In my basement, last night, I went toe-to-toe with the creepiest damn bug thing I have ever seen. It was flat, sandy colored, 5 inches long and an inch wide, and had a whole bunch of spindly long legs. It looked like the bastard offspring of a daddy-longleg and a centipede, and it moved really fast too. What the heck is it, and since it got away, I’m desperate to know: is it dangerous?
If it helps it down at all, I just move to Chicago, and I have never seen a beasty like that out west.
It probably was a centipede, just a mammoth, huge one. Is your basement damp? These things are attracted to moist, dark places (no off-color jokes, please). They are not dangerous, but they are incredibly skeevy. A little baygon bait placed in containers in the dark, moist corners should help.
The Dave-Guy
“since my daughter’s only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?” J.H. Marx
Did it look like this?
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/iiin/housece.html
No, I don’t know how to post a picture.
I’m not sure about Chicago centipedes (that’s where your profile says you live), but some areas of the country have some monsters. For example, there is a common species in Arizona that is yellowish-orange and black, and can easily reach over 7 inches. Just start turning over logs, and you’ll come across one.
All I have to say is in retropect, I’m glad I live in a palce that become cold enough 6 months out of the year, that bugs like that don’t usually grow here.
Does the noise in my head bother you?
>DAVEW0071
Centipedes not dangerous eh? http://www.healthanswers.com/centers/disease/overview.asp?id=poison&filename=002842.htm
>DrFidelius
Aaaugh! Yes thats the nasty right there. Eeeeeew. I almost would have rather run accros the good old outdoor variety
http://www.pharmacy.arizona.edu/centers/poison_center/critters/bugs/centipede_s.jpg
[Barry White impression] Aww, yeah. Centipedes. [/Barry White impression]
Yeah, I had centipedes in an apartment I lived in in northern Virginia. I couldn’t believe they were centipedes at first, since in Oregon our many-legged critters (I think they are millipedes but they could be centipedes) are very worm-like, with petite little legs that don’t splay at all.
In DC, the critter’s legs were heavily splayed, like a lizards. So I figured it was some kind of crustacean on crack. Then people told me that the centipedes in DC smoke crack too, and I looked it up in the dictionary, and lo and behold, there was my little friend looking like … well, you know what they look like.
It just goes to further my opinion that the more legs something has, the scarier it is. I mean, spiders are scarier than insects, and centipedes are scarier than spiders. Slugs aren’t very scary.
Any similarity in the above text to an English word or phrase is purely coincidental.
Boris is right about things being scarier the more legs they have.
Has anyone gotten a good look at the Rockettes lately?
We gladly devour those who would subdue us.
Hey, I gotta question for all you creepy experts. www.m-w.com says that an entomologist is someone who studies insects. What do you call someone who studies arthropods in general? Is there such a word? How about someone who studies centipedes? Arachnids? Is there a word for everything?
Hey, I gotta question for all you creepy experts. www.m-w.com says that an entomologist is someone who studies insects. What do you call someone who studies arthropods in general? Is there such a word? How about someone who studies centipedes? Arachnids? Is there a word for everything?
Ok well my last post was a bit confuzzed, to recapitulate:
Here is what my idea of a centipede is:
http://www.pharmacy.arizona.edu/centers/poison_center/critters/bugs/centipede_s.jpg
chilopoda scolopendra
Here is what was in my basement: ["]http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/images/myriapoda/chilopoda/scutigera.jpg[/img]](http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/images/myriapoda/chilopoda/scutigera.jpg[/img)
Which I guess is just another species chilopoda scutigera.
Ok well my last post was a bit confuzzed, to recapitulate:
Here is what my idea of a centipede is:
http://www.pharmacy.arizona.edu/centers/poison_center/critters/bugs/centipede_s.jpg
chilopoda scolopendra
Here is what was in my basement:
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/images/myriapoda/chilopoda/scutigera.jpg
Which I guess is just another species chilopoda scutigera.
OK, to clarify.
I meant dangerous in the sense of life-threatening. As in: Which would you rather get bitten by?
![http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/images/myriapoda/chilopoda/scutigera.jpg[/img]](http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/images/myriapoda/chilopoda/scutigera.jpg%5B/img%5D){kind=link}
A) A centipede
B) A rattlesnake
C) A rabid weasel
D) Ed Asner
The Dave-Guy
“since my daughter’s only half-Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?” J.H. Marx
Gee thanks, falcon2–you revived a long-buried nightmare from my youth. I grew up near Chicago and we lived in an old house. I had a room on the top floor next to the attic,and every once in a while one of those things would appear on the ceiling of my room. God, I hated them–so ugly and so fast. They also had the nasty habit of dropping on your head if you tried to kill them on the ceiling. Well, at least I know what to call them now.
Hey you northerners, quit complaining. We’ve got all those critters plus scorpions in the house. Since it seldom freezes here we get them all year long as well. It was 85 yesterday, supposed to cool of to mid 70’s today. I’ve got mosquito wrigglers in my rain barrel.
I’ve always wondered what the bug in that second picture was called. Thanks.
Is that thing with antennae sticking out of both ends a centipede? I always thought they were called firebrats. Had 'em up in NH too, freaked my sister out whenever she saw 'em.
Cave Diem! Carpe Canem!
I’m in Chicago, too. I had the indoor version in my basement when I moved into my house 2 years ago. Haven’t seen one since I had my drain line rodded out about 1.5 years ago. Bugs don’t usually bother me, but these are in a class by themselves.
If slugs moved as quickly as centipedes, you’d be scared of 'em! Sticky, slimy things. Ylechhhy. Gotta be the only negative part of living in the Northwest.
Sorry, falcon2, neither one o’them centipedes looks all that creepy. The only bugs that give me the screaming creeps are (A) the 6-inch-long cockroaches in the Madison, WI zoo and (2) junebugs. (I hate, despise, loathe and fear junebugs.)
Ah, but what exactly is a junebug? Where I come from, a junebug is a smallish to medium-sized brown flying beetle. Actually, ‘flying’ is being kind considering they spend a lot of time bumping into things.
In other parts of the country, a junebug is a larger metallic greenish beetle, and is a little more streamlined than the former.
Just goes to show you that common names for critters can be deceptive sometimes.