RØB Severson ([info]jabberwocky) wrote,
@ 2009-11-07 02:49:00
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Current location:PPHQ Master Workstation
Current mood:Centipedely
Current music:Run-D.M.C. - "You're Blind"
Entry tags:bugs, centipede

Centi- / Milli-
I just felt a trickling, a tickling, on my arm. The kind of trickling that is unmistakeable for something on you. Something that isn't you, something that isn't connected to you. Not the loose sleeve of your shirt, having fallen a strange way...not the phantom caress of a mysteriously absent source. The sense that, without question, something is CRAWLING ON YOU!

I thought maybe it was some kind of fly or mosquito or something, but upon looking down I saw something more like this:



Shook that bugger off onto the floor. Shoe poised above and ready to drop...but instead let him go on his merry way. I bet that feller is responsible for killing countless spiders, termites, cockroaches, crickets, silverfish, and whatever else in my house (insert "and/or" between any two of the aforementioned bugs)! Get to work pally, no reason to be a-climbin' on my arm!

Now he is kinda taking a tour of my room. PET CENTIPEDE!


(30 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]tastee
2009-11-07 01:37 pm UTC (link)
fuck that! fuck centipedes! I hate those fucks

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Ol' King Kong
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-07 05:10 pm UTC (link)
I'm guessing your five-star "how to buy your first home" book didn't tell you about the extreme benefits of having these dudes around the house.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Ol' King Kong
[info]tastee
2009-11-07 05:26 pm UTC (link)
fuck no! the book was dedicated to dead centipides!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Ol' King Kong
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-07 06:01 pm UTC (link)
One of my all-time favorite YouTube videos:

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Ol' King Kong
[info]hussla
2009-11-07 08:15 pm UTC (link)
Whoa, that is so cool!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Ol' King Kong
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-07 09:31 pm UTC (link)
I know! A little frightening, yes (as any arthropod eating a mammal would be) but I think it is way awesome/fascinating.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]dr_booty
2009-11-07 03:19 pm UTC (link)
Good move not killing it. I usually trap bugs and let them out... unless the cats eat 'em first.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Shlabozz
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-07 05:13 pm UTC (link)
Yeah I probably woulda squashed or tossed out as a gut reaction if I didn't know how helpful these guys can be in the fight against other bugs and/or how harmless they are to humans.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]hussla
2009-11-07 05:42 pm UTC (link)
Good decision. I mean, look, let's not pretend--EVERY house has bugs living in it, and just like a swamp or a forest or a river, a house is it's own ecosystem with its own food chain as well. Removing a species will upset the balance. If, in general, your house seems to be in balance most of the time, and the worst you ever see is the occasional centipede wandering out from its hiding place between the cracks in the walls or whatever, then it's best to leave well enough alone. It's like: don't like snakes and want to kill the one in your backyard? Well, I hope you like rats, then, cause that snake eats them. Don't like spiders? Well, I hope you like gnats and mosquitos instead. Ya know?

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Rothar
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-07 05:59 pm UTC (link)
I agree to a point, but I really wish those squirrels would get outta my attic. I don't think they're doing anything but driving the property value down and making obnoxious noises at inopportune times.

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Re: Rothar
[info]nastyboots
2009-11-07 06:28 pm UTC (link)
and expensive to get rid of! my parents' house had squirrels in the attic/crawlspaces when I lived there and there were many time when the dog and I would bolt upright in the middle of the night because those little jerks would knock plaster loose inside the walls. The critter catchers charged something like $75 every time there was a squirrel in the trap.

I totally agree on the centipedes, though. I don't see them here, but my old apt had them, and I had to constantly reassure an ex boyfriend that they were good, and better than having spiders and such.

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Re: Rothar
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-07 09:26 pm UTC (link)
Yeah I have tried to price it before but run away cowering every time a quote has come back. Glarg. I have some kind of squirrel repellent I got from Home Depot but I haven't implemented it yet.

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Re: Rothar
[info]nastyboots
2009-11-07 09:37 pm UTC (link)
just remember it is illegal to poison them.

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Re: Rothar
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-07 10:32 pm UTC (link)
Really? Is that state, federal, or other law?

And, what about picking them off with a BB gun?

So many squirrels live around my house. I'm sure the next-door-neighbors' uncovered trash can on the back porch doesn't help much.

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Re: Rothar
[info]nastyboots
2009-11-07 10:59 pm UTC (link)
I'm not sure. I just know my mom was at the hardware store trying to find a cheaper solution and when she said something about poisoning them she was admonished. I never did the due diligence on that. :)

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Re: Rothar
[info]hussla
2009-11-07 08:18 pm UTC (link)
Well, squirrels aren't exactly sedentary--I doubt they're spending all their time in your attic, and are probably just coming in to get warm. I further doubt that there's anything worthwhile for a squirrel to eat inside your house (assuming they haven't grown the balls to venture into your kitchen), so I would say that although they may have built a nest or whatever in your attic, they are not really members of the RØB's House Food Chain. Getting rid of them would probably not upset any delicate eco-balance.

