Lolita, adventures of the house centipede office mascot!

[TreebeardGoddess]

A couple of weeks ago a coworker saw a "scary bug" jump at her and wanted me to come get it. (Most of my coworkers know to get me so I can take various insects and spiders outside, and away from them.) When I got to her desk there was a House Centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata)! It looked like one I'd seen a few months ago around my cubicle.
I named her Lolita.
I'd read that house centipedes that are out and about during the day tend to be dehydrated, so I put her in a jar and misted her throughout the day. She seemed to enjoy bathing in the water droplets.
Long story short, that night I got a container and improvised some mesh netting in the lid for air circulation, added some peat soil substrate, and added some seashells - one for holding water, and two for hides. Now she has a home!
At first, I was really worried that she wasn't eating and just freaking out running like a madman every time I opened the lid to her container. After getting some much needed advice from @Crowbawt (thanks!) I can make sure she gets the right food and stop fretting like a crazy parent.
She's calmed down a lot over the past week and seems to be eating well. I'll try to get some pictures soon and post them (she's super cute). I just want to share my adventures of my first foray into the hobby!

 

[7Fin]

Sounds pretty good. I saw one of those yesterday, I thought I'd be freaked out but I found it to be very beautiful. Enjoy your new invert! :3

 

[Crowbawt]

I'm really glad to hear that my advice was helpful and your new little friend is doing well! Capturing a House Centipede and deciding to try and keep it was my introduction to the hobby as well... who knows, there may be many more inverts in your future

 

[TreebeardGoddess]

Thanks for the well wishes!
I got to see her actually hunt which was cool. Usually I feed her by putting a cricket in her enclosure and it'll be gone the next day. One day, though, she must've been hungry and came running out of her hide and killed it immediately! She then munched a few bites, carried it around for a few seconds, took some more bites, then carried it around and munched on it some more. It was kinda funny.
I'm also figuring out what she all she likes to eat. She definitely does not like pill bugs or lightening bugs. She really likes crickets! She will eat flies, mayflies, and katydids. I can't tell if she ate the 2 ants I gave her one time or they escaped. It's like a cool experiment just figuring her out.

 

[keks]

I asked goggle for this centipede, it is beautiful!!

 

[TreebeardGoddess]

I asked goggle for this centipede, it is beautiful!!

Yeah they are pretty cool once you get a look at them. Most of the time they are too quick to see!

 

[TreebeardGoddess]

[Apologies for not posting for so long, work gets pretty crazy sometimes!]
So in August I got a little worried because I hadn't seen Lolita out for a bit. I noticed she hadn't eaten her weekly cricket meal. When I went to catch it and release it I noticed the previous week's cricket came out (this one had been hiding apparently). Then I started getting really worried that she hadn't eaten in two weeks. So I lifted up the shell (she has two seashell hides that she alternates using) and saw she looked very pale - almost white! I hoped she was molting and not sick or dying.
Well the next week she came out to visit. I cleaned out her leftover molt (looked like she ate about 2/3 of it) and got some good pictures of her finally!!! She looks so beautiful!
Her home:


Smiling pretty for the camera!

 

[Jay Sav]

Those are some gorgeous pics. You did a good job catching her too, I hear the legs break very easily.

 

[chanda]

That's fantastic! If you can get her to molt successfully, that's a clear indicator that you've created a suitable environment for her. She's gorgeous! I really want to keep one of these, too. So far I've only ever found one in the wild (years ago, when I was just getting started with inverts) - and at the time, had no idea how to take care of it, so it did not survive very long.

It is very common for centipedes and millipedes to eat their own molts - my S. polymorpha do the same, as do my millipedes. I've never seen a molt left behind in any of their cages, but they've definitely grown considerably over the past few years. Other inverts - like my Halloween crab, roaches, and isopods - also eat their molts to regain the lost calcium or other nutrients.

 

[TreebeardGoddess]

I have a feeling she molted again! Just went through a few weeks of her hiding and refusing to eat. Then she appeared last week, running around and looking hungry. I gave her a big fly to eat, and she spent the whole afternoon munching away.
You can't see it very well, but she is chowing down on that fly!

 

[TreebeardGoddess]

She posed for a picture this morning.
Happy Monday Arachnoboards!

Lolita_HappyMonday1_10-23-17

• TreebeardGoddess
• Oct 23, 2017
• 5

Scutigera coleoptrata, aka Lolita

Her new favorite spot - hiding under the leaves.

You can't see me!

• TreebeardGoddess
• Oct 23, 2017

Scutigera coleoptrata (Lolita) 10-23-17

 

[LawnShrimp]

Lolita is looking good!

House centipedes are capable of molting more often than other centipedes. My first Scutigera was captured in a spiderweb with half its legs gone and could only walk in crooked half circles. A few spiders and moths later, it was back to walking in straight lines and chasing down live crickets with all 30 legs. I also had a smaller Scuti that had a very dark pattern. I would have bred them but they escaped, living up to their "house centipede" name.

 

[TreebeardGoddess]

@LawnShrimp That's good to hear that your first Scuti recovered! House centipedes will now and forever be dubbed: Scuties.
I was a little worried since she had molted about 2 months prior, but she seems to be doing really well. She's actually outside a lot more now that she can hide under the Pothos leaves I added.

 

[TreebeardGoddess]

Howdy Arachnoboards! I've been away on vacation for the past few weeks, so look out this post will be a long one!

First of all, a coworker found a house centipede in the sink of the men's restroom. And of course he brought it to me. I put him in a temporary home (glass terrarium bowl I had at my desk) and improvised a hide for him out of an old business card. He was dubbed Nikola (after Nikola Tesla).



As you can see he was very dehydrated and spent a lot of time that first afternoon drinking water and bathing. It also appears he is missing his last 2-3 pairs of legs. I'm hoping as he enjoys his new home that he will molt and get those legs back. He is a very good eater so far, but still a little skittish. (I had a friend at work make sure to water both Lolita and Nikola since I was away so long, so don't worry about my long absence!)

My new project after returning from vacation is to build them bigger enclosures. I went out and got supplies last week. I then brought them home Friday night so I could get their new enclosures set up and make sure they would like them (or at least fit in them well). This is where it all went wrong...

Lolita has escaped! I'm not sure if she escaped at my office or in my car on the way home. I hope she escaped at work since at least I know she can survive ok in the office building. The only thing I can figure is that I didn't close the lid all the way and she managed to climb up the leaves to reach the lid (which she can't reach on her own). I've been distraught all weekend.
Nikola is fine, and his new home is under way. He will have a bigger place to roam with lots of hides and some nice little plants for decoration (the plants are more for aesthetics, I don't think he'll care).

I know centipedes are master escape artists, and apparently Scuties are too! I just hope I haven't let her down in some way and that she is ok wherever she is.

 

[TreebeardGoddess]

Well Nikola is all set up in his new home!

Nikola_home_12-18-17

• TreebeardGoddess
• Dec 27, 2017

Nikola's new enclosure!

Nikola_home_12-18-17_close-up

• TreebeardGoddess
• Dec 27, 2017

 

[Storymaster92]

We're you able to ever find lolits?

 

[TreebeardGoddess]

Sadly no. I can only hope she is living a wonderful life wandering around my old office cubicle.