365 Urban Species. #147: House Centipede

[urbpan]

photo by cottonmanifesto

Urban species #147: House centipede Scutigera coleoptrata

Well, if you made it past the photograph you're better than most. No other animal, pound for pound, can excite and distress people quite like the house centipede. It appears suddenly, fifteen pairs of legs propelling it across the wall at great speed. Even people who are fully aware that this animal is a beneficial member of the household, eating small flies and other insects, will kill it on sight.

Apparently indigenous to the Mediterranean (a region of origin for numerous urban species) and then accidentally transported to subtropical America, the house centipede has made the building by building journey to northern states. Like house mice, house flies, and several species of cockroach, they are always found in association with humans in their new temperate range. The great indoors serves as a series of subtropical islands, temperature and humidity controlled for the primates that created it.

Unlike other centipedes, house centipedes' body segments are fused; also its legs are unusually long, and are of different legths. Each of these adaptations probably adds to the creature's running speed. The racing stripes probably don't make it any faster, but help make it a distinctive and attractive animal. Still with me?

All centipedes are predators that hunt with a pair of legs that have been modified into venomous fangs. House centipedes are reputed to be capable of delivering a bee sting-like bite to humans, but I have yet to hear a first person account. For my part, I have handled them without incident--your results may vary. If indeed they can pierce human skin and inject venom, an allergic reaction could result, as in any envenomation.

House centipedes are a personal favorite, and I have written about them previously here: http://urbpan.livejournal.com/60469.html
and
here: http://urbpan.livejournal.com/64272.html
and centipedes in general
here: http://urbpan.livejournal.com/tag/centipede

Comments

[almeda.livejournal.com]

My mom used to call those 'wacky wallwalkers,' and encouraged them because they're insectivorous.

They induced me to quite a few "50's housewife moments," of the eek-and-jump-on-chair variety.

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

I will try to be more tolerant, but centipedes give me the creeps. At least I'm not in Hawaii. I'd mentioned the water dwelling worms. If you are interested I posted a set of photos of them. You can see them by going here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/axlotl/

and clicking on the set called Swamp worms.

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

I'd never seen or heard of them until I moved into my current apartment.

I first saw one on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I thought I'd imagined it until I coincidentally ran across a mention of them online a few days later. I could hardly believe it was a real creature.

I don't see them very often, and I'm torn between thinking they're cool and thinking they're creepy.

[ankhanu.livejournal.com]

"I'm torn between thinking they're cool and thinking they're creepy."

Same here :P
They're infinitely cool... but, for some reason, centipedes in general creep me out.

I've never seen one of these either.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Oh, god. I know it's a happy little predator, I KNOW it, and I still scream like an air raid siren and run for the hills when one goes across the wall. EEEEE!

[serendith.livejournal.com]

They will always look like some unnatural combination between a cricket and scolopendramorpha to me. When I was young and first saw a young one I was convinced that it was some sort of mutated cricket ... that impression has never left me.

Oddly, we have years at the museum where people bring in dozens and then summers without a single report of one. Last summer was one were we didn't get a single one brought to us so I am hoping this year will be the opposite. I am really fond of them even though they can be hard to take care of.

[ex-wellread.livejournal.com]

I'm curious. Is this "pest" common in the Boston area? I'll admit I would freak out if it was on me!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

They are locally common, building to building. I have seen them in three different buildings here, including my current home, where they are common during the warm months.

[mellawyrden.livejournal.com]

I love these things! the first one I ever saw was when we lived in Boston, and I nearly fell over dead because I thought it was a huge spider at first. I have them here in Binghamton too. They're very common. They really are pretty little predators. And they're cute... because they have this tough attitude, but need to be rescued if they fall into the sink or bathtub. This may sound insane... (!!!) but I even gave "mouth to spiracle" resuscitation to one once, by placing it on an absorbent paper towel and blowing gently on it til it was no longer waterlogged.

[http://users.livejournal.com/purplebunnie_/]

Wow. That's a really unique looking creature there.

[stonelizard.livejournal.com]

that..... is possibly the creepiest thing I have ever seen, and I have worked with whip tail scorpions.
Thank god our centipedes are slightly less... monsterous?

[phlogiston-5.livejournal.com]

What a coincidence, I found one of those just last night in my bathtub. I relocated him to the basement.

[matilda.livejournal.com]

"The great indoors serves as a series of subtropical islands, temperature and humidity controlled for the primates that created it."

i never thought of it like that before - wonderful! yes!

[hazelbranch.livejournal.com]

I seriously grew up with these as they seemed to live in my bedroom in the basement of my parents house. To this day they are the one house bug I just cannot deal with. I can't even get close enough to them to kill them. My parents are convinced that they have some kind of weird attraction to me because I seem to be the only one that can still come across them in their house. It has been joked that they are secretly my 'totem' or something. ;)

[pinkveneer.livejournal.com]

you're right...i can't help myself: i killem. and i just don't kill bugs or anything, for that matter. must.get.help...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bazilisk_/]

In NYC they (not all centipedes, just these guys) are commonly called 'Thousand Leggers', and there is a superstition that these house centipedes are deadly poisonous.

