House guest
Last night I went out to dinner with an old friend, and came home rather tired. On the way to my bedroom to get into some more comfortable clothes, I was startled when I encountered the following sight on the wall by the stairs:
One picture may be worth a thousand words, but in this case the photo doesn’t even begin to do the creature justice. It was big, and those legs were not only numerous but long.
This wasn’t the sort of bug I felt okay about squashing, any more than you would feel okay about squashing a rat. So I found myself escorting it outside in a cup, after taking its photo and looking it up through Google images and discovering it was none other than Scutigera coleoptrata, AKA the common house centipede.
Scuties (as I have come to call my visitor: they’re uncute, and they scoot) may indeed be common. But I’m happy to report that I’d never before had the pleasure of seeing one. Apparently they usually stay in the dank dark recesses of basements. How this one got in, and why it decided it was time to come out into the light and be seen, I do not know. But I do know that once such a creature makes that decision, it’s got to go.
Wiki indicates that the body of a scutie can reach two inches in length, and mine seemed at least that big. Their legs are described as “remarkably long,” and I can attest to that as well. What I cannot attest to, because mercifully I did not witness the scutie in motion (it had seemed asleep until trapped in the cup) is their speed: they reach “surprising speeds” of up to 16 inches per second.
However, I learned that scuties are actually rather useful beasts, as beasties go, despite their ghastly appearance:
House centipedes feed on spiders, bedbugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish, ants, and other household arthropods.
And while that certainly is an attractive prospect, the house centipede itself is not.
Come on now- I can’t be the only rat squasher who visits this site!
OH BOY! SCUTIE RACES!!!
Those things are really common in the south east US. We used to try and eradicate them but after knowing what they eat we just leave them alone.
We have noticed a decide drop in other bugs around the house (also a bad area for them, not much you can do about it).
We usually see them in the bathtub or bathroom sink.
I use the drinking glass and junk mail method to evict wasps and other creepy crawlies, so I understand why you did something similar with the scutie.
Have you considered using a leash? Given its size, you may want to get it back because (shudder) it appears to be eating well.
Nothing will freak my children out faster than the sight of a centipede in the house!
It’s truly a frightful looking creature.
Now that I know they are useful, I feel guilty about all of those who met their demise in our bathtubs.
When I lived in East Boston, Mass., many years ago, these critters were unbelievably prevalent. I can remember watching TV at night and seeing them looming just beyond my range of clear vision — ugh, ugh, ugh. They apparently like to eat the crumbling mortar in brick, or something, and so one tends to find them in old brick buildings. I had them as roomies when I lived in Maryland, as well. I don’t care how beneficial they may be, it’s terrifying to encounter them.
Ah, neo, when gas prices go up again you might consider slapping a saddle on that bugger!
I would rather have two of those than one big wolf spider….
Gross, puts my little earwig encounters to shame.
You’re a gentler soul than I am, Neo. My building in Queens (constr. 1932) is very nice and, THANK GOD, roach-free. But we do get some of those centipede sonsofbitches now and then, and for them I have a strict KILL ON SIGHT policy.
A mouse I’d do my best to dump outside. (Thankfully I’ve never found one in my apt.) Ditto a ladybug or a butterfly. But any other insect that invades my space is as good as dead. No mercy!
Reminds me of the flying squirrel that lived in an attic of my childhood home. ( house had three sections built over 200 + years, w three separate attics)
At least they aren’t cockroaches or fire ants!
Eeeeew, Eeeeeew, EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!! I hate those things with a passion!!! Unfortunately, I’ve been seeing them all my life — living in the Midwest, where they seem to thrive — and I’ve never gotten over my extreme hatred for those ugly and VERY FAST creatures. That’s the creepiest thing about them: when they start moving, they can be ANYWHERE before you have a chance to get ’em.
But get ’em, I do. With a shoe. Hard.
Shuudddder.
But at least they’re not scorpions, which Jen at Conversion Diary can tell you all about.
Oh, and she can also tell you about a centipede that looks like this, Lord have mercy!
saveliberty:
Thank you for a reason to save at least one piece of junk mail. I was wondering how neo kept it in the cup, but she’s courageous.
