03-15-2019, 10:15 AM
1v1 it sounds like your body chemistry was particularly susceptible to the centipede bite. I wouldn't go so far as to say that you had an allergic reaction but that is possible too.
I have lived here in Puna for just about 40 years now, grew up here as a kid and have studied the arthropods for hours on end in jars, feeding them and then eventually letting them go. I have never seen one be aggressive like you described, Punaperson, and tend to agree with alohaaina. However awhile back when I was in college and didn't have much $, there was a used furniture store in Hilo that also sold mattresses. We bought one. About a week later, my girlfriend at the time, would wake up in the night getting bit and we would inexplicably find a small centipede in the bed. Happened about 3 times. The fourth time I got bit. Eventually I linked it to the mattress and found a small tear in it where there could have been more hiding inside and crawling out at night to attack. Ever since then I stopped relocating them when found around the house. I just kill them. I once also found a mack-daddy of all pedes on my property almost a foot long and as wide as ruler. It gave me chicken-skin just in the discovery of this beast in my yard. It was so magnificent that I let this one live. Just relocated it.
I didn't know they could live a decade or more.
Edited to add this:
All of the times I've been bit it felt kinda like a bee or wasp sting or even a spider bite. There was always an itchy faze a couple of days after the bite. Of course it was very uncomfortable but never the pain that you, 1v1, or or Punaperson talked about. However this might be a factor: All of our nerve endings are in our hands and feet. That might explain some of the added pain?
I have lived here in Puna for just about 40 years now, grew up here as a kid and have studied the arthropods for hours on end in jars, feeding them and then eventually letting them go. I have never seen one be aggressive like you described, Punaperson, and tend to agree with alohaaina. However awhile back when I was in college and didn't have much $, there was a used furniture store in Hilo that also sold mattresses. We bought one. About a week later, my girlfriend at the time, would wake up in the night getting bit and we would inexplicably find a small centipede in the bed. Happened about 3 times. The fourth time I got bit. Eventually I linked it to the mattress and found a small tear in it where there could have been more hiding inside and crawling out at night to attack. Ever since then I stopped relocating them when found around the house. I just kill them. I once also found a mack-daddy of all pedes on my property almost a foot long and as wide as ruler. It gave me chicken-skin just in the discovery of this beast in my yard. It was so magnificent that I let this one live. Just relocated it.
I didn't know they could live a decade or more.
Edited to add this:
All of the times I've been bit it felt kinda like a bee or wasp sting or even a spider bite. There was always an itchy faze a couple of days after the bite. Of course it was very uncomfortable but never the pain that you, 1v1, or or Punaperson talked about. However this might be a factor: All of our nerve endings are in our hands and feet. That might explain some of the added pain?