Centipedes vs silverfish. What’s the difference?

Silverfish and centipede are both huge headaches. But some people have never even seen them. This can lead to a lot of confusion when you do see them. A person who has lived in an area free of pests might ask what is centipedes. On the other hand, a person who has never seen a silverfish can ask what is silverfish. After all, if you are going to get rid of centipede or remove silverfish out of your house. You need to be able to differentiate between centipedes vs silverfish. In this blog, we are going to teach you how to do that. Therefore, let’s get into it:

Four differences between silverfish and centipede

Silverfish and centipede are not that similar, yet for someone who has seen neither before, it can be confusing. This is why being able to differentiate between centipedes vs silverfish is important.

For the sake of simplicity and clarity, we shall be dividing the differences into five major sections. This will help you understand it better and distinguish between these two insects. Therefore, let’s get into it:

Legs

When you talk of insects, you have to mention legs. Especially when you are talking about centipedes. If you are looking to differentiate between this centipede and silverfish, all you have to do is look at their legs.

As everyone knows, the centipede has a considerable number of legs. Their names translate to “100 legs”, as such they can have 15 to over 100 legs depending on their species. To be specific, house centipedes most common species of pest found inside a house have over 30 legs.

In contrast to this, silverfish only have 6 legs. Now you might be thinking, how can anyone confuse between these two. However, female centipedes’ last legs are noted to extend to the rear of their body.

Coming back to silverfish, their rear legs are quite similar to centipede’s, extending behind their body.  It is not much about the legs of silverfish, but they have shorter legs as compared to ones of centipede and they are usually silver or grey (matching their body color).

On the other hand, centipedes are seen to have dark bands around their legs. Plus, their legs are fashioned through the length of their body. While silverfish have 3 appendages similar to legs that extend from their abdomen. These mainly serve sensory purposes and should not be mistaken for legs.

Body shape

After legs, comes the body. Taking note of an insect’s body can help you differentiate between them easily. First and foremost, the thing to notice is the color and size of a said insect.

The House centipede is brown and yellowish with dark bands along the torso running vertically. Silverfish, on the other hand, are grey or silver as suggested by their name. On some rare occasions, silverfish can be seen with brown bodies, but that is quite uncommon.

Unlike, centipede, silverfish do not have a dark band. Plus, they have horizontally fashioned body segmentation.  As far as size is concerned, the house centipede is quite large as compared to silverfish. As such, it grows up to 6 inches in length while a sliver fish is only about 1 inch.      

True to their name, silverfish have a fish-like body that is soft to touch. On the other hand, the centipede has elongated, tube-like bodies with one pair of legs on each segment.  Moreover, both centipede and silverfish have the antenna on their head, but the ones on house centipede are longer and thinner.

Will it bite you?

By the look of things, it seems like both of these creatures i.e. centipede and silverfish can bite, and that too quite badly. However, things are not always how they look. In reality, only one of these pests can bite you and that is “centipede”. This might be one of the reasons why people want to get rid of centipedes.

After all, the centipede is the creeper of the bunch. But there is good news for you. Even if you get bitten by the centipede “house centipede” to be specific, you won’t end up in ER (emergency room). Yeah, it won’t kill you but on your bad day, it can be as painful as a bees sting.

Though centipede bite does pack a little bit of venom, it’s not lethal for humans. However, some people have an allergic reaction to the centipede’s bite but it is quite rare. Even if you do fall in this rare category, you will only experience mild symptoms and it won’t kill you.

So, no you are not at risk of being killed by a centipede bite. Let’s just, being on the receiving end of the bite is more of a mental shock than it is physical. Because let’s be real, no one wants to get bitten by a creature with 100 legs even if it’s not lethal.

As far as silverfish is concerned, they are more into gnawing items around the house and not people. They don’t even bite any sort of living being and are especially afraid of people.

What do they eat?

Now that we know they don’t eat humans, let’s see what they feed on. Centipedes are known for eating other smaller insects. They mostly feed on termites, spiders, roaches, bed bugs, and so on. 

Thus, if your house has centipedes roaming around there are a lot of other insects too. And if you have a whole centipede infestation, then you know how bad the situation is.

Silverfish maintaining its distance is quite different from a centipede, and have quite a unique diet. This silver insect is known for eating paper, sugars, crumbs, natural fibers, carbs, etc. You will be shocked to learn silverfish are cannibals! Yes, they are known for eating each other.

Due to the bizarre eating habit of silverfish, it is quite likely that you will notice their infestation before centipede.

Suffering from infestation? Try this

Be it centipede or silverfish, both of these pests can be huge headaches. This is the reason why you should call a pest control service for silverfish extermination. And guess what? We have just the right pest control service for you. Control My pest is one of the leading pest control service providers in the USA. Moreover, they provide all of their services at quite an affordable rate. Control My Pest is an IPM compliant too. This is the best pest control service you can ask for. So if you want to get rid of centipedes. Call control my pest today and get top-quality services at your doorstep.