I, too, use the cup/junk mail method, but not exclusively. A few days ago I was having lunch with a friend in a restaurant where the outside door was open because the day was warm and beautiful. We were seated right by the door and we saw several not-so-beautiful yellow jackets buzzing from the potted plants outside into the restaurant. One of them buzzed over to us. I used the modified cup/junk mail method (candle/menu) to carry it outside and let it go on the sidewalk. It ungratefully followed me straight back in and right back to our table. As it turns out, menus also make good swatters.
You sure you live in NYC? At any rate, they’re predaceous, so not bad to have around.
About a month ago, I was finishing some yard work when I entered the bathroom to wash my hands. As soon as I started the faucet, I found the many eyes and antennae of a six inch long centipede staring up at me from the inner rim of the washbowl. Letting out a hearty (read: girlish) shriek, I drew my sword (in this case, a Swiss Army Knife) and hastily cut it to twitching pieces. Upon seeing that the foe was still alive, I grimly swept it away with hot water, then declared to my neighbors that I had gained twenty experience points. Of course, considering these same neighbors had seen flaming toasters and shoes being thrown out the back door during the same year, I’m not so sure that they were surprised at this declaration. Since that dreadful battle, I’ve made sure to never let my guard down while using the sink.
-G
We have a different species here in the Southwest. They grow up to eight inches and can pack quite a lot of pain-ifying venom into their bite; no real damage, only a nasty experience. For this reason we do not allow invaders to survive; the wolf spiders and windscorpions take care of our arthopodal predation needs.
They’re also incredibly tough little bastards and more than slightly unnerving when on the move. After a few pitched battles a pair of needle-nosed pliers and a garbage disposal has become our method of choice for resolving the confrontation.
jpe: no, I was born in NYC. I don’t live there any more.
We have a different species here in CA.
The bloodsucking Democrat..
LabRat, why did I immediately thought about you when read this post?
Maybe because of almost inhuman calm and resolve and scientific interest while dealing with the monster (which I’m sure would be incapable of) , displayed by Neo?
In any case, for some reason your Cooking Sessions came to mind…very meticulous.
[as to the subject – yeeewwww!]
I found two of these out in my garage last year except one was on top of the other. I pulled up a bucket to sit on and musta had two beers watching them. I wasn’t impressed with scutie sex.
Neo:
Neo, can we trade houses? NOW? Please?
I’m afraid I’m all too familiar with them, and have been for years. I’m definitely in the KILL ON SIGHT camp. My instinctual reaction upon seeing one is roughly similar to “A mom” above.
I don’t have a basement, and I mostly see them on the lowest level of the house. However, after many years of seeing them and noting that they often appear near the forced-air heating ducts, I am absolutely convinced that they use the ducts as a subway system. Thus, they can appear in any room in the house. I’ve had them in my bedroom. So far, I haven’t seen one in my bed, and yes, I do check before I climb in. Every time.
I think the reason why many people see them in sinks and tubs is that they wander into them and get trapped, unable to climb out because of the slippery sides. I don’t see them very often in those places, probably because my radar has become so finely tuned that I scan the walls and baseboards every time I enter a dark room. In other words, I usually find them before they end up in the tub.
I don’t use junk mail, but I have an empty jar and small piece of cardboard in every room of my house in order to catch and release bugs, including the occasional wolf spider. But I don’t use them on centipedes. I also keep a flyswatter in every room of the house. Those are for the centipedes.
A few years ago at Fort Hood, Texas , my battalion commander got stung on the neck by a one. Possibly the variety labrat talked about. The colonel was complaining about the stinging. Apparently it was pretty bad.
If you have the stomach for it, check out this link:
http://www.damninteresting.com/giant-carnivorous-centipedes
They live in caves in the Amazon. With any luck, they’ll stay there.
If you suffer from narcolepsy, the video of one killing a bat will cure it for sure.
Now why did you force us to look at that? Why? WHY!!?
be glad you live in the US, a regular eden compared to places people call exotic paradises. truth is paradise is trying to kill you. 🙂
the one you got is completely harmless…
in indonesia they can grow as large as nearly a foot long (and the first two legs actually carry poison)
http://www.szepseg.com/uploaded_images/giant-centipede-707354.jpg
newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41069000/jpg/_41069480_centipede_pa_ok2.jpg
I went hiking in the forests in the mountains… big insects, lots… poisonous snakes, huge spiders…
yup… in paradise your on the menu
We have the big mouse-eating centipedes here in NM.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/29161
They are terrifying. When you surprise one in the bathroom in the middle of the night, you will find out what you are made of.
