Today we found this handsome fellow hanging out behind one of our servers. Any clue as to what it is? (It kinda looks like a cockroach got lucky with a centipede.)
If knowing the region helps in identification, we’re in Kansas City.
That’s a house centipede. They bite, but are harmless.
I’m no entomologist, but ack! Too many legs! Grab a drive out of the RAID array and squish it! 
Nifty! Thank you.
I’m with Biffy on this one. It’s a house centipede.
Seeing one is no problem. But if you’re seeing them on a regular basis…well…the main prey of house centipedes are cockroaches. Draw your own conclusions.
We get those in our house sometimes. THEY ARE THE CREATURES OF THE DEVIL! They are a sick, evil parody of life created by Satan to mock all that’s good and pure!
Ok, other bugs don’t bother me, but centipedes really, really do.
I know it’s of no danger, but don’t centipede have a poisonous bite?
The way they move is totally gross. It’s like Bugs Bunny playing the piano and trying to get the mouse. Those things aren’t as nasty as cockroaches, but they’re still pretty nasty.
Yes, but it’s no worse than a bee sting.
A bit of expansion on that – the centipedes you will encounter in US homes are mostly harmless – as I said, no worse than a bee sting, if that. But if you ever have the chance to run into this guy I recommend staying the hell away – their bites rival assassin bugs for the most painful arthropod bite in existence. I recommend staying away from the assassin bugs as well, but unfortunately they’re all over the southern US, so they’re a bit harder to avoid. I’ve seen that orange critter at the top reduce adults to quivering, weeping piles of jelly. And they swarm after hatching, too.
from yBeayf’s assassin bug link:
Dude! I grew up in the south, but I never came across one of these buggers. No wonder it hurts: you’re being liquified
Ack ack ack! House centipedes! Demon-bugs! Very bad! They move at Mach 10 and can get three inches long!
I didn’t know they ate cockroaches. We had them at my parents’ house (centipedes), but we didn’t have cockroaches. I see an occasional one here, but still no cockroaches. Must be slim pickings around here. Good.
I think he kinda looks like a wall hanging. Very festive.
Ogden Nash’s observations on this highly annoying little critter.
I periodically get house centipedes here, but I’ve never seen a cockroach in my house. I have, however, seen a centipede in the process of eating a small spider, and I do have my share of spiders (I tend to leave them alone until the webs become too noticeable, then I grab the vacuum).
I’ve found house centipedes who’ve gotten stuck in my kitchen sink - the sides are too slippery for them to get out. If I put a hand down there, sometimes they’ll hop on, and I lift them out of the sink, turning them loose someplace where they don’t risk floating to their deaths. Having one scurrying around on your hand and forearm is an interesting sensation. I’ve never had one even try to bite me, so I’d rate them as “mostly harmless.”
A small and unimportant point but did Bugs ever chase mice? I always remember Bugs being chased rather than chasing.
I thought I read somewhere that house centipedes were not native to the U.S., that they come from Europe, and it’s suspected that tourists brought them over in their suitcases.
All I know is, our rustic vacation rental house in France was alive with the little monsters, which caused us to decamp and check into the French version of a Holiday Inn nearby. Ick! That’s one critter you don’t want scurrying across your toes while sitting on the john in the middle of the night, as happened to me.
It was apparently native to Europe, alright, but arrived here long before tourism was a major industry:
From http://www.uark.edu/depts/entomolo/museum/house_centipede.html
Bugs Bunny - the cartoon being referred to has Bugs playing a piano recital in a concert hall, and he keeps getting upstaged by a mouse playing a tiny little piano and generally interfering with Bugs’ performance. Occasionally, Bugs’ usual role was reversed, and a character was allowed to get the better of him, essentially out-bugsing Bugs. Cecil Turtle, for instance.
Zsofia is referring to a specific cartoon in which Bugs is a concert pianist, playing (IIRC) Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2, and there’s a pesky mouse running around in the piano.
He did on the piano - the mouse ran along the hammers and Bugs tried to splat him, to the tune of, I think, the first Hungarian Rhapsody. I believe there’s a very similar Tom and Jerry as well, but the cartoon I’m thinking of is definately Bugs.