DubiaW
Arachnobaron
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2017
- Messages
- 471
My fascination with centipedes came about when I was a 12 year old sadistic kid that liked to catch various wild bugs and watch them kill each other in a jar. The large S polymorpha that I collected while vacationing in AZ killed everything that I threw at it, scorpions, mantids, spiders. I can't remember releasing it but it probably got released into an ant pile (jerk kid me). It never occurred to me that I could keep it as a pet. That memory stuck with me and I regarded the centipede as the most formidable predator out of all the arthropods in one on one combat (ants excluded). {Now a days I don't even like to watch Bug Wars because it seems like a self indulgent sadistic practice (but still enjoy watching a master hunter kill it's prey)}. Years later I saw an S. dehaani for sale and it dawned on me that I could have a giant fast moving killing machine for a pet. I immediately inquired with the shopkeeper about the centipede. He told me that he owned one and it tried to attack him every time it opened its enclosure and described the painful bite of dehaani to me. This is the first time I feared a centipede, but it still intrigued me. I wanted to own one but was discouraged by the tale of the demon dehaani (subspinipes at the time). Later I started getting into venomous snakes and ended up keeping various rattlesnakes. I still wanted a giant centipede but rarely ever saw one for sale in the pet stores. About that time I caught an S. heros in Patagonia and had it in the deli cup. It looked amazing, (black body with red head smack dab in arizonensis red body territory). I thought of taking it home but didn't know what I had. I set the rock back down and let it go.
After getting married and getting out of venomous snakes for a long period I decided that I really wanted a dehaani. They still terrified me but that was all the more reason for me to want it. I have a pattern of doing everything that scares me: fear of heights led me to go cliff diving and rock climbing until I had a few really close calls, fear of confined spaces led me to spelunking, etc. Dehaani still being on the list prompted me to try to purchase one. My wife protested fiercely for 12 years every time I mentioned it. She told me that she would allow me to keep a saltwater crocodile before a centipede. I jested her to be careful what she said lest I get permitted for crocodilians. After 12 years of marriage we walked into a pet store intent on finding Poecilotheria metallica. I finally got a job that would give me time for a breeding project and I wanted it to be something that would turn a little profit and help me get back into the pet trade (my lifelong love) with hopes of working for myself: Wife convinced that we were going to make some extra money in tow. I spotted a large orange bodied centipede under the counter and inquired about it. The shopkeeper (with dreadlocks in his hair) eagerly opened the container and let the 9" S. heros climb onto his hand. He made it look like a kitty cat the way he comfortably handled it. It was marked $150 USD. There were also S. dehaani under the counter which he cautiously took out and handled with shaking hands.
At that moment I decided that I wanted to captive breed S. heros. After two weeks of persuasion I convinced my wife that I could wild catch them locally and she reluctantly agreed (because of the price tag). Then I came in for the kill. I couldn't justify jeopardizing such a valuable animal without succeeding with a more affordable animal. Two weeks later I bought my first dehaani from the same shopkeeper. He told me that he had bitten by a dehaani right after the last time I saw him and he no longer handled them but he still handled heros. He compared the pain to that of a serious rattlesnake bite but a shorter duration. Over the span of the winter I built up my stock to eight (my target number for my project) and relentlessly searched the desert for S. heros (my target being ten adult females and a handful of males. Still afraid of handling centipedes and after many nights hiking in the dark I encountered my first wild S. heros and realized I had to know how to handle them to wild catch them. I got over it.. Now I have 11 (8 WC plings, 2 adults and one sub-adult). One dehaani is holding a clutch of eggs. I want to do this for a living somehow (work in the pet trade as my own boss). And I am still delightfully afraid of dehaani enough so to permanently fuel my fascination (and do not handle them with bare hands). There is nothing more exhilarating than fear. We are getting a divorce now!
After getting married and getting out of venomous snakes for a long period I decided that I really wanted a dehaani. They still terrified me but that was all the more reason for me to want it. I have a pattern of doing everything that scares me: fear of heights led me to go cliff diving and rock climbing until I had a few really close calls, fear of confined spaces led me to spelunking, etc. Dehaani still being on the list prompted me to try to purchase one. My wife protested fiercely for 12 years every time I mentioned it. She told me that she would allow me to keep a saltwater crocodile before a centipede. I jested her to be careful what she said lest I get permitted for crocodilians. After 12 years of marriage we walked into a pet store intent on finding Poecilotheria metallica. I finally got a job that would give me time for a breeding project and I wanted it to be something that would turn a little profit and help me get back into the pet trade (my lifelong love) with hopes of working for myself: Wife convinced that we were going to make some extra money in tow. I spotted a large orange bodied centipede under the counter and inquired about it. The shopkeeper (with dreadlocks in his hair) eagerly opened the container and let the 9" S. heros climb onto his hand. He made it look like a kitty cat the way he comfortably handled it. It was marked $150 USD. There were also S. dehaani under the counter which he cautiously took out and handled with shaking hands.
At that moment I decided that I wanted to captive breed S. heros. After two weeks of persuasion I convinced my wife that I could wild catch them locally and she reluctantly agreed (because of the price tag). Then I came in for the kill. I couldn't justify jeopardizing such a valuable animal without succeeding with a more affordable animal. Two weeks later I bought my first dehaani from the same shopkeeper. He told me that he had bitten by a dehaani right after the last time I saw him and he no longer handled them but he still handled heros. He compared the pain to that of a serious rattlesnake bite but a shorter duration. Over the span of the winter I built up my stock to eight (my target number for my project) and relentlessly searched the desert for S. heros (my target being ten adult females and a handful of males. Still afraid of handling centipedes and after many nights hiking in the dark I encountered my first wild S. heros and realized I had to know how to handle them to wild catch them. I got over it.. Now I have 11 (8 WC plings, 2 adults and one sub-adult). One dehaani is holding a clutch of eggs. I want to do this for a living somehow (work in the pet trade as my own boss). And I am still delightfully afraid of dehaani enough so to permanently fuel my fascination (and do not handle them with bare hands). There is nothing more exhilarating than fear. We are getting a divorce now!
Last edited: