- Unh, I get so nervous working around centipedes.
Oh, this is such a delicate balance.
I'm gonna move this log out of the way.
Do not bite me.
(intense music)
(suspenseful music)
Remember how I said that when I was a kid,
nothing was more terrifying than a scorpion?
Well, that was accurate,
right up until I was introduced
to the giant desert centipede.
- Ooh, there he goes. - There he goes.
I'm not afraid of much,
but centipedes haunt my very existence.
And that is because I was told they have a bite
that is more painful than a rattlesnake.
Look at that thing.
In fairness, I've never been bitten by a rattlesnake,
and no, I don't intend to.
So don't get any crazy ideas down in the comment section.
However, I did go through this agonizing experience.
Ah!
This menacing chop hails as the most painful,
intentional bite I have ever taken,
and boasts being the only bite
that has ever sent me to an emergency room.
(man groaning)
Centipedes are the only animal I gladly avoid,
yet for some reason, they always seem to find me.
On a recent trip to Arizona,
Mario and I were on the search for deadly desert dwellers.
Our nocturnal scavenger hunt
had turned up several venomous creatures,
including tarantulas, scorpions, and rattlesnakes.
After releasing the western diamondback,
we assumed the adventure had closed in epic fashion.
Then on our way back to civilization, this happened.
Mario, centipede!
Holy cow, giant desert centipede.
- [Mario] Where's it at?
- It just went, it's right up underneath this log.
It's right here.
I saw it dart right into this,
look at this, right through the hole right here.
- [Mario] I see it, I see it.
I see a little bit of it.
- Okay, I'm gonna flip that log over.
Oh, this is, this is my personal nightmare right here.
Okay, the second we flip over that log,
it is gonna take off like a bullet.
I don't want it to get back into this debris pile.
They're usually on the move this time of night,
and I saw just tuck up under this log.
Can you still see it through this hole?
- [Mario] I can, yeah.
- It is right here, they're extremely fast.
What I'm gonna wanna do is try to get it
to balance on this log.
Now the giant desert centipede is, without question,
one of the most painful bites you can receive
in the United States, period.
You think of a rattlesnake
as being something you don't wanna get bitten by,
I have been bitten by the giant desert centipede.
Unh, I get so nervous working around centipedes
because they are so fast
and they can grapple onto pretty much anything
that they want to.
Please back up underneath there.
Oh, this is such a delicate balance.
I'm gonna move this log out of the way
and get it onto here, there we go.
There we go.
Do not bite me.
You can see what it's doing right now,
it's feeling around with those antennae, saying,
"Okay, what can I grip onto next?
And if it's something I need to bite, then I will."
All right, whew, look how fast they move.
Now, the best way for me to handle this centipede,
and to keep it calm,
is to just have it walking back and forth on this stick.
This one's a little too small for me
to necessarily get control of the head.
I don't need to put it under that much stress.
The more calm I stay, the more calm the centipede will stay.
And no matter what you do,
whenever you're interacting with a centipede,
your heart, absolutely races.
You hear the name centipede, and you think,
"Okay is that a thousand legs?"
No, on average, they have somewhere between 50 and 60 legs,
depending on the size of the centipede itself.
And they are incredibly powerful,
very strong creature for its size.
And the exoskeleton,
which lines each segment of the body, is incredibly rigid.
So it's not that you would ever wanna step
on top of one of these things,
but if you accidentally did, you're not gonna squish it.
All it's gonna do is spin around and bite you on the foot.
And it's not an insect and it's not an arachnid,
it's something called a myriapod.
Centipedes and millipedes both belong to that family.
And what's very unique about the giant desert centipede is
it has a false head.
So that's actually the back part of the animal, right here.
The back end looks just like the front end.
So is a predator comes into the environment
and grabs onto the back,
you see, this looks like two false antenna, right there,
it can swing its body around and inflict that bite.
Now, right up front here by the head,
they have these two very powerful front mandibles.
Those mandibles each have a venom gland on them.
So when they bite into their prey,
and they'll feast on pretty much anything
that can come across,
even something as large as a mouse,
this creature will latch on with those mandibles,
wrap its body around,
and inject it full of venom.
And then it immediately subdues the prey
and then they essentially just drink out the insides.
But those mandibles are razor-sharp
and will lock on in place like a grappling hook.
Now, as compared to something like a rattlesnake,
the venom of this creature is not nearly as potent, right?
It's not hematoxic,
it's not gonna literally break down your skin
and cause necrosis,
but what it does is explode your red blood cells
from the inside out.
Now, when when I was bitten by one of these centipedes,
keep in mind, I did this intentionally,
to show you what would happen.
My arm swelled up to nearly three times its normal size
and it was one of the worst pains I've ever experienced.
For nine hours, I was excruciating pain,
so much so, that I couldn't even sit still.
This is not something that if it bites you,
is gonna kill you, so it's not technically deadly,
but I would consider it dangerous.
And this is actually a species
that people oftentimes encounter in their own backyard.
You're working out in the garden,
you flip over an old log, kind of like we did here,
or even a piece of debris,
like an old lawn chair that's just rotting away.
You find one of these underneath
and you accidentally grip onto it,
it is going to be a bite you will never forget.
This is what I would actually call
a smaller giant desert centipede.
They can grow up to 12 inches in length.
This is the largest centipede species
that lives in North America.
And what's really frightening, in my opinion,
is that every single one of these legs has
a small little hook on it.
So if one of these were to crawl up your pant leg
you can't just brush it off, it's locked on in place.
Whew, man, this is just,
it's hard to keep composure
when working with a creature like this.
There we go, now it is perfectly still.
But if there is one creature on this planet
that truly makes my skin crawl,
it is the giant desert centipede.
Okay, I'm going to slowly set
the centipede back down onto the ground
and we're gonna go in the opposite direction.
Since launching the Brave Wilderness channel,
I have performed many questionable wilderness stunts,
many of which have served as a lesson
in wise animal interaction.
The bites and stings have certainly garnered
their fair amount of attention,
but nothing is more important than bringing you
an education about these creatures.
That said, if there was one thing,
just one thing I hope you walk away with
when it comes to centipedes,
it's that they have a painful bite,
so bad it sent me to the hospital.
Do not try to interact with these animals.
If one crosses your path,
simply take a step back and walk in another direction.
Hey, Coyote Pack,
feeling curious about my giant desert centipede bite?
If so, go back and watch that episode
so you can witness the ultimate level of pain.
And don't forget subscribe,
and join memberships so you can follow along
with me and the crew on our next wild adventure.
Ah!
(animal howling)