Bug. Big bug.

[jbsegal]

Bug. Big bug.,
originally uploaded by JBSegal.

What the hell WAS this? (Other than about 3" long, head to rear legs, maybe 4" counting the antennae.)

NOW it's a memory and a splotch on the wall...

Comments

[drglam]

That's a centipede.

They taste really nasty.

[ivorjawa.livejournal.com]

Specifically, it's a house centipede. I had them in Minneapolis. I obliterated them upon seeing them, but compared to regular centipedes, they're Mostly Harmless.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Thanks for the link.

I've generally killed them on the shakey grounds of "my buddist principles stop at 8 legs," even tough I figured it was completely arbitrary and unreasonable of me. But now that I know that "house centipedes feed on spiders, bedbugs, termites, cockroaches, silverfish and other household pests," I'll be compelled to let them live, even though I now also know that they BITE... WTF?!!? I had no idea that they could BITE!

[thespian.livejournal.com]

as far as I know, my roommate hasn't ever actually *tasted* one, I believe she has just seen cats do so.

I hope.

[drglam]

Well, that takes the fun out of waiting for someone to ask, horrified, how I know that...

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Millipede of some description. I used to get them all the time in Kriss' & my place in JP. Freaked me the hell out every single time.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Pardon me, centipede, not millipede:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_centipede

[kjc007.livejournal.com]

*shudder*

I hate those things.

But I try REALLY HARD not to kill them cuz they kill and eat a whole pile of yuckier bugs. And they do no damage to people or the house in and of themselves, although they are capable of stinging humans.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

Ew.. centipede, I had one in my bathroom the other day. Not much in the line of bugs squick my but I couldn't bring myself to touch it to kill it, It crawled back into the crack between the floor and the wall before I could get G to kill it.

[blk]

What everybody else said, house centipede. I hate the things, although supposedly they're not really bad bugs. My cat eats them. I have no problem with this as it saves me from squishing them myself, and she doesn't leave any legs behind.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

apparently, they only came to this part of the country in the very late 1800's or so. a factoid i thought would be awesome backstory for a freaky centipede-elder-god-worshipping old style new england horror story. the sort of thing stephen king might've written 25+ years ago.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I found a funny website about those a while back when I found some in our basement following a lot of rain:
http://www.math.umd.edu/~schris/scutigera.shtml

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

*squick*

That's a centipede. One of my least favorite bugs. *shudder*
Haven't seen them since I lived in Minneapolis.
*squick*

[emp42ress.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I love house centipedes. They're so cute.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

wow. just, wow.

[oonh.livejournal.com]

also: they eat cockroaches.

cat toy

[plaidsheep.livejournal.com]

The best kind too because they're FREE!

Had them in an apartment I once had in Bensenville, IL. The building was about 80 years old at the time, high ceilings, lots of old woodwork, lathe plaster walls. PLENTY of room for the little buggers to get good and cozy.

My (then) 2 cats (not the same cats I have now) would raise quite a ruckus trying to get to them. Evidently they do make an excellent cat snack.

Also true what others have said, they eat other bugs. If they're high up on the ceiling or on the wall, turn off the light and let them go about their business. If they're low on the wall and/or on the bedroom ceiling well... then its time for it to move along to the next incarnation.

Re: cat toy

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

My cat used to be partial to the grasshoppers that filled our basement when we lived in MD. She liked to go down there when it was dark and hunt them by sound. In the morning the basement would be filled with dead and half-dead grasshoppers all missing one back leg.

[atricilla.livejournal.com]

Thanks everybody for IDing that for me..I've never wondered enough to try & find out, I just find a way to shoo them outside. Yeah, I agree with the not wanting to touch them concept, though I'm generally not bothered by bugs. I don't touch spiders as I evict them either.

Emp42ress, you're not normal! :-)

Oh, yeah, and these guys dislike light..I usually find them as I turn the light on, and they scurry off under something.

[redjo.livejournal.com]

If that was at J&J's, I saw the same thing there last week, in the bathroom. I didn't have my glasses on at the time, so I almost had a heart attack when what I thought was a tangle of hair starting MOVING. *shudder* Good to know from other people's links that it's sort of beneficial.

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

I knew one person who called them "walking eyebrows". Very apt.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

I have a very visceral revulsion to the things, even though my brain says, "but house centipedes are mostly GOOD bugs." Yeah, right. They can go be good OUTSIDE!

Norman and I saw them for the first time when we moved to this house, and we were pretty freaked. I googled them and discovered that we were not being invaded by aliens or stalked by parasites or any of the other nasty ideas that their appearance conjures up. :-)