Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Centipede invasion met with fear and violence
Summer time and the living’s not easy.
In fact, things are pretty frightening around my household as occasional sightings of furry creatures deliver fear and loathing.
Sure, the neighbor’s cat has a slot under the backyard porch but that’s no problem.
My issue and condition needs no physician’s diagnosis. It’s called Chilopodophobia aka fear of centipedes.
The larger and more furry ones scare the bejeezus out of me.
Turned on the kitchen light last week and this giant centipede with bigger hair than a 1980s rock band, wriggled around until his lights were turned out permanently.
People for Ethical Treatment of Insects (PETI) will make contact after reading about my house slay.
Mind you, this fear of centipedes occurred over a course of decades. In fact, I used to laugh at my friend Keith’s fright when he encountered a centipede.
His fear matched that of American author William S. Burroughs who incorporated his bugeyed phobia in The Western Lands.
The plot includes a scientific expedition headed off to the island of Esmeraldas in search of venom samples from giant centipedes. The narrator may as well be Burroughs, engulfed in blood curdling fear of meeting up with the object of his distaste.
The fiction includes this insight. “Let me confess that I hate centipedes, above all other creatures on this horrid planet. And I am not alone in this aversion. Many others have confessed to me that they hold a special antipathy for this creature, which is so far removed from the mammalian mold. … There may be people who like centipedes. I have seen people handling tarantulas and scorpions, but never a centipede handler. Personally, I would regard such an individual with deep suspicion. … Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede on his underbelly? ‘And here is my good big centipede!’ If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race.”
Of course, wild-eyed, freaky people have discovered a love for these creatures. Pet stores have started selling . Vietnamese Giants, Red Head Tiger Legs and Amazons.
No way in the world. The thought of touching, feeding or watching these insects devour their prey, which apparently exists as something worth seeing, makes me ill.
Still, there’s no better movie scene than “The Fly” when Jeff Goldblum, after something went wrong with his teleportation experiment.
It’s Kafkaesque as Goldblum inherits fly DNA that leads up to that memorable scene when he vomits in front of Geena Davis.
The scene is wonderfully messy and horrid.
“That’s disgusting,” Goldblum says, after upchucking into his hand. But beautiful, too.
A recent trip to Costa Rica, specifically San Juanillo, included this forwarded message from our house host.
“Bugs. Don’t Freak Out -- You are in the jungle. You will see bugs and other amazing (insects). Scorpions are possible. There is a toad who loves to share the patio in the evening. I have never had a snake on the property, but keep your eyes peeled when you are hiking. You will hear lots of things at night. The monkeys are very noisy at times, but harmless. The trees drop seeds on the tin roof. The first few times it’s shocking but you will quickly get used to it. The sounds of nature are amazing.”
No mention of centipedes.
It’s all good.