beware the Pennsylvania mystery bug
I've been neglecting you all, so the least I can do is lure you back with a tantalizing title.
So, I was at a 'retreat' this weekend for the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. A 'retreat' means we take a breather from our normal lives of obsessing about cognitive neuroscience in order to listen to other people's obsession with cognitive neuroscience.
Anyways, I stayed at the resort for one evening, in a single. And right before I went to bed, lo and behold, there on my bathroom wall, was a bug the likes of which I have never seen in my life. Creepy, crawly bug. Even if it wasn't necessarily creeping or crawling at the time. I'm telling you, I have never seen a bug like this is my life. I don't think it was a spider. It had several legs--probably many more than eight. The legs seemed to radiate from the bug's small body in such a way as to create sort of an oval. They were real thin legs, like they were whiskers. And the bug itself was sort of light brown-colored.
Hmmm. I don't like bugs. Especially buggies that are not of my previous acquaintance. So, I got all creeped out and shut my bathroom door and went to bed. And I kept on thinking of this bug, in my dreams, how can I get rid of this bug, I don't ever want to see it again.
I finally wake up at 5:30 in the morning, thinking, alright, let's see about this bug, I just need to get it between a kleenex and get it out of here. So, with all the bravery of a sheep, I go to the door, timidly start to open it and.....Oh.
It was jammed. Or locked. Though I still have no idea how I could have locked myself out. But it looks like that's what I did. So I get dressed, go out in the cold and dark, to the front desk, whine that I somehow locked myself out of my bathroom. Someone eventually came and took care of the door. I opened it, and the bug was gone.
Comments
Most likely you had an adventure with a centipede. They like damp places--I've found them in bathtubs.
Posted by: Jane | Octubre 11, 2004 05:30 PM
my thought is, no. First, I think I have a pretty good idea of what a centipede looks like. To confirm that, I checked on google and they are indeed as I thought--long bodied (kind of worm like in shape) and lots of small legs. This bug's body was just very small and round with lots of legs that were very long in proportion. Closest thing in my experience is a daddy long legs, amongst my least favorite of bugs, but it differs in that the daddy long legs has a dark gray/black body and not nearly as many legs as this thing did.
Though I appreciate attempts to figure out what bug this was. I'm puzzled.
Posted by: Karinthebughater | Octubre 11, 2004 07:33 PM
I checked on the internet too. Kept running into sites about video games! What I saw, that looked long and worm-like were millipedes. The "house centipede" has very long legs and lots of them. Anyway, it must have been creepy--yuck!
Posted by: Jane | Octubre 11, 2004 07:53 PM
Have you considered the possibility that maybe the bug locked the door?
Posted by: Steve | Octubre 12, 2004 09:01 AM
Possibly. With all those legs it probably had the dexterity to do so.
Posted by: Karin | Octubre 12, 2004 07:02 PM
It was definitely a centipede!! I just found one that perfectly fits the description in my apartment in phily and has 30 legs (not 100 as the name implies). It looks like the brownish bug at but with much thinner and longer legs. Weather it was the centipede who locked the door I must leave to the cognitive scientists to decide...
Posted by: Rodrigo | Noviembre 13, 2004 03:06 PM
Here is the refered URL
http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/garden_centipede.htm
Posted by: Rodrigo | Noviembre 13, 2004 03:08 PM
This blog is pretty interesting, will add a bookmark, thanks.
Posted by: blackbody | Julio 1, 2005 10:17 PM
Definately a house centipede or as we refer to them here in Pennsylvania "thousand leggers" Grew up with them, hate them, still can't kill them with my shoe or anything else except a nice can of bug spray. By the way they get really big too!
Posted by: chris72771 | Julio 20, 2005 10:13 PM
put up pics to see the bug?
Posted by: kccool | Mayo 31, 2006 12:21 PM
I have a picture of the elusive bug on my blog "Centipede Wars 2006," along with some stories about my encounters with the beasts. It would be lovely to have your input on my blog.
Posted by: fellowbughater | Julio 18, 2006 01:21 PM
I have a picture of the elusive bug on my blog "Centipede Wars 2006," along with some stories about my encounters with the beasts. It would be lovely to have your input on my blog.
Posted by: fellowbughater | Julio 18, 2006 01:22 PM