Giant desert centipede found hiding under nasturtium in our Arizona garden

Watering a few potted plants, this giant desert centipede made me step back a bit as it crawled with it's many legs to get away from us. The nasturtium planted here makes a great shady and damp location for many bugs to make home.

Found out that centipedes are nocturnal predators and remain hidden during the day in moist places. Centipedes commonly eat roaches and crickets. Thier fangs are sharp and could potentially penetrate leather gloves. The centipede's bite is considered about as serious as a bee sting, but the risk of secondary infection from other pathogens is important to consider.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• nasturtium
• centipede
• bugs
• insects
• beneficial insects
• millipedes
• Giant desert centipedes
• venomous

[ArizonaAdventures]

@richardfireone damn! That has got to be one of the worst places to get bite!

[ArizonaAdventures]

@eydieaz lol, yeah they are in all those dark corners and under rocks

[richardfireone]

@ArizonaAdventures Oh yeah,,got bit in the face, over my eye lid by a 4 inch one while in bed once and not only did it hurt like hell for hours, it bled profusely and itched for two weeks and hurt everytime I forgot and scratched it.

[eydieaz]

I didn't even know we had them out here! (gross!) ;)

[ArizonaAdventures]

@richardfireone I could only image what one would look like at that size! I've only ever seen them out in the desert under rocks, but never in the garden...going organic brings them all in :)

[richardfireone]

they bite hard!! while in Puerto Rico I found many close to a foot long, very agressive