 |
February 25, 2008 |
|
 |
|
|
Yeewww!
FOUND by Lisa G.
in New York
I was at my campus library browsing for books when I found this folded up inside one of them.
Sign in or register to start a profile and keep track of your comments. You may also post without creating a profile, but you'll have to answer some tough spam protection questions.
From One Extreme... January 12, 2006 |
Yellow Dress November 10, 2005 |
Better Than ... June 01, 2008 |
Monkey Business September 04, 2007 |
 |
|
 |
         |
We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
Kill it!! Very awesome drawing! Oh my!
Is this the squished bug? Or a drawing?
At least it isn't that gross boob from yesterday.
Okay, now I know it's drawing. The actual bugs are not black. I've never seen one in real life. They seem creepy, but apparently they eat bad bugs.
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/cent.html
I really like the drawing. It's way less creepy than a real, live house centipede. I've had the displeasure of running into one twice in my life. I usually like bugs, but these are just so fast and scary-looking. The first one was trapped in a plastic container by a friend and I for further investigation. I'm so glad they're not more prevalent in my area.
Oh man.
I saw one about a year ago. It was 4 inches long, on my wall, and I had no idea what it was, and decided no one would believe me that it existed, so I took a picture. As I was looking at the photo to make sure it was good enough, the thing disappeared. I have no idea where it went, and it bothers me to this day. Speedy little fucker.
If that's a drawing, it must have taken a long time to create. I wonder if the artist is still haunted by it?
Also, I thought it said "good darwin"!
I just heard a story about a "jerusalem cricket" (aka potato bug, etc.) that made me almost as uncomfortable as this drawing. I know, bugs shouldn't be something that we fear/ they often do a lot of good/ and we couldn't exist without them. Intellectually, I know this. Emotionally... not so much. That's why I live up north. All I have to worry about is overgrown mosquitos, bears, and charging moose-- I'd take those over potato bugs, house centipedes, and scorpions any day:-))
I did find a live centipede in a hollowed out peach pit one day whilst cutting into what had seemed a good fruit...
YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I encountered 3 this past Fall, all of them were under or on my couch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I vacuum under my couch, under my couch cushions, on top of my couch cushions, and even let the cushions hang outside on the clothesline to freshen up.
A friend of mine had a few of those come out of her shower drain , too!!
There must have been several in on this quiet "conversation" at he library. As the note is addressed to Nancy, but Kathy commented on it, and then it seems a third handwriting chimed in with the opinion on the drawing.
In any event, I am with both Kathy and the mystery commentator.
ahhhhhhh one of those beasts came out of my kitchen sink!! they're very scary and run real fast.
omg.. we have TONS of them here in Hawaii. >< i've gotten bitten/stung/whatever like 3 times throughout my life.. and i'm only 22. >< It hurts so much and i'm severely afraid of them. I start panicking when i see one.
uuugh i hate centipedes T_T
Oh, but they're delicious. Their Dijon mustard-like taste more than makes up for their admittedly icky appearance. You should try one.
Chad did a pretty cool drawing there. I wonder what Nancy's reaction was.
Clover, I LOVE What's that bug.com. I've never seen one of these bugs, but shudder to think!
I hope they didn't kill it, though. Creepy bug was happily eating up all the roaches in their kitchen!
is it a photocopy of an actual bug? it looks so real.
ewwwwwwwwwwww clover. i just look that bug site.. omg.. now i'm creeped out.. CREEEEEEPED out.. omg omg omg
yah, it looks real, until you look at the bugs on that website!
Geez guys, I know I'm not pretty but I'm not that bad. I'm really cute if you get to know me.
I used to find these things all the time in my high school. People were allways like,
"Yeewww how can you pick that up?!?!"
its a bug
get overit. lol
Linda, we're MOVING TO HAWAII...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
In West Virginia, centipedes and potato bugs and grandaddy long legs and more are all over the place. I am not afraid of anything except those giant furry spiders that I used to see in my grandparents' basement. They creep me out and make me want to vomit. YUCK! The other bugs don't bother me. My brother and I used to play in the dirt and pick these bugs up and pester the hell out of them. Now, they're more of an annoyance if I find them indoors or something.
Creepycounter, you around today? You're gonna be busy!
