a single session. It’s a very labor-intensive and invasive procedure, though. The residents must leave the house for 8 hours while the techs bake each room and throw everything around. By the…
I read once they get into beds by crawling up the bedposts and by putting something smooth like aluminum cups around the posts, the bugs cannot crawl up. What do you think of that?
The obvious answer is centipedes. If you are going to have to tolerate any kind of bug in your house, Scutigera Coleoptrata, the common house centipede, is the one to have. These creepy, long-legged brown centipedes were familiar to everyone I knew growing up in the northeastern US. They are shy of people and tend to stay in the basement at night and only come out at night when it's dark, cool, and quiet (increasing…
So as cool and helpful as they are, their continued existence indicates you have other problems as well.
Best to consider them like Sully in the movie Commando: “I like you. I’m gonna kill you last.”
I was talking a friend in China about bed bugs recently. They said there is a medicine people take which makes our blood poisonous to them. Ironically enough, it's ivermectine... Makes sense I suppose, it targets parasites and bed bugs are a parasite. I read some papers about it, too. Doesn't seem to be a panacea but potentially useful in combination with traditional pest control.
(Which I had at the beginning of the pandemic, my doctor casually mentioning "it also has known anti-viral properties")
We had a house centipede infestation when I lived in NYC. It was awesome. No bed bugs. No roaches except in the end of summer, (the giant flying variety and it was really just the month of August when the humidity is out of control they would come out of the drains.) No bugs in general. Those house centipedes ate everything.
When we moved into our house we were disturbed by the house centipedes. I did a quick search online about how to get rid of them, and I mostly found stories of the form "Help, I got rid of all my house centipedes and now my home is infested with other bugs! How do I get the house centipedes back?" So we let them be.