Then you will wonder how you shared the house with something that big.
“The strip coal mine has also yielded fossils of two rare arachnids, a giant centipede-like insect measuring about 60 inches long (150 centimeters) and 12 inches wide (30 centimeters), and a new genus and species of gerarid insect. ”
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/11/1112_TVbigroach.html
You’re gonna need a bigger gun….
Heh:
“Gerarid insect”: A big literary bug that lives on a houseboat near Seattle.
Somebody, maybe it was PJ O’Rourke, once described “idyllic nature” as the place where everything stings, bites, and lays eggs under your toenails. I’m a city boy and proud of it.
As Artfldgr mentioned, we have these foot-long beauties in SE Asia, and they are seriously uncute. I saw a six-incher on the doorstep of my office one day, and dispatched it with my briefcase. It was a messy cleanup, but worth it. A friend of mine in Thailand had a more unfortunate encounter with one of the bigger models, and said it was the most painful experience he’d ever had. This from a guy who’d also been bitten by spiders and poisonous snakes (I’ve told him he spends a bit too much time in the “great outdoors” and needs to hang around the city more).
“Uncontrollable running away and screaming.” Ya think?
So THAT’s what it was!
FYI mine was 3″.
And there was no way it was spending the night with me even had I known its diet so it ended up adorning the sole of my slipper. I like your name for it. Mine was Snatcherbody.
Answer to Vanderleun’s question, “Now why did you force us to look at that? Why? WHY!!?”
So that we could have something other than Teh Won to look at.
As for scuties, my cats generally get to ’em before they have a chance to grow that big.
Shouldn’t that be on the endangered species list? Moving it outside has probably set off a chain reaction which will no doubt accelerate global warming…
PA Cat:
From my experience, kittens will enthusiastically pursue and kill them, but older cats will usually just lay there and watch them run by.
My apartment is full of these things. I found one scurrying across my pillow the other day (luckily, I wasn’t actually in bed at the time).
Fun fact: After you kill them, their legs keep moving for a few more seconds!
Actually, they’re rather good fried up in a slightly sweet egg batter. They taste like chicken.
Years ago I spent some time in rural Korea. Where I lived, the houses had heated floors covered with matting, and shoes and boots were never worn inside, but left by the outside door. You padded around on the toasty matting in your socks and sat on cushions on the floor. Beds were futons, warmed through by the floor beneath and covered with silky comforters. The coziness of all this, however, was undermined by the warning I got as soon as I arrived: if you’re going outside, never just put on your shoes! Shake them out first. There could be a centipede inside: not just any old centipede, but a giant, with an agonizing, dangerous bite. Also, don’t just slide into that bed — always, always pull back the covers first and check the sheets for monster bugs.
The descriptions of bug size and bite pain were so graphic that I spent a significant part of the rest of my stay checking and re-checking shoes, boots, and bed. Oh, and gloves. And coat pockets. And I don’t want to remember where else. Bedtime was the worst. I’d inspect every inch of the bed, do it again, climb in, fall half asleep, then come bolt upright, leap out and do it one more time — after all, if a centipede can slither in when you aren’t in the bed, why wouldn’t it do it when you are?
As things turned out, I never saw one, though decades later, back home in the nice safe Northeast US, I’ll still catch myself sometimes shaking out my boots. But this comment thread made me wonder just how big those Korean centipedes really were. I did some Googling, and lo and behold . . . I am gladder than ever that I did not see one close up. This is worth watching if only for one of the calmest and most cold-blooded applications of the cup removal technique you will ever see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeFhaVdWy5A
Funny you should mention Korea and centipedes, Mrs. W. In the old days when Korea still had a monarchy, the favored way to execute condemned prisoners was to have them drink a poison made from boiled centipedes. It was apparently a truly horrible way to meet one’s end. Now aren’t you even more glad you never saw one scurrying across your ondol-heated floors?
by the way walt… such things dont bother me at all, but given in know how insulated most americans are, i kind of laugh at their limited view of how people actually live (with elite dems being the worst for thinking one could just look and know whats going on!)
