As October temperatures drop and the ground cools, many Nottinghamshire households start noticing fast-moving, many-legged visitors in sinks, bathtubs and skirting boards. In the villages along the Trent Valley and out towards the Vale of Belvoir, this is centipede and millipede season, and it genuinely does spike this time of year.
Two very different creatures, often confused
House centipedes (and the larger garden centipedes often found under logs and stones) are fast, flattened, and have long legs trailing behind them. They are predators, feeding on spiders, silverfish and insect larvae, so a few around the house are actually doing some good. Larger species can deliver a mild nip if handled, but they pose no serious risk.
Millipedes are the slower, rounder cousins, with far more legs moving in a wave along their body. They feed on decaying plant matter, not on your home or your food, but in a bad autumn they can migrate indoors in genuinely large numbers, squeezing under doors and through airbrick gaps. They do not bite, but they can release a faint odour and leave a mark if crushed on carpets or bedding.
Why these areas see it badly
Radcliffe on Trent, Cotgrave and Keyworth sit close to the Trent Valley and the Grantham Canal, where damp ground, leaf litter and older stone or solid-wall cottages give both species plenty of cover right up to the house wall. Bingham and Whatton border the arable land of the Vale of Belvoir, where field margins, hedgerows and log stores support large populations that head for the nearest warm, dry building once the fields are harvested and the weather turns.
What draws them indoors
- Log piles, compost heaps or leaf piles stacked against an outside wall
- Damp airbricks, unsealed cable or pipe entry points, and gaps under external doors
- Overgrown ivy or dense ground cover touching the brickwork
- Guttering or downpipes that are overflowing and keeping one section of wall permanently damp
Simple steps that make a real difference
Moving log stores, compost and leaf piles even half a metre away from the house wall removes most of the cover these pests rely on to approach unseen. A £5 brush strip or door sweep on external doors, particularly older cottage doors with a visible gap, closes off the most common entry point. Clearing gutters before the autumn rains keeps walls drier, which matters because both centipedes and millipedes are drawn to damp far more than to warmth alone. Where airbricks are the entry point, a simple vent mesh keeps air moving through the underfloor void without leaving an open gap.
When it is worth calling a professional
Most of what we have described above is manageable with half an hour of garden tidying. It is worth getting a proper inspection when millipedes are appearing in genuinely large numbers over several nights rather than the odd one or two, when they keep returning despite sealing the obvious gaps, or when an older solid-wall property has damp patches that a DIY fix has not resolved. In that situation the underlying damp or an unseen entry point usually needs identifying properly rather than treating the symptom.
How NestBusters can help
We cover Radcliffe on Trent, Cotgrave, Keyworth, Bingham, Whatton and the surrounding villages, and our approach always starts with finding the actual entry point and damp source rather than just clearing what is visible on the day. For business premises nearby, our monthly inspection contracts (from £135 per quarter) keep this kind of seasonal pest pressure from building up unnoticed between visits.
If you are seeing more centipedes or millipedes than usual this autumn, give us a call on 0742 984 9483 or visit nottinghampest.co.uk to book an inspection.
