Every person has something that scares them. For some people those fears, like a fear of heights or a fear of being trampled in a crazed crowd, are logical. For others, like being afraid of mirrors (eisoptrophobia) or the letter X (decaphobia), well… not so much.
For many people, bugs are a common fear. There’s something about the way they look, the way they move, and the noises that they make that some people just can’t handle. It makes their hair stand on end!
Even if you aren’t afraid of insects, there are some bugs out there that are sure to give anyone a major case of the creeps! When one Reddit user heard a noise coming from a bucket in his house, he didn’t expect it to be a bug. But what he found had him scrambling to escape…
Are you ready for this? You’re probably not ready for this. Okay, take a deep breath. Now, imagine that you are at home and you heard a strange noise coming from a bucket on your floor. You cautiously walk over to check what is inside… and this is what you see.
If you are most people, that image alone would send you screaming. Can you imagine if you saw it in real life? It might look like a horrific monster’s claw, but according to Reddit user ivealreadyreddit, it’s a female soil centipede, or Geophilomorpha.
These creepy crawlers have about 27 leg-bearing segments and can move pretty darn fast on all those feet. So if you are planning on running away from one when you spot it, keep that speed in mind and maybe start heading in the opposite direction!
While they can’t see much beyond light and dark, their array of sensory organs make them skilled hunters; they also have a poisonous bite that can cause severe pain, swelling, and fever in humans. Though their bites are serious, it might be comforting to know that they have never actually killed anyone… yet.
Female centipedes actually use their legs to protect and carry their young, which is what that one was doing in that original photo. Knowing this might make that original photo a little bit easier to parse. Initially you might think the bug was holding a shower poof, but a second glance will make it clear that what you are seeing are her young!
It’s like a horrifying little monster nursery. All joking aside… it is kind of precious that even an insect so frightening and dangerous takes such tender loving care of her young. That may be common in the world of mammals, but you don’t see it too often in the insect world.
The female soil centipede isn’t the only insect whose, shall we say, distinctive appearance is known to give people a start. The giant Weta cricket can grow to be up to three sizes heavier than even the fattest mouse on planet Earth! Thankfully, he’s an herbivore.
Botflies are known to give people the creeps in a major way, and not just because of the way they look, either (though that certainly doesn’t help)! Botfly larvae like this one burrow deep into skin, living off blood and fat until the time has come for them to hatch. Gross!
Speaking of scary-looking insects… ladies and gentlemen, please meet the assassin bugs. Assassin bugs secrete an enzyme that turns the insides of other insects into a terrible kind of milkshake that they slurp right up. If that wasn’t bad enough, they are also known for wearing the dead exoskeletons of their victims as armor.
The bullet ant might look pretty darn scary for an ant, and that’s Mother Nature’s way of telling you to stay far, far from away from him! Although the bite of a bullet ant will not kill you, it is so painful that it feels like (you guessed it) a bullet flying through your body.
See that tiny green head emerging from the belly of that cockroach? It’s an emerald cockroach wasp! He might look beautiful (were his head not peeping out of a roach), but don’t let his looks fool you. This wasp uses neurotoxins to paralyze the cockroach—and it doesn’t stop there…
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