Irrational Fear

I have an irrational fear of bugs.  If you ask Sean about it, he'll can tell you some amusing stories.  Unfortunately, recognizing that a fear is irrational does not make it any less real.  The benefit of growing up in Alaska was that I didn't really have to deal with bugs.  Mosquitoes are annoying, but not too creepy.  Spiders are bad, but they're tiny compared to how big they get in warmer climates.  I could never live in the tropics; I love visiting Hawaii, Samoa, etc., but would die if I had to deal with things like cockroaches on a regular basis.

That brings me to my current bug problem.  House centipedes.  They are awful.  Fortunately, they aren't harmful, they are just super creepy.  Take a gander below and you'll see what I mean.

On Wikipedia there is a description written in 1902 by entomologist C.L. Marlatt:

"It may often be see darting across floors with very great speed, occasionally stopping suddenly and remaining absolutely motionless, presently to resume its rapid movements, often darting directly at inmates of the house, particularly women, evidently with a desire to conceal itself beneath their dresses, and thus creating much consternation."

And consternation they do create.

I hate them.  They can grow up to 2 inches long and can move up to 1.5 feet per second.  And they are nocturnal.  Normal that wouldn't be too much of a problem because I sleep at night.  But, I'm currently getting up 1 to 2 times a night to feed my beautiful daughter.  My first encounter with them was right after we brought her home from the hospital.  I woke up to feed her in the middle of the night.  I turn on the light and see this giant thing running around Madeline's floor.  It was a big one--about 2 inches long (luckily those are rare).  I freak out and wake up Sean.  It gets away before we can kill it.  Sean looks them up and realizes that it was a house centipede and there isn't a ton we can do about them (as far as we know--if you know differently, please enlighten us).

I haven't gotten up without putting on slippers or flip flops since.

The past couple of weeks have been better.  I really haven't seen them at all.  Except the past two nights.  Two nights ago I look up as I'm feeding Madeline and see a giant one on the ceiling above Madeline's crib.  I wait until she's done eating, grab our bug sucker and luckily get it before it runs away.  And yes, we have a bug sucker.  It may sound gimmicky, but killing bugs from 2 feet away still freaks me out.  And then there was last night.  I didn't just see one, but 3.  I just about died.  The worst part was I was only able to get one with the bug sucker, the others got away.  It makes falling back to sleep after feeding our little girl much more difficult, let me tell you.

They are the current bane of my existence.  I can't wait until Madeline sleeps through the night so I won't have to deal with them anymore (or at least as often).