Have you ever gotten bitten by a real tough bug? It hurts! And I’m not talking about a little mosquito bite. I’m talking about something that either hurts immediately or leaves you itching for days. But, both are terrible when you think about it. That’s why today, we’re going to go over some painful pest bites and the bugs that leave them.
What are the most Painful Pest Bites?
We’ll break it down bug by bug. But let’s talk about the guys with the real initial impact before anything else. We’ll cover the residual pain inflictors later.
House Centipedes
Oddly enough, the first and arguably most painful pest on our list is the house centipede. It’s odd because this is a bug that really needs zero pest control. They don’t nest, they’re active hunters, and they kind of destroy other pests in your homes all by themselves. But, that doesn’t mean they’re to be trifled with.
The first thing you notice is that the house centipede has a lot of legs. The very name “centipede” hints at that since “centi-” means “hundred.” Although it looks like it has a hundred legs, the fact is that the house centipede has 15 pairs of legs. It also has two very long antennas on its head and two long appendages on its rear-end. Most house centipedes are yellowish-gray and have stripes down the length of their body and across their legs, too.
There are several reasons for all of those legs. First, it helps make the house centipedes very fast. Since they are both predators and prey, this helps out a lot. They can travel 1.3 feet-per-second, which means they can usually get away from predators and easily catch up to their intended meal. Second, those appendages both fore and aft mean it’s hard to tell which end is the front, which can actually deter predators.
Unless provoked to defend themselves, house centipedes rarely bite people or pets and mostly prefer trying to escape threatening situations. Also, although house centipede venom is not as toxic as some other centipede species and their bites rarely cause any serious effects.
