The reason our air-conditioning is on.

I tend to be rather squeamish around bugs, even ones that I can easily kill like ants and crickets. You have to realize that I have sufficient reason for this squeamishness, though, as I spent my childhood in Virginia where there were ticks and gnats and my adolescent years in Arizona where there were scorpions and black widows. After saying that, Arizona sounds far more exotic than Virginia.

Now that live in Iowa, I have to deal with house centipedes.

Apparently, they are not harmful to humans, and even if their mandibles are strong enough to bite you, the bite isn't that bad and ends up being similar to a bee sting or spider bite. However, they happen to be a yellow-grey-brown color, a lot like scorpions are, and I grew up constantly watching where I stepped so I didn't step on a scorpion. I am now resuming that habit for these nasty, 15-legged predators.

One way to get rid of these things is by drying out your house, because they only really like to live in moist places. We try not to run our dehumidifier and air conditioning if we can help it, to save on bills and the environment, but in this case, I'd almost rather pay an extra $5 to not fear walking on my carpet.

Here's a picture. I hope my squeamish attitude makes sense now.