Tuesday, April 3, 2018

C is for CENTIPEDE


C - CENTIPEDE

STOP DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVE A BUG PHOBIA!



There is always a Dark side to every Paradise. For me that dark side is the Centipede. I am sure there is a perfectly good reason this invasive species exists and if I were to ask my son, an entomologist, he would gladly lecture me about the virtues of this monster.
I have even given serious thought to keeping Chickens and Ducks just because they are supposed to help with pest control.


I have only been unlucky enough to move the wrong rock once while gardening and gotten bitten by a large Centipede that I disturbed. They grab you with their sharp hollow front legs that are attached to muscular venom glands. I had been told that a Centipede bite feels like a wasp sting. HA! It felt like 10 wasps stinging in one small spot! I tried all of the home remedies I could find. Some suggested HOT compresses and others Ice Packs. But it seemed that only time and steroid cream slowly allowed my hand to return to normal size.


I have now come to an understanding with the Centipedes that share my Island.  If they stay outside and out of my sight they survive to hunt another day. If they make the mistake to enter my sight I get to try and grab them and give them a trip down my Garbage Disposal.  For me any Centipede that enters my space is at risk of being dispatched as quickly as possible.  I keep long forceps hanging in the garage to grab them with since that is usually where I have done battle. So far the running score is Centipedes - 1 bite and Nancy - 4 dead Centipedes.



11 comments:

  1. YIKES!!!! I'll pass on those guys.... [shiver]

    Donna B. McNicol|Author and Traveler
    A to Z Flash Fiction Stories|A to Z of Goldendoodles

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    1. It has at least taught me to wear gloves when I garden now.

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  2. Eesh. They keep information about centipedes away from the unsuspecting tourists. I had no idea.

    You're doing great with the daily blogging, Nancy. No one would guess that you're new to blogging. Your posts are interesting, a good length, with good photos. Kudos.

    I hope you're visiting other blogging sites and leaving comments. That's a big part of building an online community. Here's mine - https://profoundjourney.com Coming Home to Myself

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    1. There are many things that are not exactly in all the travel brochures😂 Paradise is not supposed to have any flaws. Thank you for the feed back. I have been trying to find time to read some other blogs and am starting to respond more. I will get better at this!

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    2. You're doing great, Nancy. Thanks for coming to visit mine and leaving comments. I sincerely appreciate it because it means we stand a chance of becoming blogging friends over a longer period of time than just this A-Z challenge, and that's something I'd like very much. I think what you're doing, the life you're trying to live, is wonderfully brave and authentic.

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  3. Oh my!!Yes, I would do the same if one came across my sight too!

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  4. Yep I have gotten very good at grabbing them with the forceps. I only freak out after it is dispatched!

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  5. I really dislike centipedes, too! Nice photos of them though.

    When we had tiny kittens, I read that centipedes can be very dangerous until the kittens get bigger. Of course, that is when the centipedes started coming into the house and crawling around the brick interior walls. Our adult cats loved climbing the bricks and chasing them. We preferred grabbing the tongs and smashing them. The longest one we had inside was 6 inches. Yuck!

    We now live in a different building and, to our cat's dismay, no centipedes yet.

    Good job with the forceps!

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    1. I have only ever had one inside the house and ONE is enough! Plenty of my friends have had the awful experience of waking up with one in their bed. They are truly my least favorite part of living in the tropics. But on the bright side we have NO snakes here in Hawaii!

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  6. Ouch on the bite. Be thankful you don't have rattlesnakes. I once found a 2 foot ground rattler in my dining room.

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  7. No thanks I like living without the worry of venomous snakes. In fact we only have one snake in all of Hawaii and it looks like an earthworm.

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