Hawaiian Centipede

I discovered an interesting visitor in our living room when I woke up yesterday morning. We'd heard about Hawaiian centipedes, but this was our first encounter with one. Other than looking super creepy, they're apparently posionous to young kids and pets. And their bite is supposed to be extremely painful. Luckily, this one was on his way to centipede heaven/hell already so he didn't protest too much when Jarrod scooped him up in a plastic bag. (Yes, I woke Jarrod up and made him come deal with it.) The protrusions off the back end looked like stingers to me, but I later read that's actually just a defense mechanism to fool predators into thinking that's its head. The business end is definitely the front. I've also heard and read that they're extremely hard to kill and no amount of stomping or smashing will do away with one; you have to chop it apart somehow. Luckily, since this one was pretty much beyond fighting back, we didn't have to deal with making a mess on the carpet. (Or, more likely, transporting him outside and away from our yard to go frighten another family.) They can supposedly grow to around six inches long and two inches across. Our 42-legged friend was about four or five inches long.