Oh my… EEK!

With the exception of Supercat, critters of the insect and other non-human variety belong outside. That is just a rule I live by…

Ants irritate me, as I’ve mentioned, and we just dealt with a recurrence of those in our kitchen. Thanks to some strategically placed ant traps, sprinkling of pepper near the door, constant vacuuming, mopping and wiping, they appear to have retreated.

The kitchen made more sense to me than that first occurrence, though, and although annoying, they didn’t gross me out too much – I know they frequently appear in many houses. I just am happy we have fixed that problem for now.

Beyond that, we’ve had the occasional visits from spiders (don’t like them, but have gotten better about doing less screaming and more squishing than I have in the past), small beetles (really don’t like these) and the other basic annoyances of critters(flies, moths, mosquitoes, earwigs, etc.) that find their way into even the cleanest of homes. No, I don’t proclaim my home to be that clean, but you get what I mean.

I have handled all of these. Until this morning when I saw this.

YUCK!

In my bathroom. During a moment when I couldn’t get rid of it right away. I had to watch it crawl all over the floor near me.

And as I was the only adult in the house at the time, I couldn’t pan-off removal to somebody else. I had to be brave.

And then it dropped, still alive, off of the tissue when I tried to get rid of it. I had to go after it twice.

I shall never sleep again.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Edited to add: It is a garden centipede. Pretty common in the midwest, by all accounts. They like moist areas – thus the reason he invaded my bathroom and was hanging out near the toilet.