London man finds world's largest species of centipede in his apartment

LONDON (AP) - Aaron Balick expected to find a tiny mouse stirring around behind the TV in his apartment. Instead, he found a venomous giant centipede that somehow made its way from South America to Britain.

Source: MSN/Sympatico News/The Canadian Press

Read about it here or here .

Has anybody else had something like this happen? I know some people that work in the produce department of my local grocery store, and they tell me that time from time they find big spiders (like tarantulas) and even venemous snakes in with the food that comes in! A couple of guys have been so scared by them that they quit.. They especially like to come in with the >

[edit on 3-9-2005 by Yarcofin]

You might be suprised but almost any imported things, have chances of a stoleaway.

Fruits have the highest chances, lowest been frozen goods.

The Centipede, might also be a family pet, and "released" back into the wild.

Anyway, if my Grandpa is still around (that would make him 100years old) he would threw this poor bugger into his bottle of Chinese herbal tonic. Which happen to also have other Centipedes, Lizards and a mouse (>...>

Yikes! I rely on my dustbuster for collecting crawly things like that, but mines' not big enough for this one.

We get those all the time here. They can get pretty big; I think the largest one we found in our house was three or four inches long. They're really not pleasant to find, especially when they hide in the legs of your pants before you put them on in the morning.

That was somebody's pet there, I imagine is a person in his apartement building looking for the insenct right now.

That centipede is nothing compared to the Iraqi Camel Spider



video.clipstream.com...

Thats two Camel Spiders mating though dont forget

I found a video link to one of them eating a toad if i can find it again i'll post it!!!

Heh. Camel spiders are another type of bug we get here in AZ. Around my house, they're known as "vinegar roons", for some unknown reason. Also unpleasant to find in your pants leg in the morning. I haven't seen one with a 5" legspan for a while, though.

It's gross to kill them, because they leave a huge brown smear on whatever you smash them on. Very juicy; very nasty.

[edit on 3-9-2005 by Wolvaurynphamir]

Originally posted by Wolvaurynphamir
Heh. Camel spiders are another type of bug we get here in AZ. Around my house, they're known as "vinegar roons", for some unknown reason. Also unpleasant to find in your pants leg in the morning. I haven't seen one with a 5" legspan for a while, though.

It's gross to kill them, because they leave a huge brown smear on whatever you smash them on. Very juicy; very nasty.

[edit on 3-9-2005 by Wolvaurynphamir]

I live in Arizona also but I have never seen one of those

*Doesn't sleep tonight due to fear of big bugs*

Originally posted by Yarcofin

Has anybody else had something like this happen? I know some people that work in the produce department of my local grocery store, and they tell me that time from time they find big spiders (like tarantulas) and even venemous snakes in with the food that comes in! A couple of guys have been so scared by them that they quit.

. They especially like to come in with the >

[edit on 3-9-2005 by Yarcofin]

I used to work in the produce department of a local supermarket & on occasion would find dead tarantulas with alot of the fruit. Especially bananas or other exotic fruits from South America. I never saw a live one but I know of a manager from another store that got bit by a tarantula while stocking the banana shelf.

Holy Hell! That'll be haunting my dreams for quite sometime. Hopefully it'll chase away the little green men and shadow people.

If I found a bug that big in my house, I'd be asking how do those critters reproduce? I hate to find out that it laid eggs and I had hundreds or thousands crawling around my house one morning. I'd also be nervous what something that big might have been eating all this time it was there. Reminds me of some giant earthworms in my backyard that were over a foot long and as thick as my finger or thumb. At least those are outside.

I remember, I was in a hotel on the coast of Colombia having my vacation. As I came back from a trip at the town, ther was this realy big hermit crab in my room. Now thy aren't creepy. Actually really cool. But how the heck did it get into my room which was locked and on a fourth floor???

Originally posted by Wolvaurynphamir
Heh. Camel spiders are another type of bug we get here in AZ. Around my house, they're known as "vinegar roons", for some unknown reason. Also unpleasant to find in your pants leg in the morning. I haven't seen one with a 5" legspan for a while, though.

It's gross to kill them, because they leave a huge brown smear on whatever you smash them on. Very juicy; very nasty.

[edit on 3-9-2005 by Wolvaurynphamir]

They are also called "Wind Scorpions". They are called Vinegaroons because they can squirt acetic acid on you that smells like vinegar.

you people have made me afraid to go to sleep now! i'm having visions of being awoken in the middle of the night by some massive venemous bug crawling on me (i'm afraid of bugs already dangit!)

Those centipedes are quite nasty little fellows. They feed on lizards, frogs and even birds Poisonous though the females are more poisonous they are also rather very fast-moving, and extremely aggressive when provoked.

Sometimes dangerous bugs are transported without knowing. I use to work at Stop and Shop along time ago and we found a Black widow in a shipment of grapes one time. The girls in Floraist dept. use to find all sorts of tropical frogs and lizards in their plants.

I would bet on it being a pet though its a really exotic insect and having it turn up in a guys apartment makes me believe this all the more. My friend has some of the most Poisonous scorpions in the world as pets. though ones died but I would put money on someone having it as a pet in his apartment and it escaping.

Im not sure of the exotic pet laws in the UK dealing with insects atleast. But maybe its illegal and the real owner didnt want to get in trouble when it escaped so he keep his mouth shut.

[edit on 13-9-2005 by ShadowXIX]

Yup, I saw one that big in the Dominican Republic when I was a kid. In fact, we saw it in the house we were to first stay in about 10 minutes after we first arrived at our destination in the capitol of Santo Domingo. After more than 6 years there, none of us ever saw one again as big. But you should see the overgrown tarantulas

I don't know how out-of-the ordinary this is, but I found a Cicada in the grass in my backyard last night. Symbol of bad luck or something maybe? I dunno. Apparently it just died and fell out of the air. It's in a plastic bag in the kitchen now. Rest in peace, little buddy.

I thought they only come out once every 15 years or something like that? What the heck was this one up to . I didn't know they even have them here. I can hear them whenever I go camping up North, but not usually around here.

It's about an inch long. Kinda camouflage coloured. I'll take some pictures if anybody wants to see, but it's not really anything special. Just the first time I've ever seen one.

Biggest.Fly.Ever.

Originally posted by Stuey1221
Thats two Camel Spiders mating though dont forget

I found a video link to one of them eating a toad

if i can find it again i'll post it!!!

I don't care if its 4 of the damn things, they still look like they came from Ridley Scott's Alien. Flippin' hell, would you look at them! I thought trapdoor spiders were big. Jeeze, give me Australian wildlife any day...at least it's predictable...

If I ever saw a camel spider I would probably run for miles, even if it wasn't chasing me. I don't have arachnophobia(not sure if that's how you spell it) but i'm not really fond of spiders that are even the size of my fingernail. Thank God I don't live in or anywhere near those things.