Chad’s drawing reminds me of “Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book”: I can just imagine it with googly eyes and a little tongue sticking out the corner of its mouth.
I am in the process of moving into an old(er) house... Nothing has been touched/updated since 1941, and we were pulling up the carpet in the living room when one of these buggers ran out from underneath. My whole family performed a slightly frantic version of a clogging dance, and then my mom and sister went outside while my dad and I continued pulling. We found two more plus what appeared to be a fossilized spider. How they lived under the carpet, we will never know. The basement has some fairly ominous dark corners and cobwebs, so I think there is going to be some serious vacuuming going on this weekend!
(HTML tags on hold til we get the bugs worked out) LOL.
I am trying to picture the drawing of a cuter and more attractive bug that would have made Kathy say "Awwww...keep it!"
Maybe it is due to too many teenage acid trips, but I think the bug (photos, not the drawing) looks kind of psychedelic, like a crazy mandala. Dude!
I like that bug site! My favorite part was a response to a centipede pic. The responder said that it does bite fairly hard, and likened the bite to that of a "male platupus"!?! We all know what THAT feels like.
The house centipede reminds me of cave crickets - also yukky-looking big house bugs with striped legs. I have gone from hating them to thinking they are cute.
We don't get those in good-old Massachusetts. But, we do have the pleasure of attracting EARWIGS... *shudders*
Iew Iew Ieeeeeeeeeeew is right :P
I actually shuddered at the thought of this thing....blech. It *is* a great drawing though,...
Farmer- IEW!!!!!
You know, I have tried my best to not be so girlie when it comes to bugs, but I can't help being so disgusted by them. At least I'm at the point where I can calmly look at one and ask someone else to take care of it,..not go shrieking and making a scene.
Sara- you are so on point- I know they have a place in the food chain, but,...it doesn't help! Spiders, for example- they eat the bad bugs, but they still terrify me.
Jolie- I love that book :) I used to think about getting a squashed faerie tattooed on the bottom of my foot or on my bum, until I realized what bad Karma that would be :)
Thanks Chad for potentially giving me nightmares tonight.
Think of what an investment shoes are for this little critter.
Before I moved to Philly, I had never seen any bug like this one. Then, one day, while minding my own business, I look up, and one of those four inch f---ers just appeared (and they always just APPEAR) on the wall. In fact, it was almost as big as today's drawing! Almost too big to kill with a shoe. I just stared at it in panic and disgust. Eventually, I had to pick up my courage (no one else around to fob the job on) to kill it...because the alternative was worse...that it got away and knowing it could come back at any time....ahhhh!
I've had my share of those ugly things in my house(s) and apartments. They make this really funny sound if you step on them on a hard floor while wearing pumps. haha
Catyia: Have you ever seen the Pressed Fairy planner? It's hysterical and has tons of random "fairy holidays."
Scared: Having lived in Philly for the past three years, I can assure you that you ain't seen nothin' yet. (Although it does depend to some extent on what area of the city you live in.) I once made the mistake of leaving a paper bag on my floor, and was awakened in the middle of the night by a rustling sound: I thought it was my kitten playing.
It wasn’t. *Shudder*
I also got into the habit of thoroughly searching my bathroom prior to getting into the shower.
Jolie- I have :) I had the wall calendar too. I pulled it apart to decorate my room years ago- you know, ghetto fabulous art prints :)
Lady Brandy- the thought of that made me throw up a little :/
I just had to come back to see if that nightmarish boob was gone.
This didn't help much.
I've seen these before too, at my parents house in Ohio. If you turn your back they are gone, never to be found again! Those things are the most disgusting bugs ever and they move really fast.
This post is making me shiver repeatedly.
I think Chad dipped the centipede in ink and pressed him on the paper.
Katherine in PA - your four inch centipede is probably now 14 inches! Beware!
Catyia - I had a pressed fairy decal on my window last year and when one of my friends opened the blinds and saw it she screamed bloody murder. I still taunt her about that.
we do get these in the north east! more likely in older homes (and dorms!), and i hate when my cat goes after these!
We have them in the Midwest - there's one living in the sculpture studio at my college and one time it ran out from under the sander.
