Why oh why oh why did my centipede die?

[Georgia B]

What the heck? Last time I checked, my Scolopendra subspinipes was scurrying around actively, eating enthusiastically, and generally looking spritely. Last night I check and he’s the opposite of all those things.

I definitely didn’t overfeed, I feed my bugs once a week or maybe a little less. That’s not underfeeding for a pede is it?

He didn’t dry out, the sub is nice and damp but not soggy and he has a water dish. (I learned that the hard way with my last guy...)

He’s got lots of hiding places and sub to burrow in. Ugh I’m just so mad and sad. Somebody please tell me that I’m a good centipede mom and he died of old age. Though I’ve only had him for about six months. Or actually go ahead and give me the hard truth. I can handle it. I want to order another one but I don’t want to kill it too!

 

[AnimalNewbie]

Sometimes these things just happen but it looks like you need a bit more ventilation and more substrate never hurts.
Could of also been old age. How big is the pede

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Well, sometimes this kind of * happens.

As a note on the set up IMO the ventilation isn't enough at all. I wouldn't keep my female with such a low ventilation.

 

[NYAN]

Poke some holes in the top and the side next time. Scolopendra Dehanni, or Vietnamese centipedes are almost always wild caught. The result of this is: you don’t know their age and they could have some disease from the wild. 6 months is about how long I had my last one before it randomly died like yours. Maybe try a cb one for your next pet, or since you want to handle it a new world one. Dehanni have some of the worst venom of any centipede. It’s enough to make you wish you were dead. I recommend heros.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Poke some holes in the top and the side next time. Scolopendra Dehanni, or Vietnamese centipedes are almost always wild caught. The result of this is: you don’t know their age and they could have some disease from the wild. 6 months is about how long I had my last one before it randomly died like yours. Maybe try a cb one for your next pet, or since you want to handle it a new world one. Dehanni have some of the worst venom of any centipede. It’s enough to make you wish you were dead. I recommend heros.

Yes but there's only one problem when it comes to CB 'pedes and that problem is that those that intensively breed 'pedes are very, very rare.

The 98%, maybe more, of the 'pede in the market are WC and/or (like I did with my female pedelings) the trade/sell of arrived/purchased gravid WC specimens pedelings.

For instance, no one here in Italy bother to breed S.cingulata, because all you have to do if you seek one is to search well under rocks nearby Central/Southern Italy woods. No law or else prohibit that.
While now I don't know about (and specific) US State/s laws, I have reasons to believe that the same happens where, in the U.S, native 'pedes are present.

Sadly, 'pedes doesn't move at all the market the way like T's do, so we have to rely on WC sales. The only one I know that, here in Europe (Germany) is into breedings is Thorsten Trapp, while I know 60+ T's breeders.

 

[NYAN]

Yes but there's only one problem when it comes to CB 'pedes and that problem is that those that intensively breed 'pedes are very, very rare.

The 98%, maybe more, of the 'pede in the market are WC and/or (like I did with my female pedelings) the trade/sell of arrived/purchased gravid WC specimens pedelings.

For instance, no one here in Italy bother to breed S.cingulata, because all you have to do if you seek one is to search well under rocks nearby Central/Southern Italy woods. No law or else prohibit that.
While now I don't know about (and specific) US State/s laws, I have reasons to believe that the same happens where, in the U.S, native 'pedes are present.

Sadly, 'pedes doesn't move at all the market the way like T's do, so we have to rely on WC sales. The only one I know that, here in Europe (Germany) is into breedings is Thorsten Trapp, while I know 60+ T's breeders.

I know of dehanni which are cb for sale. With all the wc gravid females there are plenty of captive hatched also.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I know of dehanni which are cb for sale. With all the wc gravid females there are plenty of captive hatched also.

But those aren't CB at all. The pedelings given away by me two years ago (example) weren't the result of a 'in captivity' breeding, just the result of an arrived gravid WC female, therefore those were (are) WC as well.

 

[Georgia B]

Sometimes these things just happen but it looks like you need a bit more ventilation and more substrate never hurts.
Could of also been old age. How big is the pede

It is 6” long body length, plus the front and back feelers. And yes I’ll add lots more ventilation holes next time.

Poke some holes in the top and the side next time. Scolopendra Dehanni, or Vietnamese centipedes are almost always wild caught. The result of this is: you don’t know their age and they could have some disease from the wild. 6 months is about how long I had my last one before it randomly died like yours. Maybe try a cb one for your next pet, or since you want to handle it a new world one. Dehanni have some of the worst venom of any centipede. It’s enough to make you wish you were dead. I recommend heros.

I never handled this one because I had heard that their venom was awful. It’s true that I would if I safely could though. How did you know that?

