I've got a pretty high tolerance for most insects. I think spiders, especially jumping spiders, are pretty cool. There is one bug I can not stand - Scutigera coleoptrata - the common house centipede. For those who don't know it's this thing:
http://www.uark.edu/depts/entomolo/museum/house_centipede.html
Why the attitude towards this insect you ask? Maybe it's phobic, I dunno. Now I'm reasonably intelligent person (if I do say so myself), but sometimes it's like I can't take a single step without trippin over my own 2 feet. Yet here's something with no true brains at all & it can run like the wind on 15 pairs????????? Hey I just don't think it's fair.
All my friends & relatives can vouch for this - I've got like a Peter Parker's Spidey-sense for them.... I can just tell when there's one in the room with me!
Well I come downstairs today to the rec-room where our tank is and I got that there's-a-thousand-tiny-legs-running-up-&-down-my-spine tingles. I looked around all over, but couldn't find the source.
I took the water readings on the tank & had just removed the sliver of zucchini that was leftover from our pleco Hoover.
Thinking I'd treat the other fish to a little F/D plankton while I was at it, I reached up to the shelf over the tank and
**WHOOOOOP!WHOOOOOP!WHOOOOOP!WHOOOOOP!** the mental alarm starts kickin into overdrive as I grabbed the container....
Sure enough a big centipede, about 2.5" long, was right behind the can.
It's proximity startled the helk outta me & as I jerked my hand back, it raced forward.....
straight off the shelf onto the top of the tank lid - which was open - and wet........
DOH!
As soon as it realized it was on a slippery slope out in the open it tried desperately to reverse direction.....
and for about 20-30 seconds it ran it's little striped butt off!....
:laughdeviMUHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!:laughdevi
:redlaugh: as we all know though, gravity works wonders on everything bigger than sub-atomic particles & this thing was losing ground every second.
It hit the water with barely a ripple, then tried the "Messiah shuffle" - walkin on water.
LOL! Not the smartest thing for something that size to do on this body of H2O.
That trick worked for Jesus, but then again he didn't have to worry about about a pair fish bigger than him pullin him under..... this thing did!!
I know some of you may think me cruel, but I got the biggest laugh outta watching Blondie & Rajah get into a tug-of-war using that centipede as a rope. They seemed to take great pleasure in tearing it apart and gobbling it up.
Both oscars swam around for quite a few mins with a forest of legs hanging outta their mouths.
Good fishies! Gooooooooood fishies!!!!
:applause::applause::applause: :applause::applause::applause:
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