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

Originally posted by Yarcofin
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.

Actually, cicadas come out annually--around here, it's usually in the middle of summer, around July or so--but they're more abundant some years than others because the nymphs (larvae) can stay underground for around six or seven years. We have some pretty bad cicada seasons where you walk outside and you see at least fifteen of the little buggers. And they're not cute, either. We used to make sport out of catching them and performing various cruelties on them. Our favorite was throwing them in soapy water, or tying a string to them and carrying them around (much like some people do with flies, I'm told).

I would like to see a picture, though. I'm always curious about animals and insects from different regions. In the more deserty areas of Arizona, I've seen some cicadas that are black-and-orange. Beautiful, but annoying as hell.

My ex who is deathly scared once found a spider with a body about 5 inches long, it was much, much bigger than tarantulas Ive come across in the past. It was about the size of a CD case or even a bit bigger.

I spent 30 minutes trying to kill the thing before shed come back into the house.

Nature is a grand and glorious thing; with many and varied species inhabiting this great big World of ours..
Unfortunately, the vast majority of them make me want to leap three feet into the air and hit them with a shovel..
I guess I'm just not a good environmentalist..

My uncle had a damn tarantula, he dot it from the Dominicon Republic, he did construction work down there. Biggest bug I've seen natural? Eaiter a centipede or a spider, the centipede was long, about half a foot, but the spider was just huge, I thought it was a tarantula of some sorts but looked it up online to find it was a Wild Jumping Spider. It didn't say how big they got but this thing wouldn't sit in my hand.

Oh God not sleeping tonight, nightmares!

Couldn't find a picture of it but they are black and white with bright emerald green eyes, quite beautiful if they aren't the size of a large rat.

[edit on 5-10-2005 by Full Metal]

Why anyone would want an evil looking centerpede like that as a pet is completely beyond me! Terrible mutant looking thing would have copped the big end of a cricket bat if i found it, credit to the london man for having the nuts to actually put it in a container!
As for that camel spider, id be frozen with fear if l come face to face with that horrow show, not a big fan of spiders at all. Anyone know if theres any truth in the old tale about how they crawl into your mouth while your asleep, looking for water cause it's moist, apparently quite a few before you die!! , not into it one bit, nasty little pieces of work.

I am a welder by trade and we were working with some metal from Mexico, the first day went without incident, but the second day when I put my leathers on about 10 minutes later I felt a burning sensation along my shoulders and thinking maybe a piece of slag had gotten into my collar I reached back to smother whatever was burning me ,and I felt something crunch underneath my hand.

Now I knew this didn't feel or sound right so I stripped off my gear and there was some type of beetle that I had never seen before( and still haven't been able to identify in various botanical texts (maybe it was a sub-genus or mutant in it's class )), all mashed up from where I had squished it but it's apparent defensive mechanism was to spray a toxic substance that burns like you had applied an open flame directly to your skin and like a skunk the effects lasted quite awhile even after thoroughly washing the area affected.

Needless to say I am very diligent about checking my equipment beforehand nowadays whether working with exotic products or not.

who would keep that insane mutanty thing crazy spider/centipede thing in their apartment? I can't wait till that thing is in the news again for running after a lady who lives in the same apartment building and actually almost killing her by shock.

Haha, I bet that some guys pet got loose in the complex, I'm not into myriapods but I used to collect some inverts, the chances of this happaning are relativly large, centipedes are houdinis when it comes to crappy enclosures.

wanna read up on this Arachnoboards is the way to go.

www.arachnoboards.com

reply to post by Yarcofin


Are cicada a symbol of bad luck?

My backyerd in TX seams to be a breeding ground for them theyre all over the place...constantly in my house

theyre also always molting theres hollow cicada averywhere too, there shells cling hard to things so its hard to tell wich ones are alive

reply to post by Wolvaurynphamir


IF WE CAN LEARN TO MAKE THEM TASTE GOOD, THEN ITLL END WORLD HUNGER!!!! XD

A few things you may not know about these creatures.

-They are highly intelligent (about as intelligent as a rat)

-They can be trained......seriously

-The tiny babies (about a centimeter long) are incredibly fast and agile and pack a powerful sting.

-You can pull out their fangs rendering them harmless. Cruel but interesting.

-If one individual is in distress-ie-been run over by a car tyre, another will appear and perform first aid.

I have watched a giant centipede almost severed by my motorbike withering in agony, only to witness another one come out from the jungle and seem to perform surgeory. I was so amazed and went for 1 minute to get witneses to return to the scene and both centipedes have vanished from the middle of a concrete road, in a few seconds.

They are common here in the jungle in S.E.Asia. I also used to dig them up in Melbourne as well. The live in the dirt but can climb walls and trees.

I am pretty sure they live almost anywhere, probably in UK as well.

-They scare the # outta me. I have no problems with the giant geckos (vicious), snakes, rats, squirrels, giant monitor lizards, rabid dogs etc, all that live in my roof or under my house-but the giant centipede just aint right.

BTW the above info is true.

[edit on 11-10-2008 by serpentine]

reply to post by serpentine


You have rabid dogs in your house??????

I had a Water Moccisin under one of my flower pots the other day.

Thought it was a hugacious rat snake at first, must've been living around my neighbors pool.

Then I found a big tent worm... about 4" long... almost threw up on him!

The links don't work?????

That is a BIG bug

it was definitely someone's escaped pet. i have 2 of them currently and have had 5 over the years. my largest is almost a foot long and about as fat as an average snake.
they are becoming increasingly popular as pets and they spend almost all of their waking hours trying to escape from their enclosures so incidents like this will probably become increasingly common.
i keep mine in 10 gallon fish tanks with the silicone in the corners covered in thick plastic tape so they can't climb up it. the top is also secure screen that they can't wedge thru or around.
they are cool pets, but you have to keep them secure.
if they bite you, you won't die, but you will definitely wish they hadn't.

Saw lots of thes in Mid east. Seen smaller ones in south Texas.
The camel spiders are actually not true spiders. Spiders are arachnids with 8 legs. Camel spiders are arthropods with 10 legs falling under the family Solifugae.

There is a type of centipede on Kiribati that grows to 8 inches or even larger and its "feet" are actually poisonous although I don't know if it is a venom injection or simply a secretion. When they are cut in half, you've got two of the damn things running around. Freaky.

damnitall, wont be sleeping tonite after reading this thread. If i saw one of those giant centipedes id run for the can of RAID, on second thought maybe some cyanide or DDT. far as those pesky cammel spiders, those things look like Facehuggers out of Aliens. ID either have a heart attack or run like hell if i ever saw one of them things.

Just to refresh the links for this thread

The original story
news.bbc.co.uk...

A new development
news.bbc.co.uk...

And a happy ending
news.bbc.co.uk...


It was someones pet.

I'm currently living in Hong Kong and I've seen some big spiders and lizards INSIDE my place. The biggest spider was about the size of my palms. The biggest lizard was about 5" long. I'm not particular scared of animals but it's unnerving when they run over your foot first thing in the morning while taking a pee.

The centipede in the story would have froze me on the spot. /shudder