# Some creature is crawling around in my hotel.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 30, 2005, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226 "2005-08-30T07:12:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/1 "2005-08-30T07:12:17Z")
An unidentified creature is running around my hotel here in Arizona. Can anyone identify it? It’s tan, about an inch and a half long. It moved so fast when I turned the light on, I couldn’t tell if it had six legs, or four. But it was on the wall, and darted off under one of the beds. Anyone know what it may be?
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/2 "2005-08-30T07:27:48Z")
A cockroach?
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### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/3 "2005-08-30T08:08:17Z")
I wouldn’t say a cockroach, this didn’t look like one. This thing is kinda thin, and more flesh colored, or a really light tan color.
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### Author:  [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/4 "2005-08-30T08:36:42Z")
My friend raises Lobster Cockroaches which sort of fit that description. They look a little like an animated fingernail. I’m not sure what their native area is though.
(Yes, _raises_. We’ve got a dozen or so at work that she donated. 'Course we’ve also got Two Spotted, Three Spotted, American and Madagasgar
Hissings. :eek: )
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/5 "2005-08-30T09:48:01Z")
I was about to ask you where on earth do you work?? Then I looked at your screen name, and figured maybe I had my answer…
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/6 "2005-08-30T11:39:18Z")
Tarantula.
No, I ain’t kiddin’.
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### Author:  [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/7 "2005-08-30T11:43:49Z")
Wind scorpion, maybe? But I don’t know if they can cling to walls …
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/8 "2005-08-30T12:16:22Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#):
>
> An unidentified creature is running around my hotel here in Arizona. Can anyone identify it? It’s tan, about an inch and a half long. It moved so fast when I turned the light on, I couldn’t tell if it had six legs, or four. But it was on the wall, and darted off under one of the beds. Anyone know what it may be?
There are a couple of pictures of House Centipedes at [this site](http://www.whatsthatbug.com/cent.html). They can be pretty fast-moving and wwell-camouflaged. Is that perhaps what you’re seeing?
Sailboat
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### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/9 "2005-08-30T12:33:57Z")
Ceti eel, maybe?
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### Author:  [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/10 "2005-08-30T12:40:45Z")
How about a lizard of some kind?
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### Author:  [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/11 "2005-08-30T13:13:02Z")
> [@Daithi Lacha](#):
>
> Wind scorpion, maybe? But I don’t know if they can cling to walls …
My guess too. Not poisonous, but they have the strongest bite around (IIRC). Freaky looking, but not a spider, not a scorpion, just weird and scary.
-Tcat
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### Author:  [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/12 "2005-08-30T15:34:37Z")
> [@Sailboat](#):
>
> There are a couple of pictures of House Centipedes at [this site](http://www.whatsthatbug.com/cent.html). They can be pretty fast-moving and wwell-camouflaged. Is that perhaps what you’re seeing?
>
> Sailboat
There were a bunch of those at my parents’ house when I lived there. I _ **hated** _ them. Even that photo made me gasp and wither.
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### Author:  [@beckwall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beckwall)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/13 "2005-08-30T16:00:21Z")
A sausage with legs? More likely, the scorpion people are correct. Be sure to shake out your shoes before you put them on.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/14 "2005-08-30T16:06:40Z")
Dad called them ‘vinegaroons’, but what we had in the house once (Dagget, CA, Mojave Desert) was a [‘sun spider’](http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/spiders/Solifugid.htm). The one in the photos has a dark grey back, but ‘ours’ was all flesh-coloured.
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### Author:  [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)
#### Post date: [August 30, 2005, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/15 "2005-08-30T16:36:30Z")
Possibly a gecko? [Link](http://www.realbodies.com/images/gecko.jpg). No, not Geico!
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### Author:  [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/16 "2005-09-01T09:56:01Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#):
>
> Dad called them ‘vinegaroons’, but what we had in the house once (Dagget, CA, Mojave Desert) was a [‘sun spider’](http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/~pjbryant/biodiv/spiders/Solifugid.htm). The one in the photos has a dark grey back, but ‘ours’ was all flesh-coloured.
Yeah, thats what we call wind scorpions. NAt’l Geo did an article a few months back. Neat things with one heck of a bite, I guess.
-Tcat
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/17 "2005-09-01T12:43:38Z")
Catch it and take it to the London Zoo.
That’s what they do with Centipedes they find in hotel rooms.
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### Author:  [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/18 "2005-09-01T13:49:12Z")
Did you see if it was furry?
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### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-creature-is-crawling-around-in-my-hotel/319226/19 "2005-09-01T19:38:00Z")
It wasn’t furry, and it didn’t have legs like the sun spider either. It also didn’t have a billion legs. Ah well, atleast I wasn’t attacked in the night. If it had more then 8 legs, I would have freaked for sure.