Scolopendra alternans

[cjm1991]

Well I have been biten by a few pedes now. I just got 2x 6 inch alternans in the mail 5 mins ago. I let it come out of the cup and onto my hand and within about 3 seconds it bit my pinky. I am thinking it was a dry bite but it was biting hard for about 4 good chomps(if you have been bitten it feels like them squeezing you over and over). No pain yet just a little itchy. All good. But I don't recommend handling these.

To anyone thinking of holding their S.Alternans.. please dont they WILL bite you. I have handled some mean pedes but this one gave me literally 3 seconds before I got bit.. thats worse than alot of my subspinipes.

 

[cjm1991]

follow up

Well all is well, a buddy of mine attempted to hold my other one with the same result - dry bite, itching, and no pain. I guess call us lucky but I hoping he would get the envenomation so we could see what a real bite feels like, unless they are actually that mild.

 

[Draiman]

An induced bite.

I got one of my 5cm pedelings to bite me, thinking it would be nothing. In fact, this bite is hurting more than the bite of an adult Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans (go figure).

Bite location: basal segment of right index finger

Effects: Immediate sharp, stinging pain and swelling. Bite site has turned into a wide, raised white lump. Finger mobility is slightly decreased, and there is some pain in the knuckle joint, as well as slight tingling in the lymph node in my right armpit. This is approximately 10 minutes post-bite. Will update.

Update: lymph node in my armpit visibly swollen now. Swelling at the bite site is spreading to the whole of the finger segment, and slight pain and tingling has spread to my right thumb. This could be fun...

Update2: the muscles in my palm are now hurting slightly, and the pain in the lymph node has picked up significantly over the last couple of minutes.

Update3: everything has just gone up a notch. There is now genuine discomfort in my armpit and mobility in my right hand is slowly diminishing

Update4: its becoming more and more difficult to use my right hand for anything now. the swelling also seems to be increasing, in fact.

Update5: the bitten finger has now lost all practical mobility, and there are now two distinctly discernible sources of pain in my right hand - one is the sharp stinging and burning from the bite site itself and the other is this dull muscle/bone pain in the knuckles and palm.also pain in the armpit lymph nodes is still present

Update6: pain has spread to the other fingers i dont think i'll be able to sleep tonight (its 1.30 in the morning here now)

Update:

I went to bed at 2am last night, and spent at least 2 hours squirming in bed trying to sleep through the discomfort; it was similar to trying to sleep while getting inked. Fell asleep at 4 and had to get up at 7 for school, so I spent all of today feeling absolutely crappy. Right now it is 10.27pm here, and for the past 2 hours I've had this dull, annoying pain in the left side of my chest. I just popped some paracetamol, we'll see what happens.

Oops, forgot to post an update.

So in the post above I mentioned getting some chest pain on the day after the bite - I don't think the paracetamol helped at all, but when I got up the next day the pain in my chest was gone and it hasn't returned since.

In conclusion:

- Effects from the bite lasted about 24 hours
- Plenty of localised pain (both "venom pain" and bone/muscle ache) and swelling
- Some systemic effects, such as swollen lymph nodes and chest pain

It is VERY worth noting that this was only a 5cm pedeling! If it was my 7.5" adult female that got me, I'm not sure I would have been here to write a bite report.

I will repeat this experiment on my S. hardwickei and S. sp. "Chinese tigerleg" pedelings in a few weeks' time.