[miwasatoshi.livejournal.com]

That looks very similar to a centipede I saw in Japan!

[plantgirl.livejournal.com]

You know, other centipedes don't bother me, nor millipedes. But those guys? Well, I've only seen one of those once, when I lived in Portland. It was back before I cared much about bugs, and yes, I did hunt it down & kill it because I knew I wouldn't sleep for imagining it crawling across me. Something about the way those legs move, and how quickly it moves, give me the absolute shivers.

These days I know they're useful, so I'd do the same as I do with spiders in my house, which is attempt to capture it and relocate it outside. (Spiders in webs that aren't immediately in my way are actually considered roomates for weeks or months, until I next get around to deep cleaning, at which point, well, if they were interacted with enough to earn a name, they get relocated, and if I'm feeling kindly, they're relocated. Otherwise they go to the great vacuum cleaner in the sky).

[cailin-t.livejournal.com]

those things remind me of satan.

[barn-swallow.livejournal.com]

I have the same reaction to those that I have to all bugs: "Eww! ...Cool!! I have to take a picture!"

I 'documented' quite a few bugs this weekend, I wonder if I'll figure out what they all are. I am sure the answer lies somewhere on LJ!

Blech! but thanks for the info...

[mrsnoah.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting the picture and the info - I was just standing in my kitchen, mixing some instant pudding, and noticed the dog acting like he had some sort of bug. he did, of course - it was one of these house centipedes. It only had 2 remaining legs by the time I got to it, so I really wasn't sure WHAT it was. I was able to identify it by your picture, though (the stripes, especially). Thanks again. I'm still grossed out by the thing, but at least now I know it isn't some nasty termite...thing or something.

Centipedes' daily planner?

[(Anonymous)]

The only bugs I kill are roaches. Centipedes are cool. I've done the exact same thing as the guy above, and performed a paper-towel rescue on a waterlogged centipede I found floating in the tub after my showe one time.

But that's not what sent me here.

Does anybody know if these things have a regular daily route thru their territory the way somebody told me toads do? I ask because twice in the last week I've seen one crawl across the same spot on the wall at approximately the same time in the evening. Then I found out they can live for 5 years. I couldn't kill a bug like that.

Mostly, tho, I just feel sort of sorry for the three that I know live here--two in the bathroom, a big and a little, and another big one in the kitchen--because the only ohther bugs I've seen since I caulked every crack and every corner of my apartment 9 years ago (after a roach sighting the first week I lived here) are the wasps that buzz around my living room windows this time of year and the spiders which sometimes build webs up near the ceiling, then slowly starve to death. I don't know what these guys are eating. I haven't even seen a fly in over a year and I've never once been bitten by a mosquite since I've lived here.

Then again, maybe that's all due to the centipedes...

[gwodder.livejournal.com]

Aye. I don't kill them, but the girl doesn't want them crawling on her while she sleeps, either, so I generally scoop 'em up and put them outside (or down in the basement)...

They are a bit terrifying in the way they move. I've seen them change direction without stopping or turning, just : One second moving one way, one second moving the opposite way, as if neither side were front or back.

[mas69ter.livejournal.com]

Hi, just added you because you were an interesting LJ spotlight.

Just have to say that the racing stripes are definitly what makes those guys run so fast. It's the theory for cars so it should also works with living creatures right?

[deathling.livejournal.com]

Oh thats what that is. I saw one and took a picture just cuz it's so gross looking.

one of these creatures bit me

[(Anonymous)]

it didn't hurt but my shoulder was swollen really bad, some antihistamine and claritin or allergies brought it down I was left with a bruise on my shoulder though and numbness, it went down after two or three days... but it was creepy

Just got stung...

[(Anonymous)]

Well, they do, indeed, sting - or bite. At least in Georgia. I just had one crawl across my throat while I slept -- I awoke to the movement, sweeping it off of my skin.....evidently it did not take kindly to the movement and bit/stung me on its way across the bed. At first I had no idea what had stung me (a mild bee-sting in terms of the degree of pain), but a turning over of my pillows uncovered it and it ran off behind the bed. Now my question is: whose bed is it? I've often had discussions with spiders where we've come to an agreement that allows us to co-exist in the same room without my being bitten or their being squashed.....but I've never tried that with a centipede.......I'd prefer not to get bitten/stung again.....not to mention the image of it crawling across me giving me cause to shiver. Curious about symbolism. I'm guessing, for me, it has something to do with getting my feet moving......also linked with 5th chakra, as that's where it appeared and stung me. hmmmmmmmm

Re: Just got stung...

[(Anonymous)]

I just had the exact same thing happen. I mean exactly (Georgia, night, neck, sweeping skin, bite, pain,... everything)!!! I was cleaning out the woods behind my house last week and stirred up a yellow jacket nest. I was stung 7 times, and this centipede sting or bite hurts every bit as bad if not worse. Just curious, where in Georgia did this happen?

ewww

[(Anonymous)]

yeah these things only come out at night because they are light sensitive...anyway i've seen about 10 of them in my house within the last 4 days....last night as I was sitting against the wall of my bedroom one came down from the wall ...and bit me on the back...it was worse than a bee sting.