http://www.fluther.com/159669/do-you-know-anything-about-house-centipedes/

You asked this last May. That’s almost a year ago. Why not try a few hypnotherapy sessions?
They can’t hurt and may prevent other future hysterical outbursts that seem to be exhausting and debilitating.

You can easily trap one of these in a large glass tumbler with a piece of cardboard as a lid. Then you can take it outside and release it. I did that today with a very large spider. It crawled onto the twigs of my broom and I was able to gently set it down on the deck.

@gailcalled I know I asked about centipedes last May but now I’m asking if anyone has had hypnotherapy that could tell me if it worked or if they think it would be successful in treating my fears.

Try the hypnotherapy. It can certainly do no harm. Results usely are dependent on how compliant you are. I had one sessions for grief and found it benign but useful.

Here’s are two classic methods for dealing with fear of spiders, which is similar to fear of centipedes.

http://www.wikihow.com/Overcome-the-Fear-of-Spiders

Each method has six steps, each of which require energy, discipline and commitment on your part. If you can afford to see a therapist, so much the better. Call and make an appointment asap.

@gailcalled thank you I appreciate the help!

This is such a weird suggestion, but have you considered putting the feet of the bed into cans of alcohol or oil? Centipedes, or insects in general, can’t make it into your bed/bed sheets if you have all 4 posts immersed in fluid they can’t tolerate.
It isn’t a permanent solution, but it is a few good night’s sleep while you work towards a solution… I cannot imagine your fear. I hope you find peace.

Exposure therapy is usually what is recommended, I see @gailcalled gave some information. There are therapists who specialize in anxieties and phobias who are very familiar with exposure therapy, you might want to see one. It shouldn’t be months of therapy, that type of therapist should have a reasonable plan of several sessions and as long as you are committed to the process it should go (no guarantee) according to plan.

You can also try some hypnosis. My friend is a hypnotist and she sees good results with most people, not everyone. I have no idea if she does phobias though, she tends to work with food addiction and overcoming anxieties related to common life things.

I have successfully used hypno-therapy in the past, I recommend it. Some clinical psychologists are versed in this practice, and your state may have a licensing board that could supply referrals.

Good luck with this!

The household centipede is my least favorite bug. I freak out, but just a little. You should call an exterminator.

I’d try the hypnotherapy.

Putting the glue traps that are designed for mice along your baseboards under furniture will trap a lot of bugs.

Good luck! I looked up a picture of these critters but didn’t freak you out by posting it. The picture didn’t lower my blood pressure any!

I use @gailcalled ‘s method to catch spiders. Most insects can’t see glass, so you can pop a glass jar right over them without them reacting. Then you slip heavy paper/card under the mouth of the jar to keep them inside while you lift the whole assembly up. Now you can release them into an area of your choosing.

My girls are familiar with the method, but still scream when they see a spider. I have to capture them myself.

I don’t know if this helps you or not but I wouldn’t say that your fear or reaction is irrational. Insects are creepy to me too. However, if you want to try to eliminate a fear you could give hypnotherapy a try. I’m quite interested in it as a potential form of therapy as well… I don’t really think of what I’d use it for right now though. lol.

@gailcalled & @RocketGuy a glass dome with a knob (cheese or butter dish lid) is excellent for catch and release of small critters. I’ve used that for lizards in the house.

I’m a critter snob. I’ll kill spiders that look like a booger caught in 6 hairs in a heartbeat, but never a ground crawler. Household centipedes make me think of possessed dustballs and they are soundly stomped. I exorcise creepy pests, parole the rest.

@ibstubro: Thanks. I live, it seems, at least for now, in a lizard-free zone.

Spiders eat their weight’s worth of insects, including mosquitoes and cluster flies, which are a nuisance at this time of year. They neither bite nor sting, but they make a penetrating dive-bomber buzz if trapped in a bedroom at night with one lamp on. It’s usually the bedroom that I am in. Occasionally they doze in the clerestory ceiling and fall on me sometimes, out of the blue and out of the sky. So, Welcome, Spiders. Happy hour at 8:00 PM.

I once brought a praying mantis indoors just before the first freeze of fall, @gailcalled. I figured it was going to die anyway, and if it was able to find enough food to live indoors, more power to it!

Sadly, I found the petrified carcass on the curtain, years later. Mantis is my favorite insect. Once I went to the Butterfly House and the lobby exhibit was freaking roaches of the world. Yuck! The next exhibit was ‘Sticks and Mantises’ so I had to return a month later. Who could miss walking sticks and praying mantises?!

We have little blue-tailed lizards that come and go here. There was a year that they were in the house more than once. They’re welcome in, but I have found a dead one stuck to a mouse glue trap. (Thank the Gourd…I have no idea what I would have done had I found it stuck, alive.)

Roaches of the World? No, thank you.

WHAT were they thinking, @GloPro? lol

I can see the display in my head: ghetto roaches, restaurant roaches, pot roaches…

@ibstubro – wait till a cockroach runs over your foot! Those 6 pointy feet would feel really creepy on your skin! I’ve had that happen before.

I too am a critter snob – cockroaches, mosquitoes, and flies are toast. (I used to live in Thailand). Spiders and praying mantises are saved.

Did you catch my ‘cockroach crawling over the sushi at the Chinese buffet’ post of several weeks back, @RocketGuy? Disgusting. Rather my foot than my food.