Tales of Tori the House Centipede

[inkl]

My house is full of house centipedes. My brother is visiting, and last night I hear from the bathroom, "Uh...what is this on the wall?"

It was a medium sized house centipede. He touched it, and it ran across the wall and fell on the floor, he looked at it a bit and said, "I'm going to name you Tori."*

We caught Tori in a deli cup, I put in an egg carton for her to hide in and a cricket to munch on. This morning I woke up, and peeked in to find a decapitated and dried out cricket. I guess Tori was hungry and perfectly fine with eating crickets.

I like Tori! So much better than her namesake. I mostly just wanted to write about how awesome it is to have a pet that rips the heads off crickets, but also to ask some advice. Does anyone know if I need to do anything special, or should I just keep tossing in crickets for her to decapitate?


*Named in honour of my Dad's girlfriend's dumbass 12-year-old, because we're nice people.

 

[Crysta]

um, well for starts she needs substrate of soil, a water dish so she doesn't dry out. although I am not completely sure if that species dries out... lol she seems to like crickets..
i wonder who actually keeps house centipedes? lol

 

[super-pede]

This species is fine without a substrate,maybe a squirt of water once every two weeks should suffice.I would also suggest finding small spiders for her to eat as well as long as they are smaller than she is.Crickets will work fine though.

 

[Travis K]

I have kept Scutigera coleoptrata and found them to be very moisture sensitive.

 

[inkl]

Well, Tori escaped! She's loose in the house presumably eating spiders.

 

[proper_tea]

If you catch her again... or any others... water water water... they die quick without water... they like water so much that I find them drown in my sink sometimes...

 

[inkl]

There must be lots of water for them in my house because they're everywhere. I just caught this one on a whim, usually I just watch them go about their business.

 

[Travis K]

There must be lots of water for them in my house because they're everywhere. I just caught this one on a whim, usually I just watch them go about their business.

Do you have a crawl space?

 

[inkl]

Oh yeah, it's an old house full of cracks and holes everywhere, plus the attic and basement. There are squirrels/chipmunks/mice that live in the walls all winter. We also have ants all over the place and lots of spiders. The cats are never bored!

 

[chanda]

Centipedes wanted (house or other)

Hi. I'm new to the forum, so I hope I'm not out of line. I will be teaching a summer school course on insects and other arthropods in July, and am looking for live specimens to add to my "insect zoo." The children really enjoy seeing live bugs, and they pay attention a lot better to live specimens than to pictures or even preserved dead bugs.

Unfortunately, my house centipede (who I'd had for several months) just died yesterday - and I would love to find a replacement. I've also been hunting for one of the big tiger centipedes out in the desert and canyons - but so far, no luck. If anyone has extras of these (or any other cool bugs - the bigger the better!) that they'd be willing to part with, please let me know.

I live in Moreno Valley, and am in Redlands every day, so I can meet you anywhere in the general Riverside/San Bernardino/Redlands/Ontario area. I will also probably be in San Diego next weekend. Please email me if you can help.

Thank you!

Chanda

 

[inkl]

I'm in Ontario, sorry!