Ever since I saw this guy handling a giant centipede, I’ve started imagining centipedes in a different light. I’m not going to handle them EVER but, like snakes, bites to humans are defensive – they don’t eat people, and go out of their way to avoid them.
Growing up in Barbados, if someone yells “CENTIPEDE!” a mob appears with kerosine to smell up the place by throwing it at it and/or with machetes to chop it to bits when the poor thing was just minding its own business, deserving of the same compassion any human should hope for if they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Read the video description when you play the video below to see how much good they do to the ecosystem.
Centipede cleaning its antenna while contemplating the good it’ll do to the ecosystem
How I Catch and Release Them
I recently started to catch and release them after they wander into the house. I have a lifetime of fear of them to overcome, but it’s interesting to see how they match your energy. Really it is that they don’t see well, so they freak out if they feel the literal vibrations of you freaking out, jumping around trying to avoid them (but, in most cases, especially if you’re a Barbadian, kill them).
If, instead, you throw a cloth mat down in front of one, it’ll probably hide under it. Then you can use the mop’s stick to lift the mat out and fling it into a neighbouring parish/county. Or, placing a long enough stick gently in front of a (relatively calm) centipede as it climbs over, you lift and shake it into a container that’s too slippery for it to climb out of. You can also cut the top off a pet bottle and place the lower half so the centipede runs in (thanks Michael). I’ll sometimes place a transparent container over it (so I can see it’s every move), slide a thin card between the surface and the container’s opening and flip it upright, but this takes some nerve…it’s like flipping a pancake only the pancake IS A CENTIPEDE. I’ve thought of using tongs, but I imagine the centipede wringing up itself and biting the tongs and me pelting way the tongs and running.
Centipedes are fast, so I always keep my removal tools nearby. YOU DO NOT WANT IT DISAPPEARING UNDER YOUR BED or you’ll have to burn the house down and live outside (with the other centipedes).
I’ve done maybe five releases and am still surprised at how calm some centipedes are, and when they’re not, they’re just trying to escape the mad human that held them prisoner. For example:
Barbados giant red centipede prefers to be in my house than in the bush
Control your Sphincters
They always seem much bigger when they’re on the move. Inside the container, when they’re still and their legs are tucked in, they look so much less intimidating and I wonder why I’d lost control of my sphicters a minute before.
Do you know which end is the business end (head)?
The fear of centipedes in Barbados is largely the result of catastrophic thinking, passed from generations past, when the reality is: most of us have never been and probably won’t ever be stung by a centipede. I personally feel better in my role as custodian (although I’m a vegan who still kills *runs and hides*).
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