PZ Myers. 2005 Sep 02. The best I ever find are mice…. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/the_best_i_ever_find_are_micehellip/>. Accessed 2008 Nov 20.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Friday, September 02, 2005

The best I ever find are mice…

This lucky fellow in England looked behind his sofa and found a 9-inch venomous Scolopendra gigantea. Some people get all the fun.


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Posted by PZ Myers on 09/02 at 06:17 AM
Science • Organisms • 1 Trackbacks • Other weblogs • Permalink
  1. If I found this behind my couch? First, I'd run. Then, when my heart had returned to its normal beat, I'd look for a new place to live.
    That would seriously freak me out.
    Still, fascinating!
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  06:25 AM
  2. I don't have the usual aversions to creepy-crawlies; I can tolerate snakes and spiders (as long as they keep their fangs where I can see them). A simple house centipede, however, once kept me away from my computer desk for three days.

    A nine-inch venomous South American freak? I would move. Definitely to another apartment, but possibly to another city. Changing my citizenship would not be too far out of the question.

    Although not to any country in South America.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  06:30 AM
  3. Holy Freakin' Jebus! And I'm usually disgusted with what the cat brings into the house here in northern Maryland.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  06:41 AM
  4. Holy Wow! Didn't I see that in an old Vincent Price movie? It looks even scarier in colour.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  06:48 AM
  5. "I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

    I could be interested in something like that with maybe three inches of glass between us. Bulletproof glass. And if I had a flamethrower. Otherwise, it's time to visit Scenic Antarctica.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  07:14 AM
  6. "Some people get all the fun."

    Uh, for very low values of fun.
    #: Posted by Janice in GA  on  09/02  at  07:17 AM
  7. My former undergrad advisor is a herpetologist who studies caribbean herps. He tells of hearing a horrible shrieking noise one night while he was out collecting. Following the noise, he found one of those centipedes draped across a bullfrog that was objecting to being eaten alive.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  07:22 AM
  8. I am an admitted coward, and I'm not afraid to admit that this venomous whozimawhatzit would have sent me running for a hammer. It could have been a new species: it would be smashed. It could have housed a cure for AIDS: it would have been smashed. There is no conceivable reason why I would not completely obliterate this creature with a heavy object (attached to a ten-foot pole, of course).

    But, that's just me.
    #: Posted by Heliologue  on  09/02  at  07:41 AM
  9. Don't worry Heliologue. I'm sure the bobbies will be along soon to shoot it. After all, it is from Brazill.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  08:29 AM
  10. Hey, if I found one of those things, I'd keep it and love it and take care of it and name it George. That's a spectacular arthropod, and it deserves a little respect.
    #: Posted by PZ Myers  on  09/02  at  08:46 AM
  11. In my defense, mammals and reptiles are fine in my book. Insects and arachnids are a different matter.
    #: Posted by Heliologue  on  09/02  at  08:49 AM
  12. Mammals are fine…for Scolopodendra to chew on!
    #: Posted by PZ Myers  on  09/02  at  08:52 AM
  13. When I was little I pulled a piece of bark off a tree (in Australia) and there was a big centipede behind it. According to my memory it was about a foot long, but you can't always trust your memory. I am sure that I jumped more than a foot backwards, however. Despite the shock I still continued to pull bark off that tree when I passed it because I wanted the trunk to look nice and smooth. As far as that tree was concerned, I guess I thought its bark was worse than it's fright.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  08:56 AM
  14. I found a 4-inch centipede crawling out from behind my bookshelf once. That was bad enough. I'm pretty cool with arthropods, but enormous centipedes give me the willies. The four-inch horror from behind the bookshelf snuffed it when I hit it with a hammer.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  09:00 AM
  15. Just one? When my mom was a kid, the family maid found an entire colony of centipedes under one of the mattresses.

    If you're looking for ways to kill them, consider taser guns (the ones with the range, naturally). They're built to knock out an adult male homo sapiens weighing 80 kg; presumably they'll kill a centipede weighing 0.5 kg if that much.
    #: Posted by Alon Levy  on  09/02  at  09:00 AM
  16. But the flesh around a tazer wound doesn't actually die, does it? So I doubt Scolopodendra flesh would die. The dart wouldn't do it much good however.

