House centipedes have ninja-like powers of escape and evasion. The moment you go to squish one, they suddenly let go of whatever surface they happen to be clinging to and drop to the ground. This is why you never want to stand directly under one if it's on the ceiling.

The best thing you can do if you really want to take one out is to get it to fall into an open space and then hit it from above before it can scurry for covere.

Oddly enough, it takes just a few drops of water to incapacitate them, which …