# Snake eats centipede only to have it chew its way out. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 19, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502 "2014-04-19T20:07:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_fun_ball/32/17664_2.png) [@Happy\_Fun\_Ball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Fun_Ball)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/1 "2014-04-19T20:07:35Z")
This is just wrong: [Centipede chews its way out of snake after being eaten](http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/Centipede_eats_its_way_out_.html). It almost made it… ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/2 "2014-04-19T20:15:51Z")
Yeah. That pretty much sums up my own life, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/3 "2014-04-19T20:39:20Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Yeah. That pretty much sums up my own life, actually. Are you the snake or the centipede? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/4 "2014-04-19T20:44:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Are you the snake or the centipede? Does it matter? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/5 "2014-04-19T21:37:32Z")
I’d be curious to hear from a snake expert on this. I saw a documentary that showed an x-ray of a snake that had just swallowed another snake. By the time the tail of the snake being eaten disappeared into the predator’s mouth, the bones of its head were already being broken down by digestive enzymes. In this case, the centipede’s head and forcipules seem more or less intact. Unless possibly once the head was inside, it already started chewing up the snake from the inside out, working its way down the alimentary canal. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/6 "2014-04-19T21:44:12Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Unless possibly once the head was inside, it already started chewing up the snake from the inside out, working its way down the alimentary canal. [That’s exactly what they found.](http://ecol-mne.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Arsovski-et-al.pdf) The snake’s body cavity was completely filled by the centipede. > [@](#): > > A subsequent dissection revealed the absence of the snake’s visceral organs (i.e. we found that only the snake’s body wall remained – the entire volume of its body was occupied by the centipede), which led us to suppose that the prey caused chemical or mechanical damage to the predator’s digestive organs. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/7 "2014-04-19T21:48:18Z")
Cool. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/8 "2014-04-19T21:50:01Z")
Nope. Nope. Nope. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/9 "2014-04-19T22:44:57Z")
AAAAAAGGHHHH!!! As if I were Not. Freaked. Out. Enough by centipedes already! (Granted, I have never had the slightest intention of _eating_ one. But still.) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/10 "2014-04-19T22:51:03Z")
So, that is how a Macedonian stand off ends. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/11 "2014-04-19T22:52:55Z")
I will not click on that link. I already know more than I’d like to. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/12 "2014-04-19T23:21:54Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Are you the snake or the centipede? What? No, the _researcher_. I’m always stumbling across some gruesome artifact which perfectly emblematizes the uselessness of our existence. You know those cute pictures of animals taking care of each other they always show on Facebook? Well that’s not what _I_ get. I always get the centipedes eating their way out of the snakes’ stomachs, only to die anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/13 "2014-04-20T01:16:28Z")
Now I feel like a fool for complaining about my heartburn. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/14 "2014-04-20T02:42:37Z")
Better than the scene from Alien, I say. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/15 "2014-04-20T03:36:53Z")
Better than the claws of the swallowed alligator rupturing the python which had eaten it. Although the gator gets extra points for being dead when it killed its killer. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/16 "2014-04-20T03:46:00Z")
Gummies anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/17 "2014-04-20T05:11:52Z")
I think I’ll just go over here and… become a vegetarian, or at least work my prey over with a rock before eating it. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/18 "2014-04-20T07:58:05Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I think I’ll just go over here and… become a vegetarian, or at least work my prey over with a rock before eating it. I’m going to settle for not eating centipedes, myself. The things I sacrifice… I think “no no no” while sitting, clutching your legs, and slowly rocking back and forward about covers it. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/19 "2014-04-20T10:55:28Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Better than the claws of the swallowed alligator rupturing the python which had eaten it. > > Although the gator gets extra points for being dead when it killed its killer. I heard one naturalist speculate that what happened was that the gator might have been too big for the python to digest in a timely manner, and had started decomposing inside, causing a gas buildup that ultimately blew a hole in the snake. (I’m not qualified to offer an opinion. That’s just one person’s speculation.) ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502/20 "2014-04-21T17:50:18Z")
No that picture won’t give me nightmares at all… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-centipede-only-to-have-it-chew-its-way-out/686502.md?page=2)