A Monster in the Basement

Even though my discovery of the monster in my basement occurred last week, I am still haunted by the memory every time I go back down there. As I did laundry today and kept looking around like I was about to be attacked, I decided to share my story ... hopefully you will never have a run-in of your own!

So last week ...Wednesday night, I believe... I went down to the basement to put Jaimie's work clothes in the dryer. As I entered the room connected to the laundry room, I saw something on the wall. In all my twenty-seven years, I can say I had never seen anything like this creature before. It looked like some sort of mutant spider that was nearly two inches long ...with tons of spider-like legs and two sets of antennae on both ends. All I could think was, "What in the hell is *that*?!?!"

I quickly went into the laundry room and put the clothes in the dryer ...and when I finished, I went back into the room with the monster. It was still there on the wall ...not moving ...not twitching its freakish legs. I searched the room for something I could flatten it with! ...Finally, I decided on a large box of stickers. I grabbed it and *WHACK* ...dropped the box after it hit the monster and kinda jumped back to be safe. I didn't know what I was dealing with here!!

So I got up the courage to move my rolling cabinet out of the way and pick up the box. The monster was laying on the ground, still alive, but not trying to scurry away. Just to be sure it wouldn't be coming upstairs, I smashed him a few more times... That was one dead monster.

After telling Jaimie of the episode in the basement, he told me it was probably a centipede. Now, when I picture centipedes, that creature is not what comes to mind. The next day I showed Jaimie and he again gathered it was a centipede. Well, my curiosity was still not abated so I did some online research to find out what exactly the monster in my basement was.

Well, Jaimie was indeed right ...what we had was a 'house centipede.' According to a bug-loving website, they are helpful in that they eat insects, spiders, and roaches in your house. Of course, I remember centipedes being the poisonous ones (between them and millipedes, that is) ...and this site did confirm that they do carry a venom. Supposedly, their jaws are too weak to penetrate human skin, but it does happen, and their venom usually just causes an irritation or feel like a bee sting (tho in some cases, if a person is allergic, the reaction can be more severe, just like with bees and wasps).

Either way, I'm glad my "save the bugs" instinct did not kick in for this one. I'm sure once you see the picture, you too will agree that this monster should not be left alive in your house!! I couldn't imagine waking up to it on me or even on the wall. Blech!! So ...beware of monsters in your homes!! Squish 'em quick!!