House centipedePhoto courtesy of Bruce Marlin, www.cirrusimage.com via Natural History Museum.
(Scutigera coleoptrata)
Fleet-footed with fifteen pairs of legs, these basement and under-sink dwellers are voracious predators and do people a favor by eating unwanted house pests. Their appearance can be disconcerting as they rush past but, rest assured, they pose no harm to people.
One of these was in a mug on the table with a bit of tea in the bottom. At first I thought it was drowned, but then it moved a bit, so I set out to rescue it. I got it to the kitchen sill, and offered it a skewer to crawl out on. It scuttled behind the little dish there. I apologized and wished it well. They are unsettling, but they are also very welcome predators of termites, moths, flies and roaches, as well as of their eggs. I have accidentally swatted a couple, reflexively, thinking them roaches, immediately sorry for my rash violence.
Looks are something, but they cannot be how we judge others. Of whatever species.
We've got a shower arachnid, too. Long legs, it keeps us company, far up at the top of the stall.
10 comments:
No , I don't like them since getting bitten by a huge one , years ago while camping . They can eat everything else , but I draw the line at me .
S&S,
These are not those big biting ones. Sorry you got bitten.
I call those TooManyLegs!!! I looked them up after having a brain stem creepout reaction & was happy to hear they are roach predators
Nimble,
They do have 18 of them. Which is quite a lot. The one I rescued did not bite me, so that's nice.
Correction, 15 pairs of legs. Which makes 30. That's a hella legs, dude.
I've learned to live with them ... they're fast, and luckily I'm near-sighted. This is where the German comes in handy; I name them roach-feasters and Tausendfüßlers (thousand-footers) and wish them well ...
Rou,
Roachbane!
Ooh I like Tausendfüßlers!
you're a better person than i am. despite my best efforts, bugs stir nothing but loathing in me. especially when they're big enough i can look'em in the eye, so to speak.
My girls aren't that keen on spiders, but I just leave them be. I can't recall having seen a house centipede in my home, but there could very well be one or more of them without my noticing.
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