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

skin crawling

[(Anonymous)]

i canNOT handle these centipedes in my house. I saw one in my bathroom last night....it was abnormally large. Like 4 inches long and beastly. I geared up to kill it but i lost the nerve and had to wake up my husband to kill him, but he was long gone by then. My skin has been crawling since. I'm actually scarred to use my bathroom and open up closets and things like that. I feel like i'm being tortured by their presence in my house. I didn't know that they bit. I have a two year old and a one year old and this scares the bejesus out of me. i don't know what i'm going to do. my husband doesn't take my fear of them seriously therefore will do nothing to help get them out of the house. Why would God make such an UGLY DISGUSTING TERRIFYING creature!??

Re: skin crawling

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

God's a funny one isn't he? He also made staph bacteria, poison ivy, and Michelle Bachman. I apologize to staph and poison ivy for that joke.

Yes, supposedly they bite, but I've never been bitten by them, and I pick them up. At my job, I go into dark bug-infested crawlspaces, and when I see a house centipede I think, oh good: an ally.

Your phobia sounds serious, like it's going to affect your quality of life. Therapy will help more than pest control. Sorry, good luck.