I don't know how something with so many creepery legs hasn't gotten squished yet. Maybe because these are the FASTEST bugs I have ever seen in my life without wings.
I think I'm going to cry if I see it ever again.
A couple of nights ago my kitten was in the kitchen making a strange noise: I went out to see what he had gotten himself into, and found him staring fixedly up at the ceiling.
With some slight trepidation I followed his gaze and found myself eye to eye with something resembling a reject from the mud-pit scene in the latest "King Kong" movie.
Ick ick ick!
I fled to get a newspaper, but when I returned it was gone and the kitten was looking confused.
This looks to be a blown-up photocopy of a photo of one of these bugs. The actual bug themselves are brown, often with lengthwise stripes. We get them here in Iowa, particularly in the warmer parts of the year. I think I actually saw the color version if this picture one day when doing a Google image search for them -- I've developed a bit of a fascination for the buggers, though they still creep me out when I see one.
I live near Boston, and we DO get these things. HORRENDOUS. You'll find them in basements and in CONDOS. I live in a condo, and at least a few times a month I'll find one in my bathtub, or sink just sitting there chillin. They move extrememly fast - you have to be ready with an old copy of Esquire to smack them with. I didn't know they could bite. Hate hate hate hate these things. Creepiest bug ever. Oh god getting the heebie-jeebies now just thinkin about it!! Heeeeeeeebie jeebie... jibbly jibbly jibbly jibbly.....
My guess is that Nancy was eaten by this bug while Chad was so wrapped up in drawing it. Kathy's kind of like FEMA, coming up with her brilliant solution just a wee bit too late.
I don't get skeeved very easily, but I hate those fucking things. Every time I encounter one in my apartment (which is not very often, thankfully), I turn into Captain Ahab, obsessed with hunting down and killing this vile little billion-legged land whale.
My fear is that if I don't succeed in eliminating it from this planet, it will crawl on my face while I'm sleeping. If not for that neurosis, I would have no problem cohabitating with them. When you do manage to smash one, the body sort of disintegrates, but all the legs keep moving, giving off the effect of a miniature Tour de France.
yes, we do indeed get centipedes in Massachusetts.
They are so incredibly creepy.
http://www.uos.harvard.edu/images/ehs/pest/cen
Side Note: Is it bad that I can't always answer the spam protection questions without a calculator? So much for a college honors student, huh?
This is HILARIOUS! So many people freaking over a picture of a bug (including half of the authors of the find). Poor bug... Just wants to live peacefully in your house... Try cleaning BEFORE you start seeing bugs.
Clover, thanks for the link. A friend who recently moved to rural Nashville can't live without that site to identify all manner of vermin she discovers. I never thought to use it to check out the ubiquitous house centipedes in my own home, though. We have erroneously called them silver fish for years, only now to learn that they are, unlike silver fish, harmless bug eaters! But, man, they scare the be-gee-bees out of me when they move so fast and seem to disappear under the baseboards. I can't say whatsthatbug.com has me completely convinced not to squee like a little girl and squish them whenever I see one.
and it TOTALLY DOES look like 'good darwin', btw.
congrats, Kira, for sounding both non-afraid of bugs, and judgenmental about those who find bugs. Bugs like these don't come because you're not clean enough, but just because that's what bugs do, for crissakes.
This might be my favourite find ever. It definitely ranks up there with the Spiderman engagement picture.
Damn math spam questions. 4 x 5 is one thing, but 28 x 15?!?!
Are you trying to give me nightmares?!?!
Mona, the real reason there are no bugs in Kira's house is that even bugs are smart enough to seek out more worthwhile company than what they'd find there.
Flargy, i never thought of that.. makes perfect sense
I think you are overrating the intelligence of bugs and of yourself...
I think the bugs at Kira's house are hiding up her ass.
It looks way too realistic and proportional to be a drawing. Maybe she doused the centipede in ink and shmushed it on the piece of paper, or conducted some sort of sunlight photography...
It's just way too good! She should be a pro if it's a drawing.
I *love* this find. The artwork is amazing. The artist should really look into illustrating entomology books.
Jolie - I love that book! Hadn't thought about it since college. I wonder where that book is. Never seen the planners or decals. Think I'll put that on my to do list.
Catyia - Cute tattoo idea, but I agree that it surely wouldn't bode well.
