Posted on 08/31/2005 10:04:07 AM PDT by 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.
I remember going out in the Chihuahua desert outside Carlsbad to do some snake hunting with a couple of amigos. I was walking along in a dried up arroyo. Stopped for a minute to look around and get my bearing when I suddenly felt something crawling along my boot. I stand still, look down expecting to see a diamond back, instead there is the biggest damn centipede I ever saw in my life.
Now it may have been a case of overkill, but I pulled my Smith M-29 and shot the damn thing between my feet. One half went one direction, the other half went another direction, and I stood there thanking the good Lord that I was already wearing brown jeans.
Oh, The Tingler is a riot! Great campy 1950s B SciFi/horror film. Custom made for the ultra-creepy Vincent Price. Always wondered where those twisted horror film freaks came up with the idea for that freaky creature.
Now we know... LOL!
My bet's on a disgruntled patient leaving this behind as a souvenir for their "psychologist."
One of these was actually crawling across the floor of our office here a couple of years ago. From a distance, I thought it was a small snake. We put it in a jar and the local bank displayed it for a couple of weeks.
One of these was actually crawling across the floor of our office here a couple of years ago. From a distance, I thought it was a small snake. We put it in a jar and the local bank displayed it for a couple of weeks.
Sorry, there is an echo here.
I'm surprised you didn't liquify the thing when you shoot it!
Be careful doing that. That sucker is big enough to stomp back! When I was in Orlando in the Navy, we saw a lot of those 4-6 inch grasshoppers. They walked really slow. If we were standing in line and one of those things decided that we were in the way, we got out of the way. Nobody wanted to stomp it.
Ping.
Halftime score of football game between elephants and insects: Elephants 35, Insects 0. Final Insects 42, Elephants 38.
When asked, after the game, what help the turnaround, the Insects' coach replied, "I put in my centipede." Of course, the reporter asked why not use the centipede in the first half and the coach said, "He was still tying his shoes."
As one make centipede remarked to another about a female, "There's a nice pair of legs, pair of legs, pair of legs, pair of legs,...."
I seen em that big, but darker with more legs.
Good reason to check your boots and your sleeping bag in the tropics. (If you needed another reason.)
I have a story for you then - my younger brother went camping when my Dad was stationed in Tahiland, and a week later started having severe headaches and throat drainage.
A doctor pulled a three inch long centipede that had crawled into my brother's ear canal and set up shop. Still gives me the willies!
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