UK man finds world's largest species of centipede in his apt

Oh....my....god....

And I thought the ones I had were bad..... I would move out, I swear it.

Damn! This sounds more like Australia, doesn't it?

Ewwww, oh yuk!!!!

<chills going up spine and hair standing up on end>

Probably make a nice meal with the right sauce.

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!

<runs away from intrepid>

Do you want the recipe, Montana?

To what state of cleanliness must one devolve in order to attract such a disgusting creature?

It gave me the hibbies.

Though house centipedes are found both indoors and outdoors it is the occasional one on the bathroom or bedroom wall, or the one accidentally trapped in the bathtub, sink, or lavatory that causes the most concern. However, these locations are not where they normally originate. Centipedes prefer to live in damp portions of basements, closets, bathrooms, unexcavated areas under the house and beneath the bark of firewood stored indoors. They do not come up through the drain pipes.

House centipedes feed on small insects, insect larvae, and on spiders. Thus they are beneficial, though most homeowners take a different point-of-view and consider them a nuisance. Technically, the house centipede could bite, but it is considered harmless to people.

House centipede control consists of drying up and cleaning, as much as possible, the areas that serve as habitat and food source for centipedes. Residual insecticides can be applied to usual hiding places such as crawl spaces, dark corners in basements, baseboard cracks and crevices, openings in concrete slabs, under shelves, around stored boxes, and so forth.

I was employed for a number of years in the French Department at the University of Illinois. We were in the Foreign Language Building, a relatively new building on the quadrangle, in the heart of the original campus. We were right next door to Davenport Hall, the home of the Agriculture Department. In days of old, the campus had been heated by a central steam plant, and there were "steam tunnels" under the quadrangle, built so that the steam lines could be serviced.

Some one in Ag got a permit to import Asian cockroaches. The common cockroach in the United States is the German cockroach, which, although possessed of wings, is not a good flyer, and almost never attempts the feat. Asian cockroaches, however, fly very well, and commonly live outdoors, where the German cockroach cannot survive. As anyone ought to have known was inevitable, the imported cockroaches eventually escaped the laboratory, and migrated through the steam tunnels.

The copying center for FLB and the computer center for the campus-wide PLATO computer system was in the basement. Many's the time i've gotten off the elevator to hear sounds of disgust, which rapidly turned into terrorized screams. A woman or some women would see one of these cockroachs (which run to three or four inches long) and, expressing contempt, try to drive them off or step on them. The bug would then fly at them. Once i witnessed the entire process--a secretary saw one of them, and tried to drive the insect off by kicking at it. Their instinctive response, if male, is to fly at the agressor (perhaps to distract them from offspring?). When this cockroach flew at her, she let out a blood-curdling scream, hiked her skirt up to her waist, and ran at truly amazing speed for the stairs. Quite a sight--and she was wearing lovely lace underwear, as well.

Ahh, to be a fly on the wall...

No, no, no thank you

Wow, when I posted this little baby, I had no idea anyone would be vaguely interested in it. It's kind of obscure.

It just goes to show you. I sure wouldn't want to find this guy in my bed.

We aren't

No.


Our centipedes are shy and eschew cities.

Almost worst of all possible scenerios my wife found a four inch millipede in the blankets on her side of the bed the other night. I thought the walls would come down with her screams. When squeezed they emit an irritating acid but they don't bite. Had it been one of the centipedes here she probobly would have been bit and I'd be sleeping alone in this house.

and no from me too.
Consider his usefullness though, is he doing the job he was intended to do?