personally during my hike my biggest worry was to bump into an orangutan with a mating territorial fetish. the place i started out was my wifes sisters place, and i had already located droppings. (not much else can be on top of a wall spiked with broken glass and leave that much. since the fruits on the farm are left to rot most times, guess what they come to the property for)
tiny monkees, like howlers i wouldnt have a problem with (though their peeing is anoying).
orgutans are brachial primates, and even though they have these thin long arms, their muscle strength is incredible given the appearance (bench pressing 600).
my son chose to stay at the house. but i dont blame him given that where we were if there was a serious accident, help was not going to come the way it does here in the US.
he was braver at bromo volcano. we didnt take the tourist trek, we came at it from the other side and went to the rim of the vent at the center of the caldera. incredible sunrise (yes, this was a trek in the dark to catch sunrise), beautiful temple (i think was used in one of those indiana jones type movies as a image of a destination), and the whole area was like the moon.
i said to him that this was his last choice. this is not a 100% safe journey we are taking. we are going to the rim of an active vent, sulfer gas making sulfuric acid in your eyes and lungs… i said the reason that its all grey is two years ago (at the time we were there), the vent decided to burp and it buried this grey area, and killed the people at the vent. i also warned him to stay closer to the rails, no clowning around. there is nothing to stop you from ending up going down the outer face.
it all turned out very well. beautiful sunrise, wind was mostly in our favor so we didnt soffocate too much… my poor horse though. now that i am an adult seeing a picture of me on a regular horse is a sad thing. seeing me on one of the smaller indonesian ones was sadder. about half the way back i had to dismount (my choice) since it really was not good for the horse. the guy we rented from would not have stopped it.
i am sending an image of it to neo this morning (hopefully i can find it) along with some images of very large spiders (that can catch birds), and some insects. i have to remove a bit of the EXIF info…
i really want to go back, and in a way obama is not helping that.
i am very lucky in that i have a personality that integrates well with the outer world.. Its the internal people who have broken with reality i tend not to get along with. so when i leave the city and go to the country, my wife and i being mixed get LESS BS than in the city… and when we go deep country, like indonesia, we are treated like celebrities.
heck.. i could probably live in indonesia just by walking around and accepting invites from people for dinner. 🙂
strangers stopped to invite me and my son to their home for some eat and good conversation.
one thing i am glad of…
i was born early enough to taste all these things before they take them away from us…
I almost always escorting “them” outside in a cup. Whether it’s spider, beetle, or other many legged bugaboo, I just can bring myself to kill innocent things, just a personal ideo. Over the past several months I have been macheting a bike trail though some dense nearby woods and have run into a few snakes and banana spiders in the face. There are few things more primordial than a bellowing roar from such frights — but afterwards, it’s kinda nice — something deep inside congratulates me, “You survived! ……….dumbass.” 😀
AAAUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!! KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT!!!!!!!!
My method goes like this:
1) Scream
2) Spray with insect killer (if handy)
2a) If no spray killer, smack hard with shoe
3) Wipe up body and various scattered legs with bleach-soaked paper towels (those legs travel FAR, dude)
4) Scrub hands
5) Cry
6) Drink glass of wine, whimpering.
Repeat as necessary (shudder)
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/10/state-local.html
Brainiacs…
The poor people in Washington and Oregon state…. wow…
Pingback:Not to be Outdone by Neo
Get ready to be visited and inspected…
seems the DOJ and such in preparation for the acceptance of the hate crimes bill, will be targeting the conservatives and blogs that dont carry the party line.
peta people will not be considered violent haters, nor will the black panters, the black natinoal socialists, even the militant groups that have tried to kill researchers who work with animals.
nope. what will be hated will be the designated groups, and so like in germany it will be the people pitted against the people who will create the end result.
Amendments to H.R. 2647 allow the Attorney General to designate anyone as a hate group. You read that right — anyone. It also allows the Federal Government to introduce evidence that if you are blogging or participating in an online discussion at a webpage with an arguably racist agenda, then you can be deemed a hate group.
like in russia, owning a wrong photograph, an old magazine, or conversing with others becomes a dangerous thing as one doesnt know if what one said is now illegal, or will be illegal later.
The Amendment states:
“(2) DEFINITION OF HATE GROUP.–In this subsection, the terms ‘group associated with hate-related violence’ or ‘hate group’ mean the following:
(G) Other groups or organizations that are determined by the Attorney General to be of a violent, extremist nature.”