Yes but there's only one problem when it comes to CB 'pedes and that problem is that those that intensively breed 'pedes are very, very rare.

The 98%, maybe more, of the 'pede in the market are WC and/or (like I did with my female pedelings) the trade/sell of arrived/purchased gravid WC specimens pedelings.

For instance, no one here in Italy bother to breed S.cingulata, because all you have to do if you seek one is to search well under rocks nearby Central/Southern Italy woods. No law or else prohibit that.
While now I don't know about (and specific) US State/s laws, I have reasons to believe that the same happens where, in the U.S, native 'pedes are present.

Sadly, 'pedes doesn't move at all the market the way like T's do, so we have to rely on WC sales. The only one I know that, here in Europe (Germany) is into breedings is Thorsten Trapp, while I know 60+ T's breeders.

Well sadly for me I’m not in Italy (ma, figlia di italiani nata in Canada) and here in Canada if you look for anything in the woods it won’t be any bigger than 3 cm.

I know of dehanni which are cb for sale. With all the wc gravid females there are plenty of captive hatched also.

Really? Can you pass some names along?

 

[NYAN]

It is 6” long body length, plus the front and back feelers. And yes I’ll add lots more ventilation holes next time.



I never handled this one because I had heard that their venom was awful. It’s true that I would if I safely could though. How did you know that?



Well sadly for me I’m not in Italy (ma, figlia di italiani nata in Canada) and here in Canada if you look for anything in the woods it won’t be any bigger than 3 cm.



Really? Can you pass some names along?

Ah Canada. Sadly they are all in the USA.

 

[NYAN]

But those aren't CB at all. The pedelings given away by me two years ago (example) weren't the result of a 'in captivity' breeding, just the result of an arrived gravid WC female, therefore those were (are) WC as well.

I think you misunderstood what I’m saying.

 

[chanda]

I think you misunderstood what I’m saying.

I think he does understand what you are saying, but is merely pointing out that "captive hatched" from a wild-caught gravid female is *not* the same as "captive bred." With captive hatched, you have no way of knowing whether the (wild caught) mother might have been infected with any illness or parasites or exposed to toxins prior to her capture, or if said illness or parasite might have been passed on to her offspring or might have affected her eggs (if she was gravid at the time of the exposure), so captive hatched are more akin to wild caught than to true captive bred (which are fairly uncommon and hard to find because there are not very many people actively breeding centipedes.)

 

[NYAN]

I think he does understand what you are saying, but is merely pointing out that "captive hatched" from a wild-caught gravid female is *not* the same as "captive bred." With captive hatched, you have no way of knowing whether the (wild caught) mother might have been infected with any illness or parasites or exposed to toxins prior to her capture, or if said illness or parasite might have been passed on to her offspring or might have affected her eggs (if she was gravid at the time of the exposure), so captive hatched are more akin to wild caught than to true captive bred (which are fairly uncommon and hard to find.)

I never claimed they were the same. I even mentioned them separately. Nevertheless I understand where you are coming from and I agree.

 

[chanda]

What the heck? Last time I checked, my Scolopendra subspinipes was scurrying around actively, eating enthusiastically, and generally looking spritely. Last night I check and he’s the opposite of all those things.

I definitely didn’t overfeed, I feed my bugs once a week or maybe a little less. That’s not underfeeding for a pede is it?

He didn’t dry out, the sub is nice and damp but not soggy and he has a water dish. (I learned that the hard way with my last guy...)

He’s got lots of hiding places and sub to burrow in. Ugh I’m just so mad and sad. Somebody please tell me that I’m a good centipede mom and he died of old age. Though I’ve only had him for about six months. Or actually go ahead and give me the hard truth. I can handle it. I want to order another one but I don’t want to kill it too!

You have my sympathy for your loss. Unfortunately, that seems to be a pretty common occurrence with wild-caught pedes. I've had the same experience with every centipede I've ever purchased (S. subspinipes, S. dehaani, and S. subcrustalis). They'll be doing seemingly just fine - right up until they aren't, and then they abruptly and inexplicably die, anywhere from a few months to a year or so after purchase. The one exception - a wild caught S. polymorpha that I collected myself - has molted multiple times in my care and appears to be thriving - and I've had it for about 3 years now. (I did have two of them that I collected at about the same time. The other one did great for the first couple of years - then died from what I'm assuming was a bad molt. It looked like its back was broken - it could control all the limbs on the back 3/4's or so of the body, but the front portion was limp and lifeless, so of course it couldn't eat - and I believe it eventually starved to death.)

 

[NYAN]

@chanda your subcrustalis died? I’m sorry.

