they are back...

this one in my kitchen last night...



one question: what part is suppose to be venimous : head or the other side??

The head
They have a set of claws that scrape or pierce and inject a posion similar to the scorpion. You can see them in your lower left pic. Nasty looking long black claws.
They are an incredible animal - Silurian.

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Age. Fac ut gaudeam

thanks tjungarayi,

i just find this in wikipedia:

"Centipedes (from Latin prefix centi-, "hundred", and Latin pes,pedis, "foot") are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda and the Subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. A key trait uniting this group is a pair of venom claws or forcipules formed from a modified first appendage. This also means that centipedes are an exclusively predatory taxon, which is uncommon. Their bites may have effects ranging from mild discomfort to life threatening."

Absolutely stunning pictures!!!

Yes, I expect to see more of them as the weather warms up, but I had one inside the house just in the past December - a big fat one of 7 inches long - when I saw it crawling into the bedroom under the door, my brain went numb (literally, I can still remember that needle and pin feeling inside my head). For a few weeks after that, I kept a hammer handy all around the house, until a helper killed it eventually.

Just curious - I suppose the centipede in the picture is a goner - but how could you keep it so "intact", not squashed or anything like that? Is there a way to get rid of them without keeping a hammer by my side all the time?

Last Friday, for the first time i spotted one in my bedroom. I had never seen such a big one, it looked unreal.
As it hid behind a chest of drawers i armed myself with a can of Baygon and sprayed it. I don't think it died, just looked stoned, at which point i swept it outside.
But noticing the effect Baygon had on it, i decided it would be safer for me to sleep in the other room.

Sometimes I see one scuttle across the floor and under a cabinet before I can catch it. I spray insecticide under it and maybe half an hour later it appears, moving slowly and erratically. In that state easy to kill (or sweep up and throw outside if you prefer).

It's kill or be killed.

They won't kill you, Alan.

They certainly try to.
So I still claim self-defence.

i kill him when i see it last night with a bambou and i take the pictures this morning , he was still fresh. anyway he was not intact.
foxy you're right : "They won't kill you", but how can you sleep when you know there is one of them in your bedroom. so yes alan it's just kill or be killed.
Or spend the night in some friend's place until your kill it.

Chinese say they come in twos, so watch out.
Wear tight fitting underpants as I have heard that if you are stung on the testicles it can be excrutiatingly painful and makes one cry to the doctor to cut them off. So dont get stung on the bollocks.

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Age. Fac ut gaudeam

eww. tight undies in this humidity! maybe better take your chances with loose-fitting boxer shorts. comfortable and stylish.

They do come in a pair! And they love your ground floor habitat. I found and killed 5 total last year. All of them as thick as my small finger and between 6 to 8 inches! And be aware of old houses built with wood floor/ceiling and wood partition walls.
Try the 'fastest kill' insecticide. I accidentally killed one from my bathroom ceiling (my house is old with a wood beamed ceiling) when I thought I was only killing some roaches !!
And if you are a hammer user, get a rubber hammer (hammer for wood not nails), you can avoid smashing your flooring or furniture.
Good luck and keep your place dry !