i cant wait

[t lover]

i am so stoked that im gonna be getting a new centipede and i dont want to wait another week for my money order to get there i want it now but it will be so sweet when it gets here i will definatly get a pic or two or three lol plus i really want to get rid of these roaches i was gonna start a colony with but turns out they are all males o well my pede gonna have some fun when it gets here

[nhdjoseywales]

all males? thats some bad luck man.

on the bright side, you could try to get them to start a drag show maybe

[Travis K]

Dude, I will hook you up with roaches at the BBQ on Saturday, and you can play with my two lovely pedes

Here is my newest little Yellow legs


and now my big De Haani

[t lover]

sweat dude thanks alot man. i have had a yellow leg centipede. is yours a Ethmostigmus trigonopodus?

[Amenagerie]

I have probably the stupidest question you've ever been asked.
But which end of the centipede is the business end?? Do they bite or sting?

[t lover]

lol they bite and dont sting but they can grab you with the back legs and swing around and bite you. i just avoid tuching them

I have probably the stupidest question you've ever been asked.
But which end of the centipede is the business end?? Do they bite or sting?

[Amenagerie]

lol they bite and dont sting but they can grab you with the back legs and swing around and bite you. i just avoid tuching them

I have probably the stupidest question you've ever been asked.
But which end of the centipede is the business end?? Do they bite or sting?

So is the bite like a pinch? Or more like a T with envenomation? And quit laughing at me. Just kidding. I thought the question was probably going to sound a little funny.

[cacoseraph]

actually, they don't really bite OR sting... to my mind biting involves using the mouth or teeth and stinging involves a modified ovipositer... centipedes deliver venom with a pair of modified legs. the legs are on the body segment closest to their head capsule and do look to be part of the head, but are not

the rear legs on even relatively small specimens (like say 3" body length) can pinch to the point of piercing skin and larger specimens can inflict decent wounds

the venom of centipedes varies wildly between species and possibly between specimens. it is likely the centipede has some kind of voluntary control over their venom release. it is possible that each person reacts somewhat differently to the cocktail of venom components injected into them. for instance, i seem to be immune to the minor immediate pain components that make some envenomations immediately and acutely pain a person. i have been bit by something like 15-20 species. most did almost nothing beyond a little local swelling. a few did some more generalized swelling. three species so far caused the afflicted limb to swell greatly and were quite painful for 24-~72 hours. that pain is quite unlike a bee sting, which have always been very local and acute in affect to me. the bad centipede pain feels like my arm bones are being ground together, or maybe a very bad sprain or light break.


the three species that have affected me were:
Ethmostigmus trigonopodus "yellow legs", though "blue ring legs" never hurt me out of 50-75 bites.
Scolopendra morsitans "tanzanian tiger" male.... though "egyptian emeralds" never hurt me out of 50+ bites and are presumably the same species
"Thai Jewel centipede", presumably some flavor of S. subspinipes

one of the first two species additionally caused my closest lymph nodes to swell up painfully.

[t lover]

some centipede venom can cause something called bone ache im not sure what this means but it doesnt sound fun.

[Amenagerie]

Thanks for humoring me. I honestly couldn't think of an intelligent way to ask these questions.

[cacoseraph]

some centipede venom can cause something called bone ache im not sure what this means but it doesnt sound fun.

heh, it is my name for what i described in the paragraphs above. i can't tell you how happy it makes me to see the term used by someone i don't personally know


it has been a couple decades since i broke or badly sprained any bones... but as i remember, the worst parts of a centipede bite (for me, a buddy went to the hospital with a CRAZY reaction to S. alternans venom) feels remarkably similar to a bad sprain in the major joint closest to the bite. interestingly, my brother got stung by a sting ray and with no prompting from me he described the agony as eerily similar to the pain a centipede gives you. the sting ray sounds worse than my worst centipede bite. i don't know what species got him, but it was in San Diego, CA, USA


some ppl report wasp like stinging, but i have been bit by many species that are supposed to have such a bite and never felt anything more than a sort of vaguely-stingy-twinge

[Butterpat]

Awesome info cacoseraph. The idea of getting grabbed by a pede gives me shivers down my spine though lol

[Tarantula_man94]

Thats on nice pede. congrats!

---