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In my office there is the most glorious house centipede. I see them each morning as I’m the first one to get in, and startle them from their nightly creepings when I switch on the lights. I’ve tried to catch them several times, but they are swift, and I don’t know if they would be safer in the basement than our office. I am terrified one of my coworkers will see them and crush them or toss them outside where it is too cold.
Today they have bunkered themselves in a box of old exams.
I need to let the other people in the office know about this centipede, who lives on a diet of spiders, who live, in turn, on smaller arthropods— it speaks of a complex ecosystem the size and elegance of this creature: deadly, delicate, a muderous chandelier with racing stripes. (for those of you in tropical climates please rest easy, this is not one of those snake like creatures it can’t hurt a human)
At the bottom of the ecosystem are messy middle school students.
I thought of putting a sign on the box, but that seems in contravention of “Project Try To Be Normal”
I just don’t want anyone to be startled by the creature and kill it. I’ve seen that happen before and it’s very upsetting. I find if I let people know how helpful they are it’s possible to get people to leave them be. I hope no one needs to look up any old exams today!
@futurebird
I struggle so much trying to unlearn my aversion to creepy-crawly critters.
I've realized that it's terrible the way people respond with "kill it!" the moment we see a critter in our space, but that doesn't help at all making me comfortable with things scurrying around in the dark.