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Does anyone know what kind of insect this is?! They come crawling down from my ceiling in the summertime, frequently right over my bed. I saw an article in the New Yorker a few years back about some endangered species of centipede which lives on leaf mulch in Central Park and wondered if this was it. Unfortunately, after shooting this particular specimen I knocked it down and subsequently lost track of it. This means it is crawling around my room someplace, untracked.

Right then. If I die of some horrible bite, you all know who to blame. Mr. Legsy O’Terrifying, there. I mean, look at the size of those freaking antennae!!! And what kind of harmless insect has the exact same antennae coming out of its ass?! And black-knuckled leg joints?! Jeebus! I mean, it looks like a centipede, it looks like a daddy long-legs, it hangs out over my bed and doesn’t have a very good grip on the wall — what’s not to love?!!!!

5 Comments

  1. Stewart wrote:

    Lovely.

    Some form of silverfish?

    You could try these attractive traps:
    http://www.pestproducts.com/images/slfishtrap.gif

    Friday, June 20, 2003 at 2:18 pm | Permalink
  2. Peter wrote:

    Definitely a big-ass silverfish. We get them in our house, and have to steer them away from our library. They look nasty, but prefer to feast on books, not dozing people.

    Friday, June 20, 2003 at 2:58 pm | Permalink
  3. gus wrote:

    Oh! It all makes sense now. Maybe this is why they seem to be coming from the attic rather than elsewhere, and why the attic is full of little tiny confetti-like pieces of paper…

    Friday, June 20, 2003 at 3:09 pm | Permalink
  4. sly wrote:

    uh..NOT a silverfish. This is a centipede. Or a millipede, I believe. I don’t think silverfish have upwardly-articulated legs like this does, they’re flatter and more oily-looking. How long was it? I found something like this in mom’s shower on Washburn Rd. -it was HUGE, and I think we determined that it was a centipede. Gillie, get dad to give this pic to Ed Lewis, your ID problem will be solved.

    Thursday, June 26, 2003 at 1:26 am | Permalink
  5. gus wrote:

    That’s him all right, Curtis. And maybe that explains why the house is so preternaturally free of roaches, silverfish, and other bugs.

    now, who are *you*? I haven’t seen you around here before. do you also live in the damp places around the edges of the blog?

    Monday, July 14, 2003 at 7:51 pm | Permalink

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