And how can the Department of Justice prove you are affiliated with a hate group? Easy, just show what sort of “papers” you keep and where you blog or make comments online:
“(3) EVIDENCE OF ASSOCIATION OR AFFILATION WITH HATE GROUP.–The following shall constitute evidence that a person is associated or affiliated with a group associated with hate-related violence:
[] (C) Individuals known to be involved in online activities with a hate group, including being engaged in online discussion groups or blog or other postings that support, encourage, or affirm the group’s extremist or violent views and goals.
(D) Individuals who are known to have in their possession photographs, written testimonials (including diaries or journals), propaganda, or other materials indicating involvement or affiliation with a hate group. Such materials can include photographs, written materials relating to or referring to extreme hatred that are clearly not of an academic nature, possession of objects that venerate or glorify hateinspired violence, and related materials, as determined by the Attorney General.”
basically, if ya talk open and honest and your not with the admin, then your an oppressor, or part of such a group and its open season on you.
MANY conservative bloggers are finding DOJ ip numbers for a while. other bloggers get harrasedd by google. and still others get hit with waves of professional operatives whose job is to sway blogg content and argument (i know some who i have known at other locations and appear)
http://www.conservativeforchange.com/2009/10/eric-holder-targets-rightwing-bloggers.html
There are rumors floating around that the Department of Justice has hired a group of ex-democratic bloggers to troll the internet for websites that are critical to President Obama and post comments that demand support for his policies.
I can say that I have seen some troll activity on this site from lefties, but I didn’t think anything of the situation…until now!
http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/15/real_estate/foreclosure_crisis_deepens/?postversion=2009101507
Vermont is catching up
Fluffies! Wow, that brought out the lurkers.
Well, we’re sunk now. Given the hatred, fear, use of ethnic slurs (scutie, snatcherbody) death threats, and even graphic descriptions of actual hate-inspired violence and murder perpetrated against arthropods described on this thread, everybody who has commented here is clearly associated or affiliated with a hate group. Don’t tell the Department of Justice.
I hate them suckers.
Kill, kill, kill.
The centipedes, not necessarily the Attorney General henchmen.
Lots of hate speech on this thread.
Insects don’t really bother me that much. I’ll catch and release most solitary harmless insects I find inside the house. The cats usually take care of flies and moths. Luckily, I’m not infested with ants, cockroaches, or termites. If I were, I’d either spray them myself or call an exterminator. But it’s nothing personal. I don’t dislike those insects; I just can’t have them establishing colonies in the house. The same goes for wasps building a nest under the eaves of my house.
I’ve always been afraid of spiders and used to kill them when I saw them in the house. I now realize that they’re very cool creatures, even though I still don’t want them near me. They still creep me out, but now I employ the catch-and-release method for them.
But centipedes? No way. KILL.ON.SIGHT.
So there you have it. I’m guilty of “legism”. Which way to the re-education camp?
I just had to go back and watch the centipede kill and strip the mouse. Breughel never envisioned such a scene.
The juxtaposition of the furry white mouse with the shiny, smooth carapace, covered with jewels of water, is fascinating and repellent. That thing was so out of place in the mouse’s world that the mouse didn’t even recognize it as a threat initially.
I enjoy the cold, profoundly unmammalian way the centipede sprung on the mouse and enveloped it. It makes something in the human mammal brain scream: “Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!” like a claxon.
In my professional field, I am starting to study autonomous target engagement. That’s a euphemism for “machines killing humans” because we really don’t want to deal with the idea, but we do want the capability.
Everyone thinks it will be like “Terminator”, but why give a machine human bipedal weaknesses and human drawbacks? Why would a machine need projectiles to kill humans? Why would a machine kill a human like a human kills a human?
I’ve seen these in my NYC apartment! Now that I know they feast on bedbugs, roaches, ants, and silverfish, I will give them the Red Carpet Treatment. Very useful little beasties to have around!
In my professional field, I am starting to study autonomous target engagement. That’s a euphemism for “machines killing humans” because we really don’t want to deal with the idea, but we do want the capability.
then i hope this helps 🙂
Edge detection crucial to eyesight
http://www.physorg.com/print174147986.html
check technology transfer, they have a lot deep down that they want to license from prior successes (ie target identification and tracking).
enjoy!
You know, if you don’t crush these scuties they come back home like Lassie, wagging their antennae before them.
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