Centipedes Invade Crawl Space in Freehold, NJ
Challenge
Recently, I went on a service call for a homeowner in Freehold, NJ, who was in the midst of a house centipede infestation in her bathroom. House centipedes are up to one and one-half inches long. These grayish-yellow insects have three distinctive longitudinal dark stripes down the length of their body. The house centipede has 15 pairs of long legs and their antennae and last pair of legs are longer than its body. Although they look terrifying, they do not bite. House centipedes are only dangerous if you happen to be another insect in their food chain.
As I started my inspection of the bathroom, the homeowner informed me that even though she was constantly cleaning and removing the house centipedes from her bathroom, they just kept on coming, and she couldn't figure out where they were coming from either in or outside of her house. After a thorough inspection of the bathroom, there was not a single trace of house centipedes. I know the behavior of these insects and had a good hunch where they were coming from. I asked the homeowner if this home had a crawl space foundation, and it did. House centipedes breed and thrive in dark, damp and cool environments, as do many insects, and it just so happens that crawl spaces are often the perfect insect-breeding environment.
These neglected areas of the home can be a source of a number of problems for homeowners. A neglected crawl space can even be the source of health issues for a family. Approximately 40% of your home's air comes from your crawl space. Poor air quality can increase allergies and negatively affect any family members with asthma or weak immune systems. Also, crawl space air can affect the temperature of your home and increase your utility bills. If the crawl space is normally cold, your air conditioning/heating system will have to work extra hard to heat the home. Finally, as this homeowner found out, many pests are naturally drawn to places that are moist and warm.
After finding the crawl space entry, I began my inspection. And it was a good thing I went down there. The crawl space was filled with water, which could trigger numerous problems if not corrected. I found a group of house centipedes gaining access into the crawl space through an exterior vent.
Solution
After completing my crawl space inspection, I reported my findings to the homeowner. She had absolutely no idea that her crawl space was in such disarray. I informed her that Cowleys offers a variety of services beyond pest control, including crawl space encapsulation, which seals crawl spaces from the outdoor elements and keeps this area clean and dry. Crawl space encapsulation with dehumidification will prevent dangerous mold growth that can spread throughout the home.
The homeowner immediately called our main office to schedule an appointment with one of our encapsulation specialists. But the pressing issue of the day, house centipedes, still needed to be addressed. I treated both the crawl space and the exterior of the home with a direct contact residual. Any centipedes that come into contact with a treated are eliminated, and in a short amount of time, there will be no more run-ins with centipedes because they will all be gone, and the home will be pest-free. Over the long-term, it was even more important to identify the crawl space issues so they could be corrected before more serious problems developed like mold and mildew growth.
