ONE OF THE largest poisonous centipedes in the world, a Peruvian giant to you, has made its way to the far side of the world in a woman’s dirty laundry.
Curtley the centipede, for so he is known, hitched a ride with Bristol woman Jennie Esler from the island of Antigua in the West Indies.
She had been spending some time in the town of English Harbour on the island when her many-legged stowaway made himself comfortable in her luggage.
“I have no idea when he actually got in there,” she said.
We arrived home after an 8 hour flight at 9am on Sunday morning and went straight to sleep. By this point Curtley must’ve been in the bag for at least 20 hours but I didn’t unpack that bag for another 24 hours.
When Esler finally went to unpack her things she noticed that her bag had a great deal more legs in it than normal.
He didn’t actually run out, he was quite shy. I had to tip him out of the bag into the bathroom sink, as I didn’t really know what he was at this point. I couldn’t believe it when I saw him. How did he get there?
Curtley is now living in Bristol Zoo’s bug exhibit where no doubt he’s scaring the legs off all the other residents.
“Curtley has settled in well. It is hard to tell whether he is male or female but we do know that he/she likes digging tunnels and particularly likes eating crickets,” said Mark Bushell of Bristol Zoo.
The stuff of nightmares.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say