Centipede escaped. Help!

[Chris LXXIX]

My morsitan's enclosure had a strong lid. Even harder to open/close than those Tupperware coontainers, lol. But I underestimated my subspinipes, and I didn't know it would go on rampages and keep trying to escape. That made me resort into using an aquarium without a proper lid. I mean, who would buy a pede without a strong lid while knowing facts about its bite. It just happened that what worked out with my morsitans, didn't work out with my subspinipes. Like I said, my morsitans was really chill so I kept it with its enclosure with 0 problems. The subspinipes, on the other hand, was almost to crazy. It's already climbing my morsitan's enclosure before I can even shut it close. So I had to use an enclosure with more height, but had no lid. I really feel like my story is hard to understand/view, lol.

Scolopendra subspinipes are IMO the Agusta F4 of 'pedes. My female always try to escape but when and only when she's hungry.

In fact, everytime I spot her climbing or trying to chew the air holes (ah ah, useless effort but always funny to see one forcipula out) or trying to reach the top for 'papillon' out... isn't without a reason. As I've said, she's hungry.

So I open the enclosure, offer a couple of adult B.dubia, she ferociously hunt those, and done... a calmer 'pede.

On that sense my 'pede act just like those Mafia enforcers you have to give money back... give them money when they 'knock' at your door and git gud.

No money? Boom!

 

[Scoly]

I think that you are dismissing the 'elites' out of hand without actually bothering to give them a listen. I'm not exactly sure who the 'elite' are but I can only assume that you are talking about the people who are advocating not getting pedes until the problem at hand has been corrected and due diligence has been done to ensure the animal and the keeper's safety is as close to assured as possible. A few things to consider...

People who lose animals are one of the major reasons that laws are passed to outlaw keeping those animals. Many years ago I kept many venomous snake legally until some chowderhead somewhere let a king cobra escape and the masses went bananas. Losing animals causes panic and depending on whether the news picks it up or not can also cause widespread panic, and you are probably well aware of how sensitive the media is when it comes to things like this.

Animals that escape can, in some instances, cause environmental havoc. There are many instances of rats being introduced to an area, feral cats, feral hogs, L. geometricus, snakes in Hawaii, etc. Granted, this isn't that big an issue anymore, but still, the problem has existed for eons.

If the OP has overlooked one of the most important things there is to keeping Scolopendras, what other bits of information were overlooked? All we know for sure is what we have been told thus far. Is there something else that we don't know? Of course I'm not meaning to imply that the OP is abusive or in any other way harming any animal or person, but these are some of the things that the 'elite' wonder about when they read things like this. Think about it. With S. subspinipes there are three main things to know before you get one.
1. They are venomous and can be dangerous
2. They are fast and agile.
3. They can escape from anything.

To be clear, there are reasons people react the way they do when they see certain things. There are enough obstacles to keeping inverts without people creating more through negligence or carelessness. The so called 'elite' care very deeply for animals and that level of emotion can run deep. You are right about post count, it doesn't mean anything at all, but if you read some of those posts , you'll realize that the information these people provide can be invaluable. These people are some of the most knowledgeable people on the planet when it comes to inverts so when they say something, you might want to at least consider it. You're not likely to find better information anywhere else in the world and that's just the honest truth.

Sorry to be so long winded but I think the air needs to be cleared on this. No one is saying the OP shouldn't keep pedes or anything else for that matter. What they are saying is to do more research, learn as much as possible and then learn some more and then take the leap. Once you know how to keep them properly, keep as many as you want (or as is more frequently the case as many as you can afford since no one has as many as they want). Enjoy them, but do it as responsibly as possible.

I think I agree with everything you said there. I was just saddened to hear that the OP was going to stop keeping centipedes "because the elites told him to". Yes, some people clearly shouldn't keep centipedes, and irresponsible keepers do run the risk of ruining it for us all. But the OP seems to have attempted research (albeit with major holes, and bad judgement) was willing to ask for help and learn from his mistakes, and I was sad to see him feel like he was being "bullied" out of keeping them.

You jumped on this thread because you've seen a bad thing happen before (irresponsible keepers ruining it for everyone else) and want to do your bit to ensure that doesn't happen again. I think that's totally fair and valid.

I jumped on this thread because I've seen a bad thing happen before (people getting stomped on in an online forum and being put off something they were passionate about) and didn't like seeing that happen again. You didn't stomp, you stated pretty valid points, but someone else mocked, and put together, he felt like he got stomped on.

Having said that, I too was ready to jump in and give a pretty vocal account of how out of order it was keeping a subspinipes in a cage with a lid like that. And the lack of money is not an excuse either. Creatures that can harm others (or themselves) by escape must be kept securely, or not kept in the first place.

As for "elites" (although the sooner we move away from using that term, the better) of course there are individuals with a wealth of wisdom and experience, and we'd do well to listen to them. However there are also individuals who's wisdom on certain aspects of the hobby I highly respect, but they don't have a clue what they are talking about in other aspects, and some are also total morons in real life despite their expertise or seniority in the field. (I'll restate here that this observation is not directed at anyone who has replied in this thread so far, and I do mean that) Unfortunately people, particularly the young or easily impressed, tend to associate expertise in one aspect with wisdom overall, and lend those "experts" far too much weight of opinion, on subjects they have no business expressing opinions about, but the noobs lap it up. This story repeats itself in just about every hobby or interest!