 

[Georgia B]

You have my sympathy for your loss. Unfortunately, that seems to be a pretty common occurrence with wild-caught pedes. I've had the same experience with every centipede I've ever purchased (S. subspinipes, S. dehaani, and S. subcrustalis). They'll be doing seemingly just fine - right up until they aren't, and then they abruptly and inexplicably die, anywhere from a few months to a year or so after purchase. The one exception - a wild caught S. polymorpha that I collected myself - has molted multiple times in my care and appears to be thriving - and I've had it for about 3 years now. (I did have two of them that I collected at about the same time. The other one did great for the first couple of years - then died from what I'm assuming was a bad molt. It looked like its back was broken - it could control all the limbs on the back 3/4's or so of the body, but the front portion was limp and lifeless, so of course it couldn't eat - and I believe it eventually starved to death.)

Well it does make me feel a bit better to know I’m not the only one. Constantly replacing them is going to get a bit expensive though so I might try just one more time.

 

[chanda]

@chanda your subcrustalis died? I’m sorry.

Yeah, I was totally bummed. It was doing great - out and about after the molt, eating well, living up to its arboreal nature by hanging out on the cork bark slab instead of staying buried all the time - and then I went to feed it one day and it was limp and brown (instead of its normal green) and starting to smell. (It's warm and humid enough in our bug room that things decompose pretty rapidly when they die. Also makes it that much less pleasant to feed the dung beetles, but so far my husband hasn't noticed that - or at least hasn't said anything!) I have no idea what went wrong. The substrate (a mix of coconut fiber, dirt/sand, and sphagnum moss) was damp but not soaked, the sphagnum moss on top was also slightly dampish, it was well-ventilated - not too dry, but not stuffy and no mold or fungal growth. I was only feeding every week to week-and-a-half, so not overfed. It looked fine after the molt - no visible damage or deformities and everything appeared to be in working order. I guess it's just one more incidence of unexplained wild-caught 'pede death. This trend is making me a little reluctant to get additional 'pedes, but I do have a collecting trip to Arizona planned in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping to find an S. heros - or even another S. polymorpha.

 

[NYAN]

Yeah, I was totally bummed. It was doing great - out and about after the molt, eating well, living up to its arboreal nature by hanging out on the cork bark slab instead of staying buried all the time - and then I went to feed it one day and it was limp and brown (instead of its normal green) and starting to smell. (It's warm and humid enough in our bug room that things decompose pretty rapidly when they die. Also makes it that much less pleasant to feed the dung beetles, but so far my husband hasn't noticed that - or at least hasn't said anything!) I have no idea what went wrong. The substrate (a mix of coconut fiber, dirt/sand, and sphagnum moss) was damp but not soaked, the sphagnum moss on top was also slightly dampish, it was well-ventilated - not too dry, but not stuffy and no mold or fungal growth. I was only feeding every week to week-and-a-half, so not overfed. It looked fine after the molt - no visible damage or deformities and everything appeared to be in working order. I guess it's just one more incidence of unexplained wild-caught 'pede death. This trend is making me a little reluctant to get additional 'pedes, but I do have a collecting trip to Arizona planned in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping to find an S. heros - or even another S. polymorpha.

That’s very strange but still awful. Don’t be too discouraged though. I hope you can find some pedes in Arizona though. Post pics for us!

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I think you misunderstood what I’m saying.

Well, my view about is this.

As we know, WC is WC, so a specimen collected/taken from the native wild area. A CB specimen (T's or 'pedes no matter) is the result of a certain specie breeding where both specimens were (proved a bit, at least, like in Italy with CITES protected ones) CB.

My S.subspinipes pedelings 'jumped' out here in Lombardy, Italy, but it's only a mere detail that doesn't make them CB at all, for me. They are 100% 'made in Vietnam' (or whatever Asian nation mine was taken from) just like the mother.

So captive hatched are 100% WC as well for me, except for the location detail.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Well sadly for me I’m not in Italy (ma, figlia di italiani nata in Canada) and here in Canada if you look for anything in the woods it won’t be any bigger than 3 cm.

Beh, dai, guarda il lato positivo: niente centopiedi, d'accordo, ma magari un giorno trovi l'abominevole uomo delle nevi, in mezzo al freddo bosco Canadese, ih ih ih scherzo

 

[Georgia B]

Beh, dai, guarda il lato positivo: niente centopiedi, d'accordo, ma magari un giorno trovi l'abominevole uomo delle nevi, in mezzo al freddo bosco Canadese, ih ih ih scherzo

L’abominevole uomo delle nevi abita a Nepal, no? Noi abbiamo Babbo Natale e gli grizzly.... L’unichi insetti grandi sono le zanzare...