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Re: Rothar
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-07 09:30 pm UTC (link)
They are munching on SOMETHING up there (hopefully something they bring in). Luckily I don't think much, if any, electric wiring is going on up there, so it isn't interfering too much besides being annoying (though some flickers in my bedroom's overhead light fixture have made me wonder recently). The thing is, if I ever splurge to get rid of the squirrels, I will be an idiot NOT to splurge simultaneously to have someone cut some of the larger branches off the tree in the neighbor's backyard that pretty much provide direct access to my roof, and that in itself has been quoted at a minimum of $675.

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Re: Rothar
[info]roark
2009-11-08 04:04 am UTC (link)
Dude, if your neighbor is cool with having the limbs cut, maybe cut them yourself? I can lend you a tree saw. Just cut diagonally, it helps the tree.

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Re: Rothar
[info]roark
2009-11-08 04:04 am UTC (link)
We also have pruning shears if the branches aren't too thick for 'em.

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Re: Rothar
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-08 03:38 pm UTC (link)
Ideally the part I'd cut off is pretty massive and I'd probably have to do it in chunks. I have never used a tree saw. I have some pruning shears, and those will not CUT it (wocka wocka!) in this case.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Rothar
[info]roark
2009-11-08 04:47 pm UTC (link)
Maybe try to prune the outermost stuff, anything that can be cut with pruning shears (usually up to like 2 inches thick). Then, yeah, as it gets thicker, just saw it off in safe chunks. We have the thing I called a tree saw, we also have an electric chainsaw. We might have some other shit too? So, assuming this shit isn't 3 stories in the air, all that's needed is a ladder.

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Re: Rothar
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-08 11:15 pm UTC (link)
It gets kinda high up there, but not too much higher up than the uppermost point of my house at any given point, I don't think.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Re: Rothar
[info]roark
2009-11-08 04:00 am UTC (link)
Throw a snake up there.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]miss_sneffany
2009-11-09 03:40 pm UTC (link)
Steve Lattimore (the fiction professor at Webster) used to have a squirrel problem and tried everything, including BB guns and painting some sort of ANIMAL BLOOD on the walls. Never got the update on what worked, but it was entertaining to think that the kids in his neighborhood thought he was the scary writer from The Shining.

I want to say Bobcat Urine works but that might have been the cure for moles. I just use my jars for decoration.

It's nice to think that the centipede works but I am just as ooked out as Janet. What are you going to name it????

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Brian The Centipede
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-09 06:55 pm UTC (link)
Yeah I think the repellent I got at Home Depot has some kind of fox-urine base. I may end up calling ol' CRITTER CONTROL and shelling out a few hundo for this (but I have put that off for years, already).

I admit I was pretty FREAKED when I saw it on my arm but I am glad to know that BRIAN THE CENTIPEDE is out there fighting the good fight in what D. Mike would call THE ECOSYSTEM OF PANCAKE PRODUCTIONS HEADQUARTERS.

I told my friend Brian the story on Saturday night and he suggested I name it after him (as he himself did with his own pet turtle and snake).

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[info]kittenok
2009-11-09 04:24 pm UTC (link)
Ew. Was it really one of those gooey ones or was it a regular ol' city bug (a.k.a. house centipede)?

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Twlefxi
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-09 06:59 pm UTC (link)
Gooey? I think most centipedes have a slick, hard shell on each of their segments. This one was no exception. In fact I thought if anything, it was the House Centipedes that squashed easy and "gooily."

I am pretty sure it is a house centipede, or at least one that isn't poisonous to humans (since those ones are like the size of a banana). I did get one picture of it with my own camera, all the rest were too blurry. It was hard to get close enough to have the thing be a main feature of the picture AND get it in focus.

I like the assonance of PET CENTIPEDE! And the assonance of most every assonant phrase (Pancake Master, Fizzy Vineyard, Danny Tanner).

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Re: Twlefxi
[info]kittenok
2009-11-09 07:17 pm UTC (link)
I didn't mean literally gooey, but the type in picture always sorta look like gummies or fishing lures or something to me.

So anyway...did it look like that one? Because that does not look like a house centipede to me.

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Re: Twlefxi
[info]jabberwocky
2009-11-09 07:20 pm UTC (link)
Someday I will post the picture I took and you can see for yourself!

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[info]mildred_pierce
2009-11-11 10:02 pm UTC (link)
this is a cute post. it made me smile.

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