Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The red-headed centipede


Beware of these bugs! They average about 6" in length, usually larger. The first time I saw one of these creatures, I was using the water hose. He crawled VERY fast up a rock wall, probably startled by the water. If he had not actually been moving, I would have thought he was one of those plastic bugs from the Mattel brand gadgets my brother had as a kid (melt the plastic into a bug mold...then I promptly re-melted it in my Easy Bake Oven).
Red-headed centipedes give a nasty sting, & may kill small creatures. Here's some information for anyone crazy enough to raise one as a pet.

2 comments:

joseph's art and stuff said...

Oh yeah, love it. Texas has a lot of creepy crawlies, and they're all big. That's what I remember being out in the "woods".

Susan Rudat said...

Nobody goes barefooted in this part of Texas. The fire ants are everywhere, and they are painful. And the snakes here and there and everywhere. And there are the painfully prickly cacti. "Out in the woods" is almost a guarantee that you will be poked, pricked, stung, stabbed, and/or bitten.