For many Ohio homeowners, basements are quiet, out-of-the-way spaces. Storage boxes sit untouched for months. Laundry hums in the background. Pipes run behind walls, mostly unnoticed. Then one night, a long, fast-moving shape streaks across the floor or disappears behind a box. The reaction is almost always the same. Shock. Discomfort. And confusion about how it got there so suddenly.
Centipedes appearing in Ohio basements often feel like an invasion that happened overnight. One week there is nothing. The next, one or two appear without warning. Sometimes more follow. Because centipedes move quickly and look unusual, their presence feels more alarming than that of many other household pests.
In reality, centipedes do not arrive suddenly at random. Their appearance in basements follows clear environmental and biological patterns tied closely to Ohio’s climate, home construction, and seasonal changes. When those patterns line up, basements become one of the most attractive indoor spaces available…