We found an insect in the basement of our old house. We caught one & tried to find out what it was, but no one was able to give us any answers. Anyway, we were watching the Discovery channel's Planet Earth series last night & low & behold there was our bug! It was a venomous Centipede found in a cave in Borneo! There were 6 of us all living in this house & we are all absolutely positive that this is the same bug. Has anyone other than us ever seen one of these in Southwest Michigan or does anyone know if there is a VERY similar species that lives here? We would love any info. anybody can give us. Here is a link to a picture of it : http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/quest/borneo/steve-diary/steve-diary_04.html
2007-04-23 03:52:34 · 6 answers · asked by frankie182 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
I'm betting you actually saw this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_centipede.
Very common.
2007-04-23 04:06:49 · answer #1 · answered by Karrie L 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The odds are that you saw a common house centipede - very common, very harmless and rather similar to the photo (although not so brown) (oh, and not actually an insect, either). When you have a choice between something extremely unlikely and something virtually certain, go with the virtual certainty is my advice.
I would estimate the chances of you having a cave-dwelling Borneo centipede in your basement at somewhere less than 1 in several million, while the chance of it being a house centipede (Scutigera) is somewhere about the inverse (so something more than several million to 1).
2007-04-23 11:46:07 · answer #2 · answered by John R 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As usual, the popular media oversensationalize
everything. All centipedes are venomous, but
the venom in all but the largest is of no effect on
human beings. The Borneo one shown in the
link you cited and the common one in the U.S.
are both in the centipede Order Scutigeromorpha, characterized by having fifteen pairs of very long slender legs and dorsal
openings into the tracheae. They are common in
some buildings where it is damp, basements
etc. They are quite harmless to humans, and
are so very fast-moving that they are hard to
catch.
2007-04-23 11:49:01 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I wish I knew what it was, but I've seen a similar bug myself. There used to be tons of those in the basement of the Library that I worked at. It looks like some evil cross between a spider and a grasshopper.
2007-04-23 11:01:47 · answer #4 · answered by mightyspoo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Eeew! Ummm... If you think it was a new species for your area, you might want to report it (To who I don't know) 'cause sometimes people can bring stuff like this home with them and then POOF! We got problems half way across the planet. Like that guy in the photo... What if he brought a pregnant female home in his backpack and didn't know it? Imagine him putting all his hiking stuff in his basement and then someone like yourself moving in a couple years later. Eeeew!
2007-04-23 10:57:12 · answer #5 · answered by NONAME 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i wander if someone brought it to Michigan with them
i hope it doesn't bread more that thing looks dangerous
i think you ought to call an exterminator reminds me of the movie arachnophobia good luck with that
2007-04-23 11:06:29 · answer #6 · answered by threat 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