Ontario pets
The house centipede, sometimes known as the Kingston bug (or in Kingston a "ghetto bug"), has (when fully grown) 15 pairs of very long, delicate legs and a rigid body, which enables it to run with surprising speed up walls and along ceilings and floors. In an act of defense, when one of the house centipede's legs is held down, it drops that leg in hopes that the attacker will be distracted by the temporarily twitching appendage. They kill their prey by injecting venom through their fangs and then feasting on the dead prey. House centipedes on average lay 63 eggs and a maximum of around 151 eggs. If one finds an unwanted house centipede in the home and does not wish to kill it, it can be herded into a clean glass container with a lid, taken outside and released, preferably far away so it does not find a way back in.
PS- I have not found any as disgusting as in this picture.
(picture and info. courtesy of Wikipedia)
6 Comments:
i wonder if you could train them to skip miniature rope (what with all those legs) and enroll them in competitions...
5:35 p.m.
Awww, what are you going to call it? How about Tom Selleck (cuz he could pass for a scruffy moustache)?
8:26 a.m.
Wow, my first response to a blog. I don't even ever respond to my brothers' blogs, so you ARE special Carrie Dunn. And what a truly fascinating and hilarious site, if only you could hear my vacuum laugh now Carrie. Oh yes, I am supposed to respond to something now, that's what this is about. Let's see, icky-poo bug, disgusting...it reminded me of the massive spiders in Zambia that were the size of your entire hand, and where 6 or 7 would be on the walls of your bedroom at any one time. Actually, I even found one in my book on my desk once while I was there...they were harmless and I began to think they actually looked rather cute. Is that wrong? My host father in Zambia, Mr. Muleya, told me that if I ever saw a multiple legged bug like a centipede or millipede that I must go in the opposite direction because apparently the ones in Africa have little stingers that have very powerful venom to hurt even humans. I just have this picture in my head of a centipede with a biker jacket waiting until a human being falls asleep and then he jabs them in the big toe. I picture most bad bugs with biker jackets on, nothing against bikers, it just cements my understanding of a bad-arse bug. Oooh, another bug from Zambia had a Tonga name that stood for "It that scares women in the kitchen while they cook". Yeah. That's its name, and one decided to visit me when I was marking in my room. It looks like a large scorpion and runs really friggin fast. At first, I was frozen in fear, but once it ran towards me at lightning speed, I was scared and made. Needless to say, it met the raw end of my RAID can. Well, that concludes my lesson in Zambian insects for today... Lisa (Worthington) Thiessen
9:44 a.m.
I love the lesson on insects, thanks Lisa.
10:21 a.m.
Actually, millipedes aren't poisonous unless you eat them (or rub them on yourself) because some forms secrete toxic substances that can cause skin irritation. Centipedes are the carnivorous, venomous ones like you said, the first pair of legs are modified into poison fangs. Good stuff.
-CP
5:10 p.m.
Ya, ya... apparently they are supposed to be good because they eat spiders etc. If they do bite a human it is like a bee sting, but I hope I never have to test that theory.
9:01 p.m.
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