    But I agree with P.Z. It's better to love than to hate.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  09:08 AM
  17. That's a spectacular arthropod, and it deserves a little respect.


    Respect, yes. From a distance.

    (I got out the ruler - and yup, it's big enough that I would robably freak out for a moment if it crawled out of my couch.)
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  09:37 AM
  18. I'm usually opposed to discharging firearms within a dwelling, but if I spotted one of these things in my house, I think I'd be reaching for the shotgun. Birdshot wouldn't do *too* much damage to the drywall..

    -jcr
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  09:55 AM
  19. But the flesh around a tazer wound doesn't actually die, does it? So I doubt Scolopodendra flesh would die. The dart wouldn't do it much good however.

    It would be just like plugging a human into an electric chair, I think.
    #: Posted by Alon Levy  on  09/02  at  10:44 AM
  20. i sure hope we get to see this and the octopi at Circus of the Spineless . . .

    also, if this centipede is related to the giant ones we have in Texas (which hurt like hell) then i think the genus is going to be Scolopendra.
    #: Posted by tony g  on  09/02  at  10:54 AM
  21. i'm glad i wasn't the only one who thought "shotgun".

    not sure i'd use birdshot, though; if the thing would hold still long enough for me to make a quick dash to the store, i might look for a blank cartridge, actually. the barrel's length is ample distance between me and Scolopodendra (the length of a shotgun's barrel is enough distance between me and just about anything, i've always felt), and the concussion should kill something that relies on an exoskeleton, right...?
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  10:54 AM
  22. I used to find those all the time in the apartment I just moved out of.

    Ok, well maybe not quite that big, but still...
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  11:02 AM
  23. On discovering how fond our 6" Hawaiian centipedes are of my compost pile, I decided sandals were a bad idea while working in the yard. They are remarkably tough creatures, but shy and apparently uninterested in getting inside the house. I did get bitten once, at a B&B on Molokai. Not a pleasant way to wake up.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  12:30 PM
  24. Centipedes are the stuff of nightmares. Oh, I forgot to mention, they also live in my apartment, where they apparently eat the cockroaches that infest the building (it's too bad they also don't eat the mice that infest the building). The centipedes use my shower frequently, too, often when my birds and I are in there. Those are exciting showers, I can tell you!

    But I have learned that pouring rubbing alcohol on them kills them really quick-like!
    #: Posted by GrrlScientist  on  09/02  at  12:35 PM
  25. I wouldn't mind a centipede or two if it would eat the roaches. Maybe not a nine inch one, though. (Altough given that the cockroaches around my building are a good 1-2 inches themselves, a roach eating centipede might grow to 9 inches pretty fast.)
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  12:45 PM
  26. looks and responses aside, I think that "scolopendra" is the coolest genus name so far...scolopendraah! sounds marvy when said out loud.
    #: Posted by memo  on  09/02  at  01:03 PM
  27. I find many small frail centipeeds in my house, they disitigrate when you touch them.

    I do not know how I would feel if I found a giant one. I think my curiosity would overcome my fear. Just like when I saw a huge spider sitting on the floor. Normally spiders freak me out, and the giant on freaked me out too, but my curiosity made me get closer and check it out, and then let it go, rather than flushing it.

    By the way, how bad would a bite from one of those things be?

    The most vicious animal I have found in my place is a chipmunk.
    #: Posted by S.T.R.  on  09/02  at  01:37 PM
  28. Those things are venomous, but the venom is rarely fatal (you probably have to have an allergic reaction to it), so I wouldn't be so afraid of them. Of course, I'll never find one of them in my home. But I do find these fairly regularly, and I am terrified of them. I kill each and every one I come across anywhere, because I've known people with legs that looked like this. Give me a 9" centipede any day.
    #: Posted by Chris  on  09/02  at  02:56 PM
  29. There's probably something a bit wrong with me that I'm slightly jealous of that man. What a beautiful centipede! It's probably just as well that it wasn't me, though, as my husband would probably faint if one showed up in our place.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  03:45 PM
  30. I have a strict rule--nobody in the house that has more than four legs. They can have the yard, the porch, and the woods, but I have my limits. The 4" millipedes we get around here are bad enough. At least they're pretty slow. Centipedes are quick.

