Help centepede got a neighbor

[Cindy Blankenship]

Aloha Glen,

I lived in Hawaii, mostly Puna, for 10 years, and I've never found a centipede or roach
or evidence of one in my bed. But I am pretty phobic about them. Centipedes like to get into warm places. When my former husband was bit, he was living in a house he was building
in Leilani, and there were no screens, windows or even drywall. Everyone I know who has had a pede in the house said they've left the door open. I did find one once in my son's father's apt on Kauai, under a pile of laundry that had just been there a day (he's
meticulously clean). And it was upstairs! And no door open. My son got stung walking barefoot at night at a campground. So we're just going to play it safe. Glen, as phobic as I am about roaches (I can't even look at them or smack them), I love Hawaii so much that I'm coming back. I've had one of those bug repellers shipped over, and the owner's plugging it in for me since they initially take about 2 to 3 weeks to clear them all out. Good screens, doors shut, duct tape around opening around pipes under sinks, drain screens in the tub and sinks, keeping all food picked up, and anything open like cereal in the fridge or closed container really helps. And it also helps to keep papers and all that kind of stuff in those big plastic boxes with lids - really! Roaches eat paper, glue, etc. A woman found a scorpion in the bottom of her kids' toybox. So just about everything gets put in boxes with lids at my house lol. One time I had moved and opened some moving boxes to take some things out and then forgot to retape till I had time to unpack....well when I did
go to unpack, a whole bunch of big roaches came running out ..UGH. Talk about heebie jeebies. I threw the whole thing out, even though all my college papers were in it. That's how phobic I am! Since then I had no more horror shows...I learned the hard way.
It'll be OK...we just need to do a little extra work.

Cindy


Cindy
http://www.CoconutRoads.com

[Cindy Blankenship]

PS Glen I forgot the other part of your
question, although I'm sure lots will answer..My cats make funny noises when
bugs are around. I guess because they're hunting them. I have heard only once of a centipede killing a dog. It had swallowed it whole, so I heard. And was stung several times :-( The woman who told me this has lived in Puna since the 80's, had always had dogs - and centipedes- and said this is the only time she's heard of this.
I've also heard about the chickens being good centipede deterrants. There's a book about
pets in Hawaii by Toni Polancy...I think it's called Pets in Paradise.



Cindy


Cindy
http://www.CoconutRoads.com

[bystander]

My cat which I described in the cat thread was bitten/stung by centipedes twice. Each time his head swelled up to the size of a grapefruit. He must have been trying to bite it and got stung on the head. He recovered both times compeletely.

[Les C]

I'm curious how your cat's recovery from the centipede bites went. Was your cat really sick and feverish? Or, did it just have a fat head and mildly upset? Oh, and how did you confirm that they were bites from a centipede?

[bystander]

Well my cat is semi-feral and doesn't like to be touched when in pain. I noticed two puncture marks on his lower jaw each time he was stung which I surmised were the centipede bite marks. He didn't get sick but I could tell he was in pain because he would'nt let me get close to him. He tore the area around the bite with his claws and all the puss drained out. This really happened twice which I hope taught him not to mess with centipedes.

[Francesca]

Chickens are really good at killing and eating centipedes. They are very fast and start by cutting the head off and then cut the centipede into pieces.

[Momi]

Aloha,

Rotten noni fruit is very good for centepede bites. Also, the non-native honohono grass is also used on this type of bite. Noni comes to the rescue again.....

[Momi]

Leptospirosis on the other hand, needs immediate attention from a trained physician.

[Cindy Blankenship]

I bought a super duper bug electromagnetic, ultrasound bug repeller (after reading lots of reviews) and had it shipped to my soon to be new home in Puna. My landlady plugged in yesterday. They say to allow 2 to 3 weeks because the first things the bugs do is run from the walls into the house (to escape the storm like energy create by the electric wave part) but then the ultrasound isn't too pleasant either in the house so they leave there too. I don't understand why they don't just go straight from the walls to outside, but I think the customer service rep told me that the first reaction is too seek shelter from what they perceive as an intense incoming storm. Others outside won't enter the walls. And the ones that come inside eventually leave because the haven turns out to be pretty uncomfortable due to the ultrasonic. It's got a small air purifier I'll let you know if it works. It's supposed to get rid of centipedes, roaches, mosquitos, mice, etc I'm sure I didn't explain this very well so here's the link http://www.ultimatepestrepeller.com/

If it were my own yard, I'd get chickens for outside. They have these repellers for various outside critters too.

Cindy

[garymatt]

I find a centipede in the house about once every two months. I use the long tongs that we turn things on the grill with to pick them up and flush them.

The dogs find them first only about half the time. The cat ignores them which is fine for him but doesn't do us a bit of good.

The house is under construction but we are living in it. It is mostly rain leak proof but impossible to be sealed off from anything that can crawl, on the ground floor where we live. This is just something we have learned to be aware of and vigilant, but gotta love those tongs.