Millipedes, centipedes, and scorpions

I have a strong aversion to millipedes, centipedes, and scorpions. Very few other creepy crawlies bug me (ouch), and I have spent plenty of time playing with all sorts of insects, arachnids, and other arthropoda. But these three things are a whole other ballgame.

Ick. Too many legs, cheating by having claws AND a stinger, outlandishly long fangs, all of these put me slightly on edge.

So, keep this in mind as I tell you about going to Cal Day at UCB, and going to the Museum of Entymology, where it was definitely "Hands On Day."

You can touch all sorts of things: cockroaches, walking sticks, praying mantises, millipedes... in fact, you can even have the millipede crawl on you. It is not some little millipede, but a big, black, shiny African giant millipede. This sucker is ten inches long and is propelled by all of these creepy little legs.

"Would you like to touch the millipede?"

"And then do I get to put a scorpion on my tongue?" I thought to myself.

Amalia immediately reaches out to touch the millipede. They let it walk over her fingers. I can't let a five year old girl be more adventurous about arthropoda than I. After all, I am the one who taught her how to identify many types of insects, who helped her run her ladybird beetle farm, who constantly tells her that, no, arthrododa aren't necessarily creepy.

Aw, great. Money where the mouth is time.

No grimmacing, no hesitating. I first touch the back of the millipede. An exoskeleton is an exoskeleton. It might as well have been a cockroach. Then it is time to have it walk accross my hand.

Hmmm. Not too horrible. All those little legs are a little disconcerting, but not terrible.

So, there you have it.

Today I had a giant African millipede walk accross my hand. I certainly did not wake up this morning expecting that.