Centipedes in kitchen sink

I think they are fairly seasonal in damp basements, especially. I would try perimiter spray for insects to try to remove the food source. Dehumidifier? Is there a sump pit in the building? That is a great hangout forr centipedes.

No sump pit. Dehumidifier is a real possibility, since it will also heat the cold apartment. The apartment is cold because the thermostat for the a/c is located in the apartment above, which is much warmer because of numerous large windows.

I'm just amazed that it seems that the 'pedes can climb vertically from the floor, up the doors below the sink, and into the sink.

No, I expect they're crawling up your sink's drain piping.

Even if you don't have a sump pit or basement, depending on where you live, your building can be serviced by separate storm and sanitary sewers, or a combined sewer. Centipedes and other insects can crawl up through the drain pipes and end up in your kitchen sink, laundry room sink or bathrub.

I would collect a few 5 gallon pails and fill them full of water. Dump them in your kitchen drain (and probably all your other drains too) as fast as possible without spilling water all over the floor. Hopefully, that'll wash any bugs in the smaller drain piping within your building back into the city sewer system.

Alternatively, maybe fill the sinks with water before pulling the plugs and then pour the 5 gallon pails in to maintain maximum water flow through the drain piping to wash the bugs away.

I'd suggest leaving something like bleach or oven cleaner in your p-trap to provide a more lethal barrier to the bugs, but every time you drain water down your sink, that bleach or oven cleaner is going to get washed away. And, if you have metal traps under your kitchen sink, it could cause them to corrode.

Didn't you say, "Before going to bed, she plugs both drains with standard stoppers (so they can't be coming upwards from below the drains) and dries both bowls"? Are they pushing the stoppers out? :-)

Disregard the above comment. Senior moment!

That's exactly what she does. And the stoppers are in place in the morning. She just told me that if she fills the sinks with water, the water stays in them "forever." In other words, there are not small openings in the stoppers big enough for a 'pede to crawl up through.

She's tried close to what you suggested, pouring large amounts of water down the drain followed by bleach. No success. She can fill the stoppered sinks with water and it stays in the sinks. In other words, no tiny openings for the water to drain out and the bugs to crawl up through. She's tried spraying the drains with a bug killer and then covering them.

She's also has sprayed the window frames (all three windows, not just the one above the sink), and baseboards. I was only half-way jesting when I suggested aiming a security camera at the sink and watching how they approach.

I'd say it's safe to conclude that the centipedes are not coming up the drain.

Look for some other way they are getting in.

Also, if possible, wake up in the middle of the night, walk into the kitchen and turn the lights on. If you find a few trapped in the sink, there might be a lot more around than the ones you see.

Yeah, my reading comprehension is going the way of my short term memory loss. :-)

Ants can do it and they have only 6 legs. Should it be 1/16th as hard for a centipede?

Seems to me, I've seen centipedes zip along on the underside of various objects. Vertical is nothing for them. Of course that depends on the surface. They might get stuck in sinks, but I'd be surprised if they did.

They usually fall into basins and can't get out. Must be a lot of other bugs around.

Greg

I don't know if this will help (probably not) but I'll tell you a story about a similar "garden apartment" that I lived in. The floor was below ground level, putting the windows just a few inches off of the ground outside.

I would see an occasional ant in the kitchen, but nothing serious...until one night. One corner of the kitchen was made up of 2 windows. My kitchen table was in that corner. One night I walked into the dark kitchen and it looked like the kitchen table was moving. I flipped on the light and saw that there were literally hundreds of ants almost completely covering the top of the table. I spent some time sweeping them into the garbage can with a sponge. I was pretty grossed out.

I found that the curtains were touching the window sill and the table was up against the curtains. They were using the curtains as kind of a bridge from the sill to the table. When the sun came up I went outside to see if I could see what was going on, but it was not apparent where they were coming in. The maintenance guys sprayed the exterior and the problem went back to the occasional ant sighting.

Oh yeah, for the rest of the time I lived in the apartment I kept the kitchen table a couple of inches away from the curtains.

Generally you don't see hundreds of ants... unless there were crumbs left on the table.

Don.

gen·er·al·ly adv.

1. a. As a rule; usually b. For the most part

1. Without reference to particular instances or details; not specifically

I love your logic. However, Wikipedia says they can have anywhere from under 20 to over 300 legs.

I'll try that next time I sleep over. She would be too freaked out at the possibility of finding many of them in the middle of the night. She's irrational about bugs. A few weeks ago we were sitting on a bench at the seashore, and a ladybug landed on her thigh, which was covered by her jeans. She couldn't brush it off. I had to.

We've got them by the busload and they do indeed get trapped in sinks and bathtubs and despite their many legs, cannot crawl out. I believe that they just can't get a good hold on porcelain or similar materials. It's a case of "I've fallen and I can't get up!" That's what makes people think they are coming up from the drain but that's not the case. A shot of very hot water kills them instantly and dismembers them, too, so for a few seconds there are dozens of unattached legs skittering about.

I've trained my Jack Russell to catch them and she does a damn good job. Apparently they emit either an odor or a sound that she can smell or hear because she often bolts upright in the bed in the middle of the night, jumps down and nails one cold. She sucks the legs off but leaves the body intact which she then rolls in. (Yuk!) First animal I ever had that earned its keep! Since she gets a slice of salami for every kill, she's become vigilant about policing all the dark, dank areas of the house looking for 'pedes.

Good grief, dump her. No telling what other psychosis may emerge if the relationship continues.