Anyone knowledgable about centipede bite effects?

[1voyager1]

About 1-1/2 weeks ago I joined the fraternity.
While working out in the yard stomping a pile of weeds down, I felt as if I had stepped on a nail.
Went over to the lanai and took my water shoe off.
I found no puncture through the sandal's sole or in the sole of my foot.
I have never been very limber and now need a mirror to see the soles of my feet.
I washed my foot and swabbed it with alcohol, again proving to myself that there was no break in the skin.
So, I put a little NeoSporin and a band-aid on it.
After 2 more days there was still quite a bit of swelling and some soreness, but it was not like an infection.
I was concerned, so I went into Bay Clinic to get it looked at.
She looked at it and pronounced it, much to my surprise, as being a centipede bite.

I was quite lethargic for 4 or 5 days sleeping a lot during the day and much more than normal at night with a small amount of nausea, not enough to stop me from eating, though.

After the 5th day, I was feeling better so I went back to work out in the yard.
I was physically beat at the end of the day and very nauseated.
I woke up every 1 to 1-1/2 hours all night long to pee.
It continued on through the next day.
The lethargy was back with a vengeance.
I was sleeping several hours then getting up for an hour or so, then going back to sleep again all day long.
After the urinary frequency was over I would sleep from 12am till 8 am as well.
I got more sleep in the last week or so than I've had in the last month.

I'm feeling better again today and am about to head back out into the yard to work again.

I just looked at the sole of my foot with a mirror.
The bite marks are at least a 1/2" apart.
It had to be a pretty big centipede.

I'm inclined to think the relapse was due to being up on my feet and working again, pushing the venom out of my foot into the rest of my body.
In effect giving myself a second dose.

I never had very much pain from it.
Nowhere near as much as many people describe.

I cannot find much info about effects except for lists of potentials.
Renal failure was on one list.
That might tie into the urinary frequency, ... maybe.

I now have a respect for centipedes I never had before.
Saw one as I came out of the shower a couple of days ago, almost had a cat.
It got away as I frantically searched for something to smash it with.
I was wishing I had shoes and clothing on to help protect me from it.

Anyone have similar reactions to the centipede venom?

[alohanaia]

Most of mine have been like a bee sting. But one, I was working in coconut rubbish, stepped on the tail and the head curled over and gave me all he had. Pure pain, like a psychelic drug of pain and death. I was out of my mind for an hour, I remember laughing that existence could be so painful, what else can you do? Over a week the wound went necrotic, like a bruise that's a 1" hole of dying flesh. Years later, still have fang scars. No lasting effects tho, my health is excellent.

Still my advice is love the centipede, they are great hunters of actual pests. They are old souls, can live on your property for a couple of decades, could have been in your place before you were, and they are peacemakers, if there's an out they will not hit you. I've heard the little ones are the real stingers, don't know if that's folklore.

Good luck, it gets better!
Aloha

[Punaperson]

With all respect, I must totally disagree with you Alohanaia about 'love the centipede'. Way back in my early days, I had one walk up to me from about 4 feet away when I was in my greenhouse. Foolishly, I just watched it, not knowing what it would do. It stopped and gave me stink eye from about 2 feet away, and then it ran up really fast and bit me on the top of my foot.

I've been bit 3 times, and each reaction has been worse and more extreme than the time before, to the point where I now keep an Epipen handy per doctor's advice. If your reaction was so serious 1voyager1, I would talk to Bay Clinic about the possibility of the effect on your kidneys. Renal failure is no joke, and if keeping an Epipen handy is recommended for you, please follow that advice.

I now keep chickens just for centipede control. They love them - set up cackling and crowing every time they catch one. I haven't seen one since I got my flock a few years ago, but I do have to deal with chicken **** now. There's always a trade-off.

Just as a story from the early days of OLE: during the winter of '81-81, close to the Orchidland Drive side of 40th, my spouse and I saw what could have been a record breaking centipede, just strolling down the middle of the road. This was long before I had ever been bit, so we stopped the truck, and got out to get a better idea of its size. It was one of the brown ones, close to a foot long, and easily 3/4 of an inch wide. We followed it for a few minutes ( no traffic back then ), and watched it until it took a left and went into a makai lot.

[1voyager1]

I tired easily this afternoon but after a nap I feel OK.

I have similar feeling towards spiders.
I never kill a spider that's in the house.
They're in a house because they're predators and there is prey present.
I find it hard to generate the same feelings towards centipedes.
I too have had one charge across the house floor at me before stomping on it.
They seem to be much more aggressive than most spiders.
I can get along just fine with geckos and anoles patrolling the house.

Good Idea.
I had been thinking about getting some hens to run around the yard.
I liked the idea of our own eggs and the thought of centipede and other bug control.
After I get the new storage sheds in [the concrete mixer arrived today],
I'll get a coop built behind them to house and protect the hens.

M'Lady is afraid that keeping hens will draw roosters.
I say, not a problem.
Then, we'll have meat for chicken soup.

The only problem is getting the cats to accept the hens as family if I decide to import chicks.

[ElysianWort]

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?