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I lived for a few years in a converted meat packing factory in west Chicago. The apartments were really nice, except for the giant house centipedes that would o

by nvarsj 4y ago

I lived for a few years in a converted meat packing factory in west Chicago. The apartments were really nice, except for the giant house centipedes that would occasionally migrate inside when it rained and would drop from the ceilings. It was essentially a long warehouse type building, so they put apartments/windows on each side with walking corridors down the middle and multiple floors, and a parking garage in the basement.

gnfargbl 4y ago
> giant house centipedes would drop from the ceilings That sounds like quite a significant inconvenience. Didn't it put people off, in a "holy shit I'm not staying here for another second" kind of a way?
- Maursault 4y ago
  Pretty sure the only living spaces in the world without house centipedes are in Antartica.
  - ralferoo 4y ago
    I'd never even heard of a house centipede, so I googled it. I've never seen one before and I live in the UK. Apparently they occasionally sneak into the UK in imported food packaging, but they're not native or common here.
    - Maursault 4y ago
      > but they're not native or common here Nearly all instances go unrecorded, so precise frequency of distribution in England is impossible to determine. But they have spread across the globe to all countries and all continents except Antarctica, so chances are nearly certain you've got them in your home, even in England.[1] They're a little startling, but harmless to humans, and help keep your spider population in check. Even though I have probably only seen 5 of them in the last 20 years in places I have lived spanning the Eastern Seaboard of the US, I have no delusions about they being there regardless of spotting them. Unless they're disoriented and dying, like most "bugs," these things are supremely sneaky. >> S. coleoptrata is indigenous to the Mediterranean region, but it has spread through much of Europe, Asia, North America and South America.[2] [1] https://records.nbnatlas.org/occurrences/search?q=lsid:NBNSYS0000011447&fq=&nbn_loading=true https://records.nbnatlas.org/occurrences/search?q=lsid:NBNSY... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutigera_coleoptrata#Distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutigera_coleoptrata#Distribu...
- samatman 4y ago
  The sudden appearance of those crawling horrors was a feature of every place I lived in Chicago, fwiw.
  - sk5t 4y ago
    If you think of house centipedes as a sort of "insect cat" and that they are hunting even more disagreeable creatures for food, it becomes kind of easy to let them go about their business.
- stjohnswarts 4y ago
  house centipede are evil looking but completely harmless to humans. Actually they're good at eliminating other bugs that are pests like roaches and some spiders. If you see a house centipede that means it has prey which is likely something you really don't want in your house.

by nvarsj 4y ago

gnfargbl 4y ago

> giant house centipedes would drop from the ceilings That sounds like quite a significant inconvenience. Didn't it put people off, in a "holy shit I'm not staying here for another second" kind of a way?

Maursault 4y ago
Pretty sure the only living spaces in the world without house centipedes are in Antartica.
- ralferoo 4y ago
  I'd never even heard of a house centipede, so I googled it. I've never seen one before and I live in the UK. Apparently they occasionally sneak into the UK in imported food packaging, but they're not native or common here.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    > but they're not native or common here Nearly all instances go unrecorded, so precise frequency of distribution in England is impossible to determine. But they have spread across the globe to all countries and all continents except Antarctica, so chances are nearly certain you've got them in your home, even in England.[1] They're a little startling, but harmless to humans, and help keep your spider population in check. Even though I have probably only seen 5 of them in the last 20 years in places I have lived spanning the Eastern Seaboard of the US, I have no delusions about they being there regardless of spotting them. Unless they're disoriented and dying, like most "bugs," these things are supremely sneaky. >> S. coleoptrata is indigenous to the Mediterranean region, but it has spread through much of Europe, Asia, North America and South America.[2] [1] https://records.nbnatlas.org/occurrences/search?q=lsid:NBNSYS0000011447&fq=&nbn_loading=true https://records.nbnatlas.org/occurrences/search?q=lsid:NBNSY... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutigera_coleoptrata#Distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutigera_coleoptrata#Distribu...
samatman 4y ago
The sudden appearance of those crawling horrors was a feature of every place I lived in Chicago, fwiw.
- sk5t 4y ago
  If you think of house centipedes as a sort of "insect cat" and that they are hunting even more disagreeable creatures for food, it becomes kind of easy to let them go about their business.
stjohnswarts 4y ago
house centipede are evil looking but completely harmless to humans. Actually they're good at eliminating other bugs that are pests like roaches and some spiders. If you see a house centipede that means it has prey which is likely something you really don't want in your house.