Missed Find yesterday, but my curiosity is piqued now - I'll have to go back and see it.
One other thing. I saw one of these when I was about 15 or so. My mother was making me clean my room. She was in there and saw it speed across the room. She has always thought that was some kind of indication of the hellish menagerie under my bed. Never could convince her that I could have been the innocent victim of the woods out back.
Sorry, Kira, but this is where I end this brief exchange. I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an obviously unarmed person.
OK #1 Ewwwwwwwww
#2 I just killed 2 of these mf'ers this morning in the shower stall. I hate them, and my worthless cats won't do anything about them (probably because they bite, as I now learn from Wikipedia).
At least they have a purpose...we get many spiders because of all the trees around my house, and it appears that house centepedes hunt spiders. Who knew? Maybe I should stop killing them.
No, I'm still killing them.
Wow, obviously im rather outclassed... Touche... Sorry for being a jerk.
My favorite part is the frownie face. Its as if the writer expresses some remorse for the insects passing even though they consider its demise to be beneficial. Nice contrast.
It does look like Chad dipped the centipede in paint and splatted it onto the paper... In which case that is/was one honking big bug!!! Like something out of a horror movie. I bet it came from NJ where it had been feasting off of all the yummy toxic waste, and was planning on laying low somewhere and biding it’s time until it had grown to the size of a small pony. Fortunately it picked the apartment of someone brave enough to take it on, rather than someone like me who would have fled shrieking into the hall.
I remember a time when I was all about live-trapping any insect found inside and releasing them into the wild... But then one of these not-so-little buggers ran up my arm and into my sleeve.
I still squirm thinking about it...
eeeeewwwwwww
spiders are fairly cool, especially when you learn about them and understand them. but this guy- I can't think of any situation in which he would be cool to observe.
again, eeeeeewwwwwwww
The idea of some guy named Chad fearlessly taking on a giant insect makes me giggle madly... This is probably not good since I’m at work and my coworkers tend towards hypersensitivity if they think anyone might be having fun at their expense.
“St. Chad, centipede slayer!”
I need him around my house…
PS. Teacher: I got the decal from the anniversary edition of the book. I think if you go to Brian Froud's website you can get some pressed fairy swag... But don't quote me on that.
Please note: the mystery to yesterday's Boob Find has been revealed:
http://www.foundmagazine.com/find/2001
Our first encounter with the House Centipede left us with mouths open and camera in hand. They are freaky creatures, but eat the really nasty things you don't want, like cockroaches, mosquitoes, ants, etc. Our basement is home to multi-generations of House Centipedes (the little fellas are very cute), so we decided to give them a friendlier rebranding to foster a stronger partnership in our efforts to rid the house of real pests. We now call them fairy boats or happy mustaches. It helps. But I still scream once in a while.
When I worked in Houston (Texas) I had a friend from New York City who would have the exterminator park down the street from her house so the neighbors wouldn't know she had roaches. That tickled me when she told me that because roaches are so commonplace here, everybody has them so there isn't the filthy stigma there is in North.
John, good story and sounds plausible. I love drag queens. I love the part about peaches.
maybe it's a prosthetic bug.
I hate bugs. hate hate HATE. I moved into an old house, and had no idea the place had giant american cockroaches. i have to have an exterminator to get rid of the %$^^$$#^&ers. Every time I see one i go nuts with the spray and the broom and the shoe and unleash my total hatred that these things would DARE come into my house. and cleaning has nothing to do with it. that's all i DO is clean. the place is spotless, and still, they come.
This find reminded me of science in highschool we learned that there were so many species of spiders you're never more than a meter or roughly 3 feet from one. In the walls,carpet,underground everywhere. We all kinda kept our eyes open after that.
Julse, its the koolaid pie. that's what attracts the bugs.
my SIL watched a show about dust mites, and for a long time, she would wash her bedding every day, vacuum the bed, and make sure her and my brother had a bath before bed. (because they feast on dead skin cells)
julse, I believe that those giant cockroaches are also called tree roaches and have nothing to do with the cleaniness for ones home. They can also fly and when my husband first moved to Texas he thought he had a bird in his apartment. He couldn't believe it was a cockroach. He's still freaked out by it.
