I’ve seen centipedes hiding in seed trays, under pots, in the kitchen corners… and unfortunately saw one in our cabin in December. I had lifted our laundry basket and it skittered out.

Without thinking I stunned it with disinfectant while it tried to climb the walls. I smashed it repeatedly with a hard bottle and it would still wriggle back to life after several seconds. Soon Aaron came back and tossed it outside, but my fate was sealed. It’s a sure-fire way to get bit by a centipede to kill one. Supposedly the scent of a dead centipede can attract other centipedes to the area. 

Within a few weeks, I woke up with a sharp sting on the back of my leg in the middle of the night. I immediately brushed away by my leg and never saw what bit me, by the time we got the lights on. But there was a welt already and it was beginning to burn. The slow build continued to grow and was especially painful to move. There’s not much to do for a centipede bite but wait for the swelling to go down, but I did read that a hot water compress can help with pain. So Aaron got me one of those and I was able to fall back asleep soon enough after. My story was not surprising to anyone on the farm — most replies were along the lines of “welcome to hawaii! it’s official!” Everyone has been bitten once or twice. And everyone says to just try and evict the creatures rather than kill them… Tongs are especially good at grabbing them and it’s too hard to kill them anyway with their tough exoskeleton.