Wtf?

[jcon]

I don't even have ants in my house - really. There is rarely even a mosquito - my house is a no-insect zone...... or so I thought.

Then tonight I'm sitting here and I see this beast run across the floor:

I gassed it with some bug spray (gassed myself along with it) and grabbed the closest things to me (UBC remote and some large mail) for a size reference:

Picked it up in a cardboard box I had within reach and now it lays dead:

What the heck???? What is this thing, Giant Centipede???? In the house?????????????? Would it have kicked my cat's ass (poisonous)??? That thing was huge........ and put up a serious fight against the spray, the freaking dinosaur. Never seen anything like it.

[sbk]

yup and nasty critters they are. I am surprised spray worked tbh, I usually just chop their heads off with the machete and then keep the wriggling body pinned with the machete and the wriggling head pinned iwth something else until the stop moving.

[jcon]

yup and nasty critters they are. I am surprised spray worked tbh, I usually just chop their heads off with the machete and then keep the wriggling body pinned with the machete and the wriggling head pinned iwth something else until the stop moving.

A machete?!? You're hardcore sbk The closest thing I have is a Swiss Army Knife and some car wrenches. I did give it a smack with a heavy mail packet and stunned it, then shuffled through the cupboards for some chemical (I was looking for bleach, because I didn't think I had bug spray ) - I found a big can of the Baygon stuff and chased it around (they're not that fast) and whacked it again and when it curled up I sprayed the head for a long time. Then the body. You can kind of see how wet it is from the spray-down.

p.s. It's still alive/moving in the cardboard box.... that was like a half-hour ago when I drowned it in that spray. It's now in the box on my car hood outside (saving it for the neighbor's kids to check out), I want to sleep but I wonder if it will come back for revenge!!!! The jaws on that thing are huge.

edit: that was 50 mins ago, not a half-hour!!!! This thing is the Chuck Norris of centipedes.

Edited May 26, 2011 by jcon

[cardholder]

yup and nasty critters they are. I am surprised spray worked tbh, I usually just chop their heads off with the machete and then keep the wriggling body pinned with the machete and the wriggling head pinned iwth something else until the stop moving.

I bet you pulled legs off spiders when you were a child ........

[chinnotes]

These centipedes belong to the genus Scolopendra, in Thai they are called ตะขาบ (Takarp). I saw some that were 20 cm long. They like dark and moist localities. They hunt for other small animals, mostly during night.

Erwin

[sbk]

yup and nasty critters they are. I am surprised spray worked tbh, I usually just chop their heads off with the machete and then keep the wriggling body pinned with the machete and the wriggling head pinned iwth something else until the stop moving.

I bet you pulled legs off spiders when you were a child ........

Nope, I like spiders. I just don't tolerate poisonous things in or near my house, and as jcon has now found out, some simple poisonous bug spray doesn't stop these things. chop off their heads and then smash the head.

and I have a machete so I don't have to get close to these things.

[TheWalkingMan]

Scary creature. Reminds me of that movie The Tingler with Vincent Price... Just scream~~~~~~~

TheWalkingMan

[ETatBKK]

in my last encounter, I showered it with insect spray - absolutely it won't kill this urgy creature :- (

it immobilised for a short while, then I do my FAST house cleaning work and send it to the toilet flushing - my standard procedure to such unwelcome visitors !

not sure they survive or not, but as least 'contained' !

[Tywais]

send it to the toilet flushing

I would be nervous about sitting on the toilet for a long time.

[meatboy]

These centipedes belong to the genus Scolopendra, in Thai they are called ตะขาบ (Takarp). I saw some that were 20 cm long. They like dark and moist localities. They hunt for other small animals, mostly during night.

Erwin

its a takarp all right the mrs got bit by one of these beasts as a kid and suufered the most terifying hallucinations,allways get the head first,saw one in perfect condition in a glass of brandy to be swallowed whole.

[ETatBKK]

send it to the toilet flushing

I would be nervous about sitting on the toilet for a long time.

ouch ! totally unprotected :- )

indeed, insect as such, can't just dump it, need to be physically destoried !

[canuckamuck]

Don't mess with these. They give an extremely painful bite. I took a old lady to the hospital last year after she was bit, We thought she might not make it. She was in pretty rough shape.

They can be fast if they are warm, it seems the one you had wasn't

[jcon]

Good info guys/gal, thanks! I can imagine the bite would not be pretty because I got a look at the jaws on the thing and they were pretty huge.

Told the neighbor kids to ''check out what's in this box'' and they freaked!

I've never seen one before and I wouldn't be sad if I never saw one again.

A visitor to sbk's home: "What's that chip in the granite from?"

sbk: "Oh just a mark from my machete when I hacked off the head of a centipede."

[Sheryl]

Tons of them around where I live.

It's one of the reasons I have a small "moat" surrounding the house. I find many dead ones in the moat, they can't swim apparently, so if it were not for the moat...

I hear the sting is worse than that of a scorpion, and having been stung once by a scorpion, that's more than i can really imagine...

And yeah, they look creepy as %$@! to boot.

Actually from the title, I thought this would be about a Monitor Lizard. Now they really, really do look like cast-offs from the Jurassic Park film lot.

[tutsiwarrior]

he looks like all greased up an ready fer de skillet...onions, garlic and a bit ob tomato paste...with maybe a home made nan bread that people discuss in the food section...

the BiL he find one in the house once and stomped on it bare footed...then kicked it outta the way for the niece to sweep up and discard...

[sbk]

Good info guys/gal, thanks! I can imagine the bite would not be pretty because I got a look at the jaws on the thing and they were pretty huge.