Oh lord they are fast :[
We get em every year I actually saw one a few days ago chillin out in my bathroom. I hate when they get on the ceiling gives me the heeby jeebies.
Mona do yall have cockroaches up in Canada?
So freaked out by all the bug talk that I left the computer for a second to find some slippers. I kept feeling like bugs were crawling all over my feet. (shudder)
Lost in Translation, I bet it is! Luckily, I don't live in the same house anymore, so the thing will probably be busy scaring the shit out of my mother and freaking out my dog. It's back in Ohio, being creepy other twelve hours away.
The thing I have against bugs isn't exactly that they themselves scare me. It's not knowing they're around, then having them pop up out of nowhere, just sitting on my couch or something.
I feel the same way about children. If I'm not paying attention, and the next thing I know, there's a 3 year old crawling up my leg, we're going to have to have a talk.
South Carolina has got to be one of the worst bug states in the US. When I moved down there from Virginia I ran into one of these suckers but in SC they are not brown or striped...no, they are a light green color almost transparent. I'm not sure if they bite but they pretty much do the same thing...eat other pests.
I am not a bug lover. I know bugs serve a purpose...except mosquitos(they're of the devil)....but if one decides to rear it's ugly butt in my presence, well it had it coming.
Yes, the d***m things FLY! Wait let me say the word right out loud. the DAMN things FLY! They scare my kids, but the worst thing is, like Katherine said, having them pop out at you. I guess I'm going to have to stop eating the koolaid pie. I'll have to change my name to "julse in room in horror of hairy prosthetic boobs"
Thanks, Nightingale. They always say, "write about what you know". (Oops, I've said too much.)
oops, i mean "in MY room, in horror of hairy prosthetic boob".
When I was younger my family and I went to Texas for my cousin's wedding. We checked into the hotel, went up to our room, turned on the lights, and immediately wondered why the carpet was moving.
There were crickets EVERYWHERE! On the walls, on the beds, in the bathroom… My sister screamed and took off down the hall and even my mom (who is normally ok with insects) backed slowly out of the room. My dad called the front desk and they couldn't explain it: Apparently no one else had the same problem. They offered to send someone up to "take care of it," but we opted to move to the motel across the highway... As we were getting on the elevator a small man carrying a flyswatter and a can of bug spray asked my dad for our room key. His name tag read "Elmo," and I often wonder how he faired.
The next place had ants outside the door and a lizard in the bathroom, but we could handle that.
I saw a program on the discovery channel of this British woman who was bit by an unknown bug who laid eggs below the skin of scalp. The doctor pulled out three larva (sp?) that were running all around under the skin of her scalp. They were long.
Shudder.
There is one of those bugs crawling up the inside of you pantleg RIGHT NOW!
Oh. My. God! Nadine, you just vocalized my worst bug nightmare!! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! I seriously have goosebumps all up and down my arms.
I'm such a chick when it comes to bugs. It's irrational, but I just don't care. I hate them!
Nadine: Ohhhh one of my coworkers was telling me about that. Didn't she go to South America? Hopefully it wasn't just some random Brit bug. Still… Ick ick ick! There was another case of a guy with maggots in his scalp, but I can’t remember where he was or why they think he got them.
My mum used to work at an animal rehab facility, and whenever they had to take care of flea/lice/tick infested raccoons, groundhogs, or possums they would spend the next week or so in a state of itchy-twitchiness.
FLARGY, how could you? I was fine until you brought up something crawling across your face in the night...curse you, Flargy! Curse you! (Not really) But next time I have insomnia it will be YOUR FAULT.:O
We used to have a little gecko who showed up all on his tod in our apartment. He stayed around for most of the summer, we knew it was the same one because he seemed to have misplaced a couple of toes on his left front foot. We called him the "volunteer gecko" and would occasionally see him hangin around on a wall. That was a very bug-free summer! He eventually left, I guess maybe he got used to his handicap (or footdecap?).
This find made me want the gecko back...badly!
Lach Doch, that's not so bad. Hotel crickets are way better than panty crickets.
I also thought that maybe Chad had managed to catch the bug and smush it on the glass of a photocopier so he could show it to Kathy in realistic detail. But I guess not.
I love panty crickets.
