The Terminator/Exterminator

Last year, we moved into a basement apartment.
Before this move, I was fairly unfamiliar with the centipede.  (Only now do I know how fortunate I had been.)
They began appearing around springtime.  One here, one there.  And then they were everywhere.  I would freeze in fear - and watch the million-legged beasts run where they liked. 
As time went by, and the frequency of spottings increased (minimum one per day), I became bolder when confronted by these monsters.  Fearful screams turned to warrior yells.  After spotting one, no rest was had until I had done him in. 
That said, it never becomes easy to deal with centipedes in the home; I just got better at it.
I still timidly approached the shower each morning (they love to cling at the top of it) and checked the bedsheets each night.  I feared they would show up when I was in my most vulnerable state.  (And one night, Mike said he felt something on his face.  Enough said.)
There was also the frightful day I stepped up to the kitchen sink to wash my hands, and found two large centipedes spooning each other in the drain strainer.

The winter brought peace.

Spring looming, I began researching suggestions for warding off centipedes.  Websites confirmed that the basement is their favorite place in any home, and since the basement is my home...I wasn't feeling hopeful.  I decided a substance deemed Diatomaceous Earth was what I needed most.  I had its name on a post-it, carrying it around with me, but just never got around to picking it up.
In the meantime...spring came.....and went.....with an curiously low number of centipede spottings.

It took me months to figure out what was going on.

Then one morning, Bela was snuggled up with me when all of the sudden, she sprang out of bed! She ran across the floor, and Pow!, smacked her right paw on the hardwood.  A second later, Pow! - left paw!  And then she was silent.  I ran over to see what had occurred, and there it lay.  A dead centipede.  After that, I began noticing dried up bodies all over the house.
Yes, it appears that since spring arrived, Bela has been hard at work during the day.
While I am gone, she cleans up the house.

I recently discovered that she has various approaches to their disposal.
The other day, she gently picked one up in her mouth, drowned it with her saliva and then dropped it back on the floor.
"Good girl!", I exclaimed.  Good girl on two points: 1) She killed me a centipede! 2) She did not eat it!
I immediately ran to her treat cabinet and showered her with freeze-dried liver, oat biscuits and bacon strips.
She deserves it all!
Hell - she deserves a paycheck!  She has exterminated the basement!