    All the same, being a sort of approximate Buddhist, I'd have to try to scoop the wee beastie up and put it outside...eek.
    #: Posted by  on  09/02  at  04:05 PM
  31. Normally I am relatively smug that here in good old Blightly (the UK to you foreign types) the most dangerous wildlife we encounter is a mildly peeved otter. However having seen a picture of that centipede I can only hope the bugger hasn't bred! If it has, there may be some interesting chemicals coming home with me from the lab this week.

    Don't get me wrong, I love athropods big and small, but like a previous poster I have my house rules. I have no objection to sharing my domicile with a myriad of spiders (I have never lived anywhere so infested) but they and I have an understanding: I don't see them scare my wife, they don't get buried at sea by way of my toilet. Anything for an easy life!

    That beastie would have merited a serious beating with a shoe or at best a decent attempt at capture. That is phylum arthropoda taking the severe piss, and I will not tolerate it! The only thing that would worry me is that the swine would take the shoe away from me and beat me with it.
    #: Posted by  on  09/03  at  01:53 AM
  32. We have 'em here in Texas. Only ours are often deep purple when they're that big. No kidding. They're scary-fast, too. As a kid, you're made to believe that every leg can sting you. Not true, of course, but they do have huge, venomous fangs that would probably hurt. A lot.
    #: Posted by  on  09/03  at  06:58 AM
  33. I think ol' PZ gotta remember that PETA doesnt stand for People for the Ethical Treatment of Arthropods.
    #: Posted by  on  09/03  at  08:16 AM
  34. No, but since arthropods are animals, PETA supports treating them ethically by deduction.
    #: Posted by Alon Levy  on  09/03  at  10:05 AM
  35. "That's a spectacular arthropod, and it deserves a little respect."

    I am glad someone else is tickled by Scolopendra. grin I remember my fascination first time I saw it. (In a jar in a museum, of course.) Perhaps some of it at the time was because my mother had learned me to be afraid for spiders, while I was never afraid of the many millipeds and centipedes you meet when digging in rich soils. But the Scolopendra was impressive and a centipede even a few centimeters long have a nasty bite when provoked.

    I am happy to say that I come over my spider fear when I met tarantulas in South America. Somehow it pared them down to proper size. Arthropods, reptiles and fish are preferable as pets in my book over mammals and birds that really dish out hurt. But they are not so cuddly so mammals usually win. wink

    And I see that frogs can scream. I thought they could since I accidentally severed a leg from a frog while moving high grass with a scythe. The leg went one way, the frog another and a high sound was made. So perhaps it was not the scythe cut but the poor frog itself instead. (I know, I know, one should always try to repeat 'observations', preferably in controlled form. :-( )
    #: Posted by  on  09/04  at  01:01 PM
  36. Well, the UK has nettles. UK nettles are *nasty* as common plants go; they can't kill you but if you fall into a patch you can get a nasty reaction from the sheer volume of toxin. And I was stunned to discover that elsewhere in the world people go for walks in the countryside wearing shorts. In the UK that would be foolish at best.
    #: Posted by  on  09/04  at  04:50 PM
  37. I just returned from a vacation in England, and read this story in the national presses while I was there. The thing that bowled me over was that that bloke put the beast in a box overnight, then brought it to the Museum of Natural History in London for identification, then (if I read the stories correctly) he *took it home* again.

    (Anyone in Blighty who wants to see a live Scolopendra from a safe distance can go to the Butterfly Farm in Stratford-on-Avon -- highly recommended. They have an equally horror-inducing giant 'bird-eating' spider on exhibit too, and my inner 10-year-old immediately wondered which one would win in a fight.)
    #: Posted by  on  09/05  at  11:34 PM
  38. Well, very young nettles make a tasty and nutrious soup. I am not so sure about n-peds. (n >= 6.) Except of course the always useful octopods!
    #: Posted by  on  09/07  at  12:39 PM