01-29-2007, 06:14 AM
I used to kill centipedes, don't any more. They eat the new, invasive semi-slug. The semi-slugs (Parmarion martensi) are hosts to a nematode called Angiostrongylus cantonensis (actually this has been here since the 1940's but has never been much of a problem unless you eat a raw snail as a delicacy - but this slug climbs, is fast and is all over everything and leaves a lot of slime). If enough nematodes are injested from either their slime trail or by eating a slug accidently, you can get meningitis - spinal or encephalitic. I was lucky and just got the spinal form, still feeling it over a year later. Other people not so lucky who had horrible headaches and had their entire body effected. Anyway, after that, I would rather get bitten by a centipede any day. Wash your vegetables and fruits really well, or cook them, check your catchment tanks - be careful !