But do you think there are house centipedes and also hotel centipedes? Or the dreaded time-share centipede?
Scary bug story: I was spending the night with a friend of mine in NC and at the time my friend was having trouble with wolf spiders. My first night there, my friend accidently steps on one right at her front doorstep. Two hours later, we open the door and there are four more of those suckers eyeing us down...as if they were saying, "hey you..why did you kill our little friend?" Then, out of the blue one jumps at us and to our horror, lands inside the house only to skitter away into some dark corner...never to be seen again.
And that my friends is one of the reasons I hate bugs.
Sue Bee in the hive, yes we have cockroaches in Canada. They do not respect the 49th parallel. We have to have our igloos fumigated on a regular basis.
sheesh.
Dare I ask... What is a panty cricket? I probably don't want to know...
A house centipede once happened to pay a visit to the home of a country centipede where he was served a humble meal of one lone spider. The house centipede finished his business in the country and by means of insistent invitations he persuaded the country centipede to come pay him a visit. The house centipede then brought the country centipede into a basement that was overflowing with all sorts of delicious spiders and other good food to eat. As they were feasting on various delicacies, a young man opened the door. The house centipede quickly concealed himself in a familiar corner, but the poor country centipede was not acquainted with the house and frantically scurried around the floorboards, frightened out of his wits. When the young man had taken what he needed, he closed the door behind him. The house centipede then urged the country centipede to sit back down to dinner. The country centipede refused and said, 'How could I possibly do that? Oh, how scared I am! Do you think that the man is going to come back?' This was all that the terrified centipede was able to say. The house centipede insisted, 'My dear fellow, you could never find such delicious food as this anywhere else in the world.' 'A single spider is enough for me,' the country centipede maintained, 'so long as I am secure in my freedom!' The house centipede scoffed at this (“look how big and fat I have become? Why even the humans shriek when they see me!”) but soon the country centipede insisted upon leaving. They were almost to the door when, quick as lightning, a shoe came down and squashed the house centipede flat. The country centipede raced behind a table leg, his little heart pounding.
“Well well,” boomed a voice. “Nancy will be pleased!”
As soon as the man had moved away the country centipede fled for the door, and never set foot in another house again.
Moral: It is better to live in self-sufficient poverty than to be tormented by the worries of wealth. Or worries of Chad.
Darcy... don't worry.. some places on the island i like never see them... you might get lucky!!! *hopes for you* just stay out of like... all tall grass lol
@ Jolie--if you are referring to the mouse infestation in this city...I know that problem intimately. However, give me a mouse (or many mouses) over a single one of these buggers any day! especially now that I know that they bite!!!!!
See what happens when one works all day ? They end up being the ninty-somethingth poster of the day ! LOL !
Well, that drawing of the bug is so perfect - I wonder if it was a photocopy. Those centipedes are quite fast so I hope that Nancy was able to kill it (them). Great find !
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Those things are my worst nightmare. They terrify me more than any other creepy crawly. *shivers*
Ants in my pants make my belly button dance!
Our house centipedes & I have an agreement.
If I see one in the basement I'll leave it be but if I find one upstairs it's squishing time!
When I was taking Abnormal Psych, I developed a phobia of drinking water in the middle of the night without first looking in the glass. This meant that I'd have to use the light on my cell phone to illuminate the innards of whatever mug of water I'd put by my bed before going to sleep. I was terrified that the one time I didn't check it out first, there would be a tarantula floating atop the water, just waiting to get me when I took a sip. A few times, I think I even dreamed (nightmare-d, more like it) about the feel of those hairy legs brushing up against my lip. NASTY!
There are no tarantulas up here, and I had never had that phobia before that stupid class (I was 23). I can pinpoint the day, too-- the prof passed around a list of the most amusing phobias, thinking (if he was thinking at all) that we might have a few laughs. I'm not sure if my specific phobia was on it or if I merged a few together to create my own personal hell, but it stuck with me for a few years. I think I'm (mostly) okay now.
Oh, and I can't believe I missed the hairy boob yesterday. Frightening, scary image. Now I have two to dream (read: nightmare) about tonight...
