Fear of the Centipede

Not quite sure what I think about the centipede (Wikipedia)

“Mum, mum, there’s a ….thing in the bath.”  Oh no, not a spider, please not a spider.  I peered in.  Ugh.  A strange, long legged centipede.  Like a spider with a long body and oh, about 100 legs.  Great. Now then, an elephant, a tiger, a mouse in the bath would all be fine.  But a tiny little insect. Aaargh!!!

I don’t mind lizards.  Mice, cute.  Rats, hmmm.  Ants, interesting.  Beetles, many hours spent rescuing them from pools and ponds.  A centipede, well this particular type, was new to me, and I wasn’t quite sure…

I’ll happily rescue a beetle in distress

With no Zed here it was down to me to grab glass and paper and remove it.  I took it outside and it hurried away on it’s 30 plus brown legs.  Not actually 100 legs, apparently. I didn’t count them.  Anyway, for the next half an hour whenever I felt anything on my skin, a dressing gown belt, hem of my skirt, I was convinced it was a many legged something and would jump.

I can cope with mice though.

I believe this brown, many legged creature is a House Centipede.  We’ve seen quite a few while we’ve been here.  On the plus side, according to information I found on real monstrosities they eat other insects.  Keeping the rest of the insect population down in the house.  They’re particularly keen on silver fish.  On the minus side they can sting and cause swelling or a rash.  Otherwise fairly harmless.

Maybe I’ll keep the house centipede and throw the elephant and tiger out with the bath water instead.