UK: Briton finds venomous centipede in house

LA Daily News ^ | 8/31/05 | ap - London

[NormsRevenge]

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

"Thinking it was a mouse, I went to investigate the sound. The sound was coming from under some papers which I lifted, expecting to see the mouse scamper away," the 32-year-old psychotherapist said Wednesday. "Instead, when I lifted the papers, I saw this prehistoric looking animal skitter away behind a stack of books."

He trapped the 9-inch-long creature between a stack of books and put it in a plastic container.

The next day he took it to Britain's Natural History Museum, which identified the insect as a Scolopendra gigantea - the world's biggest species of centipede.

Stuart Hine, an entomologist at the museum, said it was likely the centipede hitched a ride aboard a freighter, likely with a shipment of fruit.

"Dealing with over 4,000 public and commercial inquiries every year, we have come to expect the unexpected. However, when Aaron produced this beast from his bag I was staggered," Hine said. "Not even I expected to be presented with this."

The Scolopendra gigantea has front claws that are adapted to deliver venom when it stings, which can lead to a blistering rash, nausea and fever. The sting is rarely life-threatening, but painful.

[NormsRevenge]

An image released by Britain's Natural History Museum in London, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005, showing Natural History Museum expert Stuart Hine with a giant centipede 'Scolopendra gigantea', which was found in a north London home. Aaron Balick, 32, a psychologist from Islington, north London, trapped the venomous centipede in a plastic box after he found it behind his TV and took it to the Natural History Museum. There, experts identified it as 'Scolopendra gigantea' - the world's largest species of centipede. The creature measured nine inches long by just under an inch wide (not including its legs). (AP Photo / Natural History Museum, PA)

[Alien Gunfighter]

Man, if that ain't ever a gigantic case of the willies just waiting to happen.

[Abathar]

Imagine waking up with that thing crawling across you in bed. I'm 6'3" 300 lbs and you would probably hear me scream like a 12 year old girl...

[Fierce Allegiance]

The creature measured nine inches long by just under an inch wide (not including its legs).

Brits still using the olde English measuring system? Imagine that!

[Millee]

I'm normally not afraid of bugs, but finding that thing might put me on the south side of the daisys! Yiikes!!

[flashbunny]

forget the can of raid

I'd be reaching for the shotgun.

[Straight8]

"The Tingler" lives!
That'd leave a psychological mark.

[Jakarta ex-pat]

A post like this, in these testing times, is what makes FreeRepublic extraordinary in a sea of ordinary.

keep smiling,

Philip.

[atomicpossum]

In France, that thing could run for office.

[Riley]

Imagine waking up with that thing crawling across you in bed. I'm 6'3" 300 lbs and you would probably hear me scream like a 12 year old girl...

I think that I might produce a Riley-shaped hole in the ceiling with a fusillade of gunfire coming out of it.

[stuartcr]

Their weights and volumes are measured metrically.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"I have the strangest feeling...I have seen that somewhere before..."

[DTogo]

We need these at G'itmo.

That would get some intell out of terrorists!

[Abathar]

LOL!

[sionnsar]

Brits still using the olde English measuring system? Imagine that!

Units were probably converted by an American editor.

[FOG724]

ping

[pepsionice]

And just how many of these critters are running around the UK? I'll bet into the hundreds right now.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"Thinking it was a mouse, I went to investigate the sound. The sound was coming from under some papers which I lifted, expecting to see the mouse scamper away," the 32-year-old psychotherapist said Wednesday. "Instead, when I lifted the papers, I saw this prehistoric looking animal skitter away behind a stack of books."

Psychotherapist, eh? It's possible a patient wrestling with some...uh...deep issues slipped it in there to have some fun with their shrink.

[Samwise]

[spetznaz]

Well, you should see some of the caterpillars they have in S.America. Some of those b@$tard$ look freakin' alien! Oh, and touch the bristles on their back and you will literally swell up like you were down with an elephantiasis infection!

We have some bad 'suckas' when it comes to caterpillars in the US, for example the Saddleback caterpillar below which can sting like heck and looks worse, but some of the Amazonian caterpillars are bloody murder!

And don't even get me started on the centipedes. I've seen a centipede eat a small bird. That is when you know you are not in Kansas anymore.