Sara, I can totally empathize with your tarantula phobia, because that is my worst, my absolute worst phobia. I woke up as a teen- ager, with one right next to my face, and since then I have never been the same. Add to that, the fact, that many years later, taking care of my grandparents house in the country(one died, the other in a nursing home) the house and yard were infested with tarantulas. They give me the creeps like nothing else. I actually can't talk about it anymore, because I'm getting totally creeped out.
I'm not crazy about bugs. I periodically have seen these creepy things in my house as well as earwigs which are even creepier than these things. But ever since my father died I have been unable to kill ANY living thing. This includes MICE AND ALL BUGS. I have this irrational fear that my father could return someday as one of these things just to test me. Call me a hypocrite if you want but this does not prevent me from eating a steak. But see in this case I'm not the instrument of death for the cow.
Did anyone else experience the return of the 17 year cicada? It was estimated in the county I live in that there were over ONE MILLION cicadas per acre. Now that was creepy.
Katherine in Philadelphia ~ I had a cockroach appear in my upstairs apartment once and I squished it with my shoe but when I came back in the room a few minutes later, it was gone. I was terrified for days about it crawling on me in my sleep. I started calling it the Jesus Roach...feared it would re-appear in three days. I found it when I moved out, stuck, ironically, to a board i had some artwork on. I guess it lived up to part of its name by being crucified.
I wouldn't be surprised if this note came from Vassar. The fifth floor of Raymond House particularly is infested with those things. We call 'em Vassar Bugs. I herded three out of my room yesterday. So many legs.
D:!
THIS WOULD BE THE FIND TODAY!
Centipedes are my biggest fear. And when I come to one of my favorite websites, I do NOT want to find my biggest fear sitting there in front of my face.
I guess I'm just glad it wasn't an alive one... but squished.
-shudder-
creepy-crawlies! eewwwww
they loved my shower last summer. i never want to see another one again in my life.
tarantula's are my biggest nightmares. We have them around here, but they call them trap door spinders. When it rains the patter of the rain on the pavement makes them think it's mating season and they come out and cross the roads. They are in the same location everytime because they have lived in the same undergound burrow for over 75 year. They will sometimes jump on your tire and ride home with you. CREEPY!
I can relate to the tarantula fear, however one of my favorite movies used to be Arachnophobia.
a couple of years ago, i had a tarantula run in. I wrote a short story about it. today's found inspired me to post it on my blog at http://bagladyblues.blogspot.com/
jujube, you probably don't want to hear this, but you just described my life on your intro of your blog. Sorry, but the Texas, stay at home mom, read, even jump on trampoline. Shit it was kinda scary.
Oh and I have a really old house that we cut and half and moved out here.
They are prevalent in my area. My kids call them Mustache Bugs.
They are speedy little guys. We rarely catch them. They run into crevices and closets and we just avoid those areas for a while until we forget about them.
Peppster, that IS kind of scary. but kind of cool, too.
Nadine--sounds a bit like cutaneous larva migrans. Wear your shoes outside, folks!
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://
West Virginia Girl, as a former WV girl these bugs are so much worse in Seattle!!!
This Find is so horrible, and the bug stories are worse, and yet fascinating, I keep coming back.
Reminds me of the time when as a child the cieling of our breezeway was taken over by aeronaut spiders. The ceiling was literally COVERED with one huge web, and you could see them crawling around in there. I was about 3 and whenever I wanted to scare myself I would glance up there...my brother finally shot a flaming arrow up into the web and it, and the spiders, just kind of "vanished", they burned so quickly.
About the same time (this would be about 1965), a local exterminator had a TV commercial that simply showed a HUGE tarantula crawling along on a bed, and you could hear a woman's voice screaming blue murder. Name and phone of the exterminator on the bottom of the screen.
I am scarred for life. Anything with more than 6 legs HAS to DIE.
SaraSara,
This is NOT unfounded!!! I was swimming in the pool at my sister’s condo one night several years ago. I had my drink perched on the side of the pool where it had been sitting there for close to half an hour before I decided that I was thirsty. Like I said it was evening so it was fairly dark and the only lights we had were the ones in the pool. I went to take a sip and felt a large object that didn't feel like ice in my mouth. I spit it out immediately into the pool as I gagged and wretched and was horrified to see that it was a GIANT Palmetto bug! ACK! For those of you who have never been to the south eastern U.S. a Palmetto bug looks like (but isn't really) an enormous roach and it FLIES! I started screaming and frankly I'm amazed that I didn't vomit.
