Sinks are dangerous places for small creatures — they stumble in and then they can’t climb up and out over the smooth vertical walls. This little guy was fortunate that I found them and scooped them up.
Later I’ll set them free outside.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Is that a centipede? They straight up gove me the ick because they have too many legs and eat spiders.
That’s an attractive house centipede! They were doubly lucky to be found by someone who wasn’t just going to kill them out of prejudice. They’re actually good pest control.
How many were there？
When I see an earthworm struggling on the sidewalk, I usually move them to the grass. But creepy-crawly things like your sink visitor get the heave-ho or a trip to the sewer.
We have those! We’d never seen one before, and put it outside. After finding out what it was, we let them be (unless they need rescuing—our tub is a menace).
In fall when it gets cold outside, my apartment gets infiltrated by dermaptera. I know they are harmless, but they are gross because I do not know which route they followed to get in.
As a rule i carry them outside, unless I find one underneath a dinner plate in which case it is “lethal response” time.
BTW all human appliances / objects with steep sides things can fall into should have a sloped ledge leading out. Especially big things like garbage containers (traps raccoons and rodents) and canals (traps everything).
Beautiful and beneficial animal, it’s so tragic that people react with fear and disgust and kill them. And why must those same people share their prejudice with everyone?
thank you for scooping!
I have read (Google search) that they love to eat roach eggs. :-)
What is it?
@11: It’s the house centipede, Scutigera coleoptrata. Native to the Mediterranean but it’s been inadvertently spread worldwide by human activity. Completely harmless to humans and beneficial because it preys on many pest insects.
Those moustache guys creep me out, but I set them free because they’re so good at eating things I even more don’t want around, and they usually stay where I can’t see them.
Nuuu! Not outside! That’s a house centipede! The keep pests down in the house. One of the most aggressive roach hunters you can have under your roof, or so I’ve been led to believe. Having them doesn’t mean you have roaches, mind (but if you do have them, should roaches show up they’re going to get very dead very fast).
Of course, having a few mice in the walls also helps in that regard…
They move too fast for me to think of catching them . So that’s a hard nope only because I know they’re venomous. Honeybees and Carpenter bees get put back outside though