Told the neighbor kids to ''check out what's in this box'' and they freaked!

I've never seen one before and I wouldn't be sad if I never saw one again.

A visitor to sbk's home: "What's that chip in the granite from?"

sbk: "Oh just a mark from my machete when I hacked off the head of a centipede."

mea culpa, there are chips in the cement walkway behind the house. The house is located on a stream which when its really dry, does mostly dry up but also accounts for the multitudes of critters; snakes, cobras, centipedes, toads, frogs, birds, and all sorts of wild insects. Hence, I learned to note what was poisonous and what was not and to not tolerate them in or near my home. People who think you should carry poisonous critters off have not had to deal with them as much as I have.

[Cuban]

These lovely creatures have evolved over millions of years and have their place in the food chain, however in and around human homes is not their place. Using the can to crush and kill them is probably more effective and less harmful to you and other air breathing creatures. I can confirm that they bite (nip - whatever they animal parts they use) and bloody hurt!

[mouse]

And to think that you only catch the slow ones.

[IMA_FARANG]

Oh yes, I've seen them. Giant centipides. Biggest one I saw must have been about 10 to 12 inches long and scared the h-ll out of me. That was many years ago in Vietnam, however.

They have a bite, but the real problem is they also have a painful venom in their bite.

Good news, and I know you won't believe this, they really don't want to hurt you, they are after insects and small lizards as food. They are really just trying to get away from you. Uually they hide in dark places during the day and humt at night.

If you step on them( especiallywith bare feet) or put your hand into where they are hiding they can give you a painful bite. Actually most bites occur because to their miniscule "brain" they react to you as a threat. From their viewpoint, after all, you are hundeds of times bigger than they are, and you look pretty dangerous to THEM.

You can kill them with insecticide, but takes a LOT of insecticide...and it takes a while for their brain to realise they are really dead. They have been around in one form or another for over 100 million years and they are tough.

In that way at least you have to admire them as survivors. They can absorb an amazing amount of insecticide. A human that size would be dead with probably 1/100th of the amount of poison it takes to kill them. Thank God they can't be scaled up to human size. They are invertebrates, with no skeleton to support their body, so if they ever WERE scaled up to human size, their body would quickly collapse under it's own wieght.

[F1fanatic]

Oh yes, I've seen them. Giant centipides. Biggest one I saw must have been about 10 to 12 inches long and scared the h-ll out of me. That was many years ago in Vietnam, however.

They have a bite, but the real problem is they also have a painful venom in their bite.

Good news, and I know you won't believe this, they really don't want to hurt you, they are after insects and small lizards as food. They are really just trying to get away from you. Uually they hide in dark places during the day and humt at night.

If you step on them( especiallywith bare feet) or put your hand into where they are hiding they can give you a painful bite. Actually most bites occur because to their miniscule "brain" they react to you as a threat. From their viewpoint, after all, you are hundeds of times bigger than they are, and you look pretty dangerous to THEM.

You can kill them with insecticide, but takes a LOT of insecticide...and it takes a while for their brain to realise they are really dead. They have been around in one form or another for over 100 million years and they are tough.

In that way at least you have to admire them as survivors. They can absorb an amazing amount of insecticide. A human that size would be dead with probably 1/100th of the amount of poison it takes to kill them. Thank God they can't be scaled up to human size. They are invertebrates, with no skeleton to support their body, so if they ever WERE scaled up to human size, their body would quickly collapse under it's own wieght.

I'm happy to say that I've only seen 2 in the years I've been here.

The first time was walking the dogs on the beach when they were developing a new site so it had obviously been driven away. I left it alone after staring for a while!

Unfortunately the second time was on the path beside my house.... I'm ashamed to admit I killed it as I DID NOT want it in my house, having heard about their 'bite'.

Its unfortunate that (thinking about it) I ignore snakes and wait for them to go away, but it didn't even cross my mind to just move the centipede somewhere else.

[sabye]

That is just a small one. I have seen them on my property in excess of 30 cm. The ones here have very orange legs and just the bright colors are enough to make you think they are dangerous. Their bite is very painful and one person I know was bitten here and required hospitalization. Since we have cleared most of the land around here of underbrush we don't see many of the big ones anymore just the smaller 10-20 cm ones. I have cut them into 3 pieces before and they were still moving after an hour. They are very hard to kill.

[meatboy]

i was at one of these open air buffet rest.here in korat the place is packed every night,someone shouted takarb you never seen a place empty so quick.they like to go between the turf in the garden and the surrounding wall and come out when you water.

[Patsycat]

I saw one like that in Africa. And yes, the guy who killed it was wielding a machete. Scary, but he knew what he was doing.

[Mossfinn]

I usually just chop their heads off with the machete and then keep the wriggling body pinned with the machete and the wriggling head pinned iwth something else until the stop moving.

I thought we were talking about Centipedes, not the training of new mods...

They are invertebrates, with no skeleton to support their body, so if they ever WERE scaled up to human size, their body would quickly collapse under it's own wieght.

well, that makes me feel a lot better

[meatboy]

fri. night sat having a quite can with my wife and freind when all hell brakes loose, dog starts performing my freind jumps up shouts tarkab,got him the bigest bar stuart i have seen shouts to mrs meat get the camera,f off was the reply shes up on the table,got a good photo will someone tell me how i can post it.he is a cracker.

[PoorSucker]

Don't use pesticide, ruins the flavour.

Just put in bottle with Lao Khaoo.

Yes, I have tried.

[Patsycat]

If you drink out of the bottle it might grab your tonsils!!