Creepy Crawly

So about the fourth or fifth night I was in Tanzania, I was unpacking my clothes and found a centipede in my pants! (trousers for you Brits) I screamed and threw them into my bathroom not really knowing what I would do. How do you kill centipedes???

I ran up to Delicia's room and told her I needed help - moral support if nothing else! So we went downstairs and quickly tossed the pants into my shower thinking maybe I can drown it?!?!

It didn't work so well, even with the hot water. All that happened is the pants got wet, which made them too heavy for my improvised pole (a wire hangar). I was trying to open them up and make the centipede come into the light. It didn't want to and the pants were now too heavy for my hanger. So I got two brooms. Why two? I have no idea, seemed like the thing to do with two people. :)

I used one to open up the pants and kinda shook them until the centipede fell out. Then quickly threw the pants to the other side of the bathroom.

Problem! The centipede now had nowhere to hide so he started to go up the side of the shower - coming in my direction! Ahhhhh! If I ran away and lost him now in my bathroom I wouldn't be able to sleep or use the room until I found it again!

So I got the shower nozzle and sprayed it with hot water making him go to the middle of the shower. Then out of nowhere Delicia came in with her broom and started smacking and hitting it. Probably about 10-15 times until he was definitely not moving. Lots of shrieking and jumping at this point.

Oh at one point I threw a shoe at it... not sure what I was hoping that would do... :)

I still wasn't completely convinced it was dead so I put an old tupperware container over it and then put the shoe on top. Just in case it was a super strong centipede and could lift the container. You never know...

The next morning I carefully scooped it up, it was still dead, using stiff paper, and put it in a ziplock bag. I was going to take it for show and tell at orientation but then decided I'd wait until chai break so I just left the bag by the car. When I went down to get it, it was gone...

I did take a few pictures of the thing. So here it is.

I know it looks small but...

I was later told it probably wasn't poisonous but look how scary looking it is with the two spike things on it's tail and the thing can move! It's quick!!