Silverfish, Earwigs, Centipedes and Millipedes in Georgia
By Mark Sargent, President of High Priority Pest Services · Updated October 7, 2026
These four get lumped together as “occasional invaders,” which is accurate but not very useful. The more useful framing is that all four are moisture insects. They do not want to be in your house, they cannot survive there long, and finding them regularly indoors tells you something specific: there is more water around or under the structure than there should be.
That makes them worth paying attention to even though none of them will hurt you. They are the smoke, not the fire.
What You Are Looking At
- Silverfish. Teardrop-shaped, metallic gray, three long tail filaments, moves in a wriggling darting motion. Needs high humidity. Eats starches — book bindings, wallpaper paste, cardboard, stored paper, dry pantry goods.
- Earwigs. Flat, reddish-brown, with obvious pincers at the rear. The pincers are for defense and for handling prey; they are not a threat to you.
- House centipedes. Long-legged, fast, unsettling. Predators — they eat other insects, including roaches and silverfish. One centipede is one thing; a lot of centipedes means there is plenty for them to eat.
- Millipedes. Slow, cylindrical, curl into a spiral when disturbed. Feed on decaying plant matter outdoors and migrate in large numbers after heavy rain.
Two Myths Worth Retiring
Earwigs do not crawl into ears and do not burrow into brains. The name is centuries old and the story attached to it is folklore. They are a garden insect that got a bad reputation.
House centipedes are not venomous to people in any meaningful sense. They can technically bite if handled roughly, and it is comparable to a bee sting at worst, but they are among the least dangerous things you will find in a Georgia house — and they are actively eating pests you like less.
Why They Are in the House
The route in is almost always ground level and damp. Crawlspace vents and unsealed crawlspace access. The gap under a garage door with a worn sweep. Sill plates and the joint where siding meets foundation. Basement window wells. Around plumbing and utility penetrations. Sump pits.
The conditions that put them there are just as consistent: a crawlspace with a failed or missing vapor barrier over damp soil, downspouts that discharge against the foundation, mulch piled thick and deep against the wall, dense ground cover and ivy right up to the siding, an air conditioning condensate line draining beside the footing, or a bathroom with no working exhaust fan.
Millipedes are the seasonal exception. After a stretch of heavy rain, or during a sudden dry spell following a wet period, they move in numbers and end up in garages and along baseboards. That migration is weather, not a failure of your house, and it passes.
Why Spraying Baseboards Does Not Fix It
You can kill every silverfish you see and have the same number next month, because the population is living in the crawlspace and the wall voids where the humidity suits them. Treating the interior surfaces where you happen to spot one is treating the symptom furthest from the cause.
The fix is drying the structure out and closing the ground-level gaps. That is unglamorous work — regrading a downspout, replacing a vapor barrier, adjusting a garage door sweep, pulling mulch back off the siding — and it is what actually holds. Treatment supports it; it does not replace it.
What We Do About Them
We inspect the crawlspace and the ground around the structure first, because that is where the answer usually is, and we will tell you what we find even when the fix is a gutter rather than a treatment. Ongoing control is handled under the Priority Pest Management Plan, which treats the exterior perimeter, crawlspace and entry points on a schedule rather than chasing individual insects indoors.
Because centipedes are predators, a rise in centipedes is worth a closer look at what else is present — often roaches or a general moisture-driven insect population that has been building quietly.
If pests return between scheduled visits, so do we, at no extra charge. We are licensed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and serve central and eastern Georgia.
Finding Them Regularly?
Call or text High Priority Pest Services at (470) 474-2847. Tell us what you are seeing and where, and we will tell you what is likely driving it. Service is available within 24 hours, and our work is backed by the High Priority Promise: if pests return between scheduled visits, so do we, at no extra charge.
Schedule Pest Service
Tell us what you’re seeing and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours. Office hours are Mon–Sun, 8AM–6PM — and we’re available 24/7 for urgent problems, so call (470) 474-2847 if it can’t wait.
Where we treat this
High Priority treats this pest across the Lake Country, including Eatonton, Lake Oconee, Greensboro, Madison and Milledgeville. See all areas we serve, our current prices and the Georgia pest calendar.