It finally happened. I knew it was just a matter of time. We have been in Japan for 53 days. Today was the day I have been dreading for about 30 of them. I learned about these creatures called Mukade shortly after we moved into our townhouse. A Mukade is a Japanese centipede. They bite or sting or whatever and can cause a severe reaction to include swelling, pain and vomiting. Today, not just one but TWO were in my kitchen. After reading more about them on the Internet, I learned they travel in pairs. Double the grossness.
First Mukade
A close up picture.
Fortunately, I wasn’t completely alone during the invasion. I was talking with my good friend, Jenn, when I saw the devil crawling on my vertical blinds. My reaction was rather calm, all things considered. I dropped several f-bombs and several oh my gosh! Fortunately, I purchased bug spray on Sunday and quickly retreated to the back porch to grab it. I think my quote to Jenn was, “I don’t know if I’m going to cry or vomit, but I’m definitely going to kill it!” The bug spray I bought is a gallon and has a continuous stream trigger and I drowned the Mukade! Die, bugger, die! And it did. Completely when I put it in boiling water. Jenn listened to all of this on the phone and then talked me off the ledge that burning down the house wasn’t required.
Mukade 1 dead
10 minutes later, it’s friend came. It proceeded to crawl through the moat of insecticide I created in the sliding rim of the door without faltering. I’ll be honest here, I think I did scream when I saw this one. I had my bug spray still on the ready & I happily pulled the trigger until it quit twitching. I also boiled more water!
Mukade Two
Mukade stew, anyone?
This pot is now officially the Mukade pot
After hanging up with Jenn, I called my mom. Not able to completely be alone in my house, I needed reassurance that burning down the house was not necessary. My mom suggested I contact a bug spray person. Yes! Great idea. We hung up shortly thereafter and I called housing. It was about 11:45 am and they said someone could spray at 2pm. Thank you! Spray away!! And did he ever! He soaked both the front and back patios. The overpowering smell of highly chemical insecticide was pure ambrosia to my nose.
During my Internet exploring about Mukades, I found this useful file. I saved it because I have plans to go to the Homes store on Friday and will look hard to find the product that will kill Mukade!
Mukade are not the only bugs I have encountered here in Japan. In fact some are quite pretty and some are very large. Here are a couple of other bug pictures I have snapped in the past 53 days. The cicadas seem like puppies at this point!!
I have heard the bugs are bad right now because of all the rain we have had the last couple of weeks. At this point, I’m ready to say goodbye to summer tomorrow and hello to fall. I love summer, but this year, I’ve had enough.