That was a monster from the depths of hell!

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Nah, it was just a house centipede.

...Actually, on second thought, you're probably right.

Signed,
Nyarlathotep and the Cthulhu Five

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That, my unfortunate friend, is a House Centipede, and it is a beast to be reckoned with. They live for five years, are resistant to pesticides and feed on eggs and small insects.

I have cackled insanely over many a mangle corpse. They must be dealt a swift hand of merciless death.

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Witness at the scene: "It crawl around my bedroom and scared me 30 minuts I caught it with a glass and water then drowns."

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That entry say it eat termite an' cockaroach an' silverfish an' bedbug.

One of Nature's big jokes, then, innit?

"Hey! You can have tiny little bugs that bite you and rot your wood and chomp your books and do nasty things to your house... OR you can have giant furry multi-legged primordial terrors what eats em!"

Also according to Wikipedia talk, the following is a list of prototype extermination devices: "shoes, brooms, magazinese, prayers"

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That, my friend, is the bane of my personal existance. That is known as the common centipede. I once saw one that was 9 inches long in my livingroom (of a different apartment). They eat bugs, for what that's worth, and live inside the walls of buildings. They prefer the dark. This is why I leave a florescent light on in my back hallway from the garage (so they don't gang up on me in there.

No, I totally get it.

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I've had these from time to time. "Huh, that's no cockroach!"

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Yeah, and honestly, I'm glad it wasn't a cockroach. I just wish it hadn't decided to go running across my wall at 3 in the morning.

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Those are pretty common. (I've even seen one around here once in awhile). I let them live becuase they eat other insects.

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Now that I know they take care of some of the nastier critters in the insect world, I feel only slightly bad for smooshing it. But maybe its next of kin will give me advance warning when they decide to go sightseeing!

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Yeah -- that is, technically, considered one of the "good bugs". It eats destructive bugs, and is totally harmless to humans, pets, and your stuff.

That said, it is one of the two bugs which I SQUASH ON SIGHT -- EEEEWWWW!

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What's the other one?

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Did you notice how when you squash a centipede, sometimes some of the legs fall off and keep on twitching afterward?

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I hereby name that one 'Terrell Owens'.

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Oh yeah. I knew what it was going to be even before I saw the picture.

I live in a basement apartment with some of those. I called the first one 'Duriel' on account of its many legs and blinding speed. They're harmless unless you happen to be a slower bug. They are the cheetahs of the arthropod world, and probably the main reason why I don't have crickets or roaches in here.

In an annoying little quirk of evolution, their main survival imperative seems to be 'when the light comes on, run for the nearest shadow'. If the nearest shadow is someone's shoe, so be it. That's a bit unnerving, when they run at you.

I lived in a rural area with a partly-finished basement for sixteen years, and never saw one. I only saw them when we moved to the city. Our cat used to go into the basement of the city house and hunt the big ones. He'd come upstairs with a four-inch leg stuck in his ruff. It was rather like seeing a sperm whale with giant sucker marks all over its face, and being unable to comprehend the size of the squid it must have tangled with.

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I have about four million of those in the house. We have an agreement: they stay in the basement.

If I could get them to live by the agreement, it would be better. But I'd still rather have those than flies.

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I'm good with bugs (I had to be due to them being pickled and in the freezer for 3 years etc). But I DRAW THE LINE at centipedes. I don't care if I AM a vegetarian they are WRONG.

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Oh man, in the first house that I lived in with my parents, those things LIVED in my room. Imagine going up to your room and turning on the light to see on curled up in the corner...or waking up in the middle of the night to see a dark smudge on the wall that wasn't there before....or having one FALL ON YOUR ARM.

UUUUGGGH.

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I will never paint walls with anything rougher than semigloss. They can't climb it on a smooth wall. At least the big ones can't. My basement has one bit of wall that is exposed cinderblock painted over, and that's the only place I ever see them higher than my head.

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Freaky.

BTW - this is unrelated to your post, but its something I thought you'd appreciate - modern movie posters done in the style of ancient Russian illustrations:

http://ziza.ru/2006/06/16/rastamanskie-narodnye-skazki.html

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I really wish I could read that page. :(

(I got most of them from the illustrations but not all)

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The buggle is Lovecraftian enough, but leaving the smudge there when you go to bed is a whole new level.

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It was left as a warning to the others, much like how convicted and executed pirates were hung in a gibbet o'er the entrance to the bay to show other pirates that No Sir, We're Not Kidding Around With You Guys Anymore...

ok I got nothin. I did go back this morning with a damp paper towel and clean the smudge off, so at least the physical reminders of The Incident are gone. Nice thing bout these bugs, I guess, is they clean up rather easily.

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