Found this crawling about a downstairs hallway this morning. I thought it was an ew! rat turd or something, then it moved! Deep brown color, tan underneath. Very slow mover, hard to even tell it’s alive. What is this thing?
The really weird thing is I found it right outside my home office. I’d been out to the kitchen at least twice and it wasn’t there. Then it was. Maybe hiding by a baseboard before. The place I found it is circled, it was dead center of the hallway.
I’d say millipede. I very occasionally find them in unlikely places inside my house. They’re pretty slow movers, not fast at all. Just be glad it wasn’t a Giant African Millipede.
I love insects in a way that most people find odd, and I’m co-signing this. Spiders, beetles, praying mantises, cicadas, cool. The first time I ever saw a house centipede it scared the everloving shit out of me. My immediate thought was, “That’s not from Earth.”
Exactly my reaction to this centipede I photographed at my house in the country. The pic is blurry because my hands were shaking so much when I took it. It was about 7 inches long. It looks like it was created in the lab at Industrial Light & Magic company.
Millipedes like the OP showed are real common here in SoFL. You’ll find them patiently cruising along on the sidewalk and frequently find them inside your house as well. Usually curled up and desiccated, but sometimes still actively on the hoof.
I wouldn’t say “love” for me, but many of them are really interesting and non-revulsive. Except centipedes.
Although I often comment that any such critter the size of a housecat or worse yet a rhinoceros would be serious nightmare fuel. e.g. a closeup pic of the face of a cute little ladybug is pretty horrific. One of those with a head the same size as yours would send most people, even bugophiles, scurrying out of the room, perhaps screaming along the way.
This is probably the SDMB all-time record for off-putting creatures (with three clicks required to actually see the monster; it’s that bad):
De Vermis Mysteriis is a (fictional) grimoire tome that was a collection of knowledge by alchemist and necromancer Ludvig Prinn.
This might be an immature Cthonian, or perhaps a bit of a Crawling One whose corpus is living in your basement. Either way, fuel your flamethrower, prepare your Elder Sign, and gird your loins.
That’s a bit unkind? What harm has it ever done to you?
If I find a creature in our house, unless it is actually dangerous to people (like a black widow), I will catch it in a cup or something and release it outside.
Yes, that was a wild one! Did you notice that it was re-growing a leg?
I love most insects and spiders too, but [nitpick!] spiders are not insects, they are arachnids. But when I say most I do not include centipedes either. They are called ciempiés in Spanish (hundred-feet, logical), or escolopendra, which sounds much scarier in my ears. Let that roll off your tongue (the word, not the animal!). I remember seeing one when I was a little boy in Madrid and I still believe the monster could outrun me. Only the stairs saved me!