I was traumatized for months after that.
I can't believe that i didnt remember this till now.
White wine
back porch, covered with lattice
summer
earwig.
in my freaking mouth
yeah.... i know.
Flargy, my phone rang right as I read your description of the legs of a dead centipede "looking like a miniature tour de france" and couldn't answer it for a minute because I was laughing.
Love this find, especially the comments. You guys are like a comedic Wikipedia. So bummed I missed this.
Yeah,Em,I wholeheartedly concur..this was just about the best comment section ever. Many many laughs, but for some reason what got me the most was Speedy Mcgillicuddy's "Oh god getting the heebie-jeebies now just thinkin about it!! Heeeeeeeebie jeebie... jibbly jibbly jibbly jibbly..... ", followed immediately by that miniature Tour de France comment.. hysterical!
::shiver::
we had these all over our house. big ones. they're terrible. i was always afraid to walk around barefoot. and i started flipping on lights and scanning floors before i ever walked into a room. we'd always find them in the tub. and then there was the time we found one in the toilet.
::shudder::
21! I think we have a record. I'll be doing the voice on all your home answering machines.
AHH. He thinks thats bad. I get desert centipedes in my house :[ they grow up to 12 feet long
Unrelated. But.
"It looks way too realistic and proportional to be a drawing."
As an artist, that may be the dumbest, most misguided sentence I've ever heard.
@CreepyCounter: Carl Kasell?!? Save me from the creepy bugs!
If anyone could save us from a giant centipede, Carl Kasell could. His powers are limitless: Of that, I am quite convinced.
I am terrified of these things!
I just now killed one of these freakin' 4" long mustaches and it's 1:30 am and I am afraid to fall asleep. Scared the s__t out of me - it was right outside my BR door. It's the biggest one out of about 10 that I've seen here since December. I've also seen cockroaches here and that's bad enuf! I never had to live with these freakin' things in my life until I moved into this old garden apt. I already told the landlady as soon as I find another place I'm outta here. Yeah, I'm jibbly, jibbly, jibbly too!!! Jumpin outta my skin!! Help!!!!
Ha ha!!! Victory is mine!!!
About ten minutes ago, I was sitting here at my computer playing solitaire (yes, I still do that), when I spotted some movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned and looked in the corner, and sure enough, there was one of these little bastards, twitching around, taunting me. As soon as he saw I had spotted him, the yellow-bellied little coward ran and hid under a power strip.
Fortunately, my vacuum was on the floor beside me, already plugged in, and with only the brush attachment on it. I popped off the attachment, then jostled the power strip until the spawn of Satan made a run for it. Just as his stupid ass emerged from behind the other side of the computer desk, I turned the vacuum on and sent him spiraling to his doom in House Centipede Hell.
Oddly enough, just as in Jersey Chick's case, it's 1:30 AM right now. I wonder how many more people will check in with stories of 1:30 AM house centipede slayings. Hopefully a lot.
I want to hang out with chad and have him tell me about different things followed by a drawing of the thing.
btw - who the hell asked Kathy what she thought about this? can't she read?
Had to jump in - took me many visits to savor all the comments! Flargy, it totally happened to me: fell asleep on the couch one very hot summer's night and, yes, ***shudder*** one ran across my forehead whilst I was asleep. (I'm a light sleeper for better or worse.) AAaaarrgh. We don't have 'em as bad as we used to, though, ever since we got a cat - it took her a while to get used the wiggly-even-after-they're-torn-off legs, but she's a real little trooper - either that or the exterminator started using actual poison instead of a placebo.
reason # 58 I live in alaska
No wierd F&*^ing bugs with crazy legs
Withnail in I, they do come from the toxic NJ wastes. :-) I get them all the time in my house... if you live in a fairly rural area in the northeast, like me (yes, there are rural areas in NJ) they will come out at night and crawl all over the walls.
They are super fast and yes, really creepy.
When I was a kid I was getting ready for school early one morning, and just as I put my foot into my shoe, one crawled out. Scariest thing of my life; the shoe flew about halfway across the room.
ive written a note very similar to this before, but it was in omaha.