# I was bitten by a fucking centipede! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 12, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598 "2002-06-12T05:57:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/21 "2002-06-12T15:15:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Amp \* > \*\*Are you sure it wasn’t hubby doing a little late night nibbling? > 😉 \*\* Uh,…? You mean my wife? ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/22 "2002-06-12T15:17:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ratty \* > \*\* They eat other, more numerous pests, such as silverfish. > > \*\* ::shudder:: I _hate_ silverfish. My parent’s house used to have them, and I hated the damn things, they’re so…_crawly._ And they were huge! Some as big as the palm of my hand! Thank God our house only has the occasional little spider, and a few moths. The minute I see a silverfish, I will call an exterminator. ::shaking myself off:: Are they on me? I feel like they’re on me. Gaaah. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/23 "2002-06-12T15:25:06Z")
Ga! Gah! **Gah!!!** I **HATE** centipedes! Especially house centipedes! I usually call them “demon-bugs” because frankly, they look like they were created by an evil power. I should not have opened this thread. I’ll never sleep again. We have house centipedes in our house, but I’ve never been bitten before. I have, however, occasionally been unable to sleep from the fear of waking up to find one of the damn things on me. If it ever happens, I’ll shriek so loudly the whole of Ontario will be able to hear it. Sorry, it’s the only bug phobia I’ve got, but it’s a bad one- something to do with having too many of the things skitter across my bathwater when I was young.Oh, and my SO’s mom’s cats used to hunt them and chew off the legs. I approved heartily. BTW, the biggest I’ve ever seen in Canada was about 4 inches long. How big do they get? . ---
**Author:** ![Tiburon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@Tiburon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiburon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/24 "2002-06-12T16:08:12Z")
Dude, I didn’t even know the fuckers bite. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/25 "2002-06-12T18:00:03Z")
Gah…I saw this thread last night, right after I saw a huge centipede in my bathroom. I don’t like smashing insects, so I sat my cat down in front of it. Bo ignored the centipede. I put Bo in front of it 4 times, and every time he thought I was going to bed, so he ignored it and jumped into bed instead. I didn’t want to catch it because they can move so fast…so I thought i’d leave it for the SO when he came home. by that time it was gone - long gone. Then I was in bed reading and Bo got excited, there was a black flying thing coming in the bedroom, I DON"T KNOW WHERE IT WENT! It’s a wonder I even slept last night between this thread, the centipede in the bathroom, and the flying black thing that is somewhere. Then I sat down at the computer this morning, and I felt something on my leg. IT WAS A SPIDER! I did get that one though. My SO gets mad when I see bugs and don’t kill them, but I’m always afraid they’ll fly at me and get caught in my hair. Waiting patiently for winter again. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/26 "2002-06-12T18:39:54Z")
Good lord, where do you live? I have never seen a live centipede in my 44 years on earth…one more reason never to leave Southern California. (Of course, I’ve adjusted to the Black Widows…) ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/27 "2002-06-12T19:08:35Z")
Just don’t let the bites get infected. There was a guy in the ER last night who had been bitten by something while he was in Fiji. He had punctured the bite area with a needle to let some fluid out and then it got infected. After the week it took him to seek treatment it was a swollen area the size of a 50 cent piece surrounded by a reddened area about 8 inches across. And the skin in the very center looked necrotic. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/28 "2002-06-12T19:08:48Z")
**Stoid** - you need a room mate? 🙂 Course, I don’t think I could adjust to the black widows myself. Ugh. I hate hate HATE centipedes!! My most hated of all insects!! My most feared of all foes. I saw one on my bedroom wall three years ago. \ it was late at night…it could have KILLED me. I really hate that memory. And to this day I still get freaked out thinking that it could still be here. Oh god…Ugh. I’d love to never see one again. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/29 "2002-06-12T19:30:25Z")
See, I like centipedes. But then, I’m mostly used to the slow-moving black ones with yellow highlights that you find in North Carolina hardwood forests. They’re pretty, and as long as you don’t pick them up, they’re harmless. When I was a kid, we’d pick up the little rust-colored ones that we’d find beneath rocks. I never got bit by them, so I never learned to dislike them. Of course, I once did see a nasty long-legged fast-crawling centipede in my grandparents’ house when I was a kid, and it totally freaked me out. The bug I could live without? No question: chiggers [scratch scratch dammit!] Daniel ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/30 "2002-06-12T19:34:38Z")
