# Hawaiian centipedes! Or, ignorance is bliss **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462 "2005-05-25T18:12:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/61 "2005-05-27T11:53:11Z")
I once lived in an apartment that was overrun with spiders. I got used to it. But before that, I lived in a house that had the occasional centipede. I did **not** get used to it. (Maybe because, unlike the spiders, which were an everyday occurence, the centipedes’ appearances were just intermittent enough that I was able to forget them in betweentimes.) Anyway, the first time I saw one, I was barefoot and wearing shorts. I went upstairs, put on my high-heeled boots, then went downstairs to my dad’s workshop. “Dad, there’s a bug in the living room…No, this is not the new style! No, I’m not gonna wear it to school!..Because there’s a creepy-crawl in the living room, that’s why!” One of the other times, my friend Susan was visiting. She had the bright idea to try to suck it up in the vacuum cleaner. Amazingly, it worked! I did it with my eyes closed, but it worked. But. A few minutes later, she had another bright idea. When my back was turned to her, she very lightly walked her fingertips up my back. I screamed so loud and long the neighbor woman heard from her backyard. She was ready to call 911, but prudently rang the doorbell first. One of these days I’ll tell the story of the giant locust. But that’s enough for now. ---
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/62 "2005-05-27T12:35:54Z")
When my son was a newborn, I was laying on the couch in our basement with his tender little self tucked up in a blanket in my arms. Something caught my eye and I looked down to see a centipede running out from underneath my couch. I was torn between screaming/puking and wanting to murder this hideous insect that might nip at my precious little bird. I threw a giant book on top of it and waiting for my husband to come home to dispose of the carcass. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/63 "2005-05-27T12:40:14Z")
I get to find these rat bastards every once in a while in the basement. [This is a little one, I’ve seen them up to three inches long.](http://www.hilarynelson.com/Hobbies/Bugs/Centipedes/DSCN1035.JPG) One of the ugliest things you’ll ever step on. They’re extremely fragile. They practically die just from falling off the ceilling. Oh, and there legs continue to move after they’ve fallen off the body. Man!, do I hate these things. YYYYUUUUCK!!! ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/64 "2005-05-27T12:45:25Z")
Word of warning; The above link is very detailed and the photo is HUGE. Open with caution. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/65 "2005-05-27T13:22:03Z")
> [@](#): > > I get to find these rat bastards every once in a while in the basement. Eyebrow! Eyebrow EYEBROW **EYEBROW**! Gaaaaaaahhhhh!!! (Not you, **Eyebrows 0f Doom**. We’re cool.) ---
**Author:** ![Mint\_Julep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc79bd/32.png) [@Mint\_Julep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mint_Julep)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/66 "2005-05-27T14:10:34Z")
**Uncommon Sense** , I would move if I saw that…I am not kidding! ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/67 "2005-05-27T14:29:49Z")
> [@Mint Julep](#): > > **Uncommon Sense** , > > I would move if I saw that…I am not kidding! Ha, ha. I’m in the Milwaukee area and I swear to Og that I’ve seen these things in _every_ of the six or so places I’ve lived in. I think they are native to this area. The good thing is; They eat other bugs like ants, spiders, and such so they tend to hang out in the basement where the other critters are. One time the wife found one in the bathtub. I’m suprised the police didn’t show up. I’d rather have my home littered with spiders and ants than these things though. I hate 'em. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/68 "2005-05-27T14:50:26Z")
We get them in Japan, too, even in chilly Hokkaido - my husband and I call them “moustaches” but I like eyebrows, so I might change. Here they are called “geji-geji” and that’s exactly how they make you feel. (And now I come to think about it, doesn’t the word “geji-geji” look like one - with all those legs hanging off?!) When we had just moved into a housing complex which had never had a foreigner in it, EVER, I was getting ready for work one morning, bent down to pick up my briefcase and there was a GEJI GEJI on it. EEEEK! Husband had already left - I needed the briefcase. I sprayed the \*\*\*\* out of it and then when I was almost sure it was dead, I opened our window and chucked the entire briefcase out of the window. Then I stepped out to retrieve it, now geji-geji-less, only to come face to face with my horror struck neighbour, whose head I had narrowly missed with my bag. I didn’t even try to explain, just got my bag and slunk away. (At least I wasn’t caught vacuuming my lawn, like another foreign friend was…) ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/69 "2005-05-27T15:12:35Z")
Regarding grilled centipedes: do they taste like crab or lobster? maybe this could be the next gourmet food trend? I’ve heard that other arachnids (like tarantulas0 taste surprisingly good! (But don’t eat the hairs!) ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/70 "2005-05-27T15:20:17Z")
> [@Cherry2000](#): > > Oh yeah…and let me add lizards to the list. I used to live in South FL, and [these](http://www.oliner.net/bahamas/Grand%20Bahama%20Trip-Pages/Image5.html) things used to be everywhere. I’ve seen ones up to 10 inches long. The very thought make me want to pass out. Shows how people are different, I think that little guy is adorable. ---
**Author:** ![Hokkaido\_Brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d26b3c/32.png) [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/71 "2005-05-27T15:26:03Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > Shows how people are different, I think that little guy is adorable. Me too - if it has scales, no problem. Or froggy bits. Right now we have frog tadpoles and salamander eggs just hatching into tadpoles - we are feeding them threadworms and so far they are growing fine. One of my students has a dozen or so salamanders that she has had for five years now. Hopefully we’ll be able to do the same. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/72 "2005-05-27T16:01:10Z")
Gahh! Gahh! **Demon bug**! Die, evil bastard! I really did see a three-four inche one of those once. With the legs, it was 2 inches across. I have never truly recovered from the horror. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/73 "2005-05-27T16:02:12Z")
You know what would be really scary? if the 8" Hawaiian centipedes had the (proportional) super-long legs of the more common “demon bug” variety. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/74 "2005-05-27T16:06:56Z")
I saw those smaller house centipedes when vacationing in France, and they gave me the willies. But after seeing the photo of that 8" Kaua’i monster, I laugh at the smaller house centipedes. Laugh, I tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/75 "2005-05-27T17:11:35Z")
Another fact to add to your centipede nightmares: These things are nigh-immortal. My dad had a community garden back in Hawaii back in the day. Every so often I’d help him out. Once, when I was 8 or so, I saw a 5" orange centipede crawling on a board. Suffice it to say, it freaked 8-year-old me out, so I did what any kid would do: I chopped it in half with a shovel. In half. You’d think this would’ve killed it. But, no, the front half of it kept crawling around, as limber as ever, if possibly a bit angrier. So I chopped again and again. Like a zombie or a dark knight, it kept coming, no matter how much I chopped off. I could all but hear its raspy centipede-y voice promising that it would gnaw my ankles off. Finally, as in any good zombie movie, I managed to lop off its head. Having lost all means of locomotion, the centipede stopped. But I’m not sure it’s dead. It could still be out there. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/76 "2005-05-27T18:09:34Z")
They are right bastards in the classic Centipede video game as well. I never realized this at the time (early-to-mid '80s), since we don’t seem to have them in South Florida where I grew up, but I can see why they were made into such annoying and dangerous villains in the game. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462/77 "2005-05-28T00:23:50Z")
> [@](#): > > I went upstairs, put on my high-heeled boots… Really would have sucked if there was a centipede curled up in there, huh? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-centipedes-or-ignorance-is-bliss/305462.md?page=3)