The best way to get them (because if you go after them they just run away and they’re fast little fuckers) is to spray them with hairspray first. It makes their legs/wings/whatever the hell they got, stick together long enough for you to go in for the kill–then you can do the stomp once, flush twice routine. I know it doesn’t sound very humane, but I don’t recall any mention of AquaNet in the Geneva Convention. ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/31 "2002-06-12T19:57:27Z")
Worst. Insects. EVER! Anything with more than eight legs deserves to die. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/32 "2002-06-12T20:05:26Z")
When I was a girl, we screened in our pool, and then my parents cut out some of the deck to plant flowers. Somehow this attracted centipedes (little ones, but still) that could survive in the pool! So these things are crawling all underwater along the sides of the pool and then they get into the house. I was sitting on the floor one day, with my book on the seat of the living room chair, and while I’m engrossed in Laura Ingalls and Nellie Olsen, I’m idly crumpling up what I think is a dead leaf…guess again!! ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/33 "2002-06-12T20:11:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by red\_dragon60 \* > \*\*Worst. Insects. EVER! > > Anything with more than eight legs deserves to die. \*\* Cockroaches have six legs. Slugs have none. I must kill those as well. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/34 "2002-06-12T20:18:27Z")
Man, centipedes creep me out viscerally-- they’re like primordial horrible Old Ones or something. That many legs sort of undulating in wave form. . . (shudder) In Hawaii we had great big orange ones that would crunch sickeningly when you ran over them on your bike (sometimes there would be many out on the road). Ok, I’ll bite-- what the hell is a vingaroon? It sounds like an angry marsupial candy covered in sweet coconut. ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/35 "2002-06-12T20:30:43Z")
Fleas-- ugh! Worst. Pest. Ever. :mad: > [@](#): > > I’ll bite-- what the hell is a vingaroon? It sounds like an angry marsupial candy covered in sweet coconut. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/36 "2002-06-12T20:36:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pkbites \* > \*\* > Uh,…? You mean my wife? \*\* Sorry **pkbites** , I was responding to **lauramarlane** ’s post above mine. ---
**Author:** ![Opengrave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/919ad9/32.png) [@Opengrave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opengrave)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/37 "2002-06-12T20:46:39Z")
If the centipede was radioactive you may want to post any new special powers you develop in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=114010) thread. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/38 "2002-06-12T20:52:11Z")
**Ivylass** , your story about the pool reminded me of my second-most hated insect: earwigs. Growing up, my friend had a pool that I was always torn about entering…love to swim, hate the earwigs milling about and on the bottom. Tried to continually tread water. “mustn’t touch bottom…mustn’t touch bottom…” Troy McClure: “earwigs, ewww!” On the other hand, a co-worker was telling me the other day that he had to call an exterminator because his house was infested with… ladybugs. Somehow, I don’t see a big problem with that (of course, I guess too many of anything would be annoying), but ladybugs are just so…_harmless_ . And not scary, or crawly, or bitey. It would be kind of like having an infestation of butterflies. “Honey, call the exterminator again! Damn butterflies are everywhere!” Why_can’t_ I have ladybugs and butterflies in the house instead of spiders, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/39 "2002-06-12T20:53:07Z")
There is no creature on this earth more vile, more disgusting, more repulsive, or more horrifying than the centipede. My old place on King and Earl in Kingston was rife with centipedes. They were huge. I mean, I think some of those things were wearing flea collars. They liked to come out at night and scurry around the bathroom, so when I went it to take a pee three or four would be eyeballing me. I’d smash them with a shoe but the next night they’d rally and more would come out. Sometimes I’d go to brush my teeth or something, and what would I find in the sink but a big, hideous centipede. This obligated another smashing and a full cleanout of the sink. My attempts to wipe the centipedes out proved fruitless, because of course the dirty bastards were coming through the pipes, not through the floorboards, so treating my apartment with bug killer never kept them out (I never saw a roach, though.) Finally I just up and moved to a higher apartment. I can’t take centipedes. If they ever infest my house I’m going to give the exterminators ONE chance to kill them all, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll burn the damned house down. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Wrong\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b782af/32.png) [@The\_Wrong\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Wrong_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598/40 "2002-06-12T21:07:06Z")
Ugh. I agree–centipedes are truly awful. And, **Boscibo** , be careful if you choose to sic your kitty on them. We had one in our kitchen once and my cat Dante immediately ran over, determined to protect the house, only to howl, and skulk away after the centipede \* stung her on the nose\*. :mad: I really enjoyed stomping that one, and Dante never goes near them now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-bitten-by-a-fucking-centipede/113598.md?page=3)