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Wild or Giant Centipedes versus Other Predators

Wild or Giant Centipedes proves to be at the "top of the food-chain" (specifically in the world of the insect) because they can actually prey on any kind of insects that they can come across around. To confirm their supremacy among other predatory insects, I have conducted further researches and found several interesting results at YouTube.

Here are the following results of my research which confirms that centipedes are the kings and queens of the insects:

Giant Centipede versus Giant Tarantula


If a giant centipede goes against a giant tarantula, who do you think is going to win?

First, let's discuss both qualities of the two predators regarding on how they attack and defend themselves. Through their attacks and defensive mechanisms, we can derive our speculation on who will gain the glory of supremacy against one another.

The Giant Centipede

Giant Centipede Attacking Mechanism

Common to all kinds or species of centipedes are their fearsome "poison claws". Scientists identified them as "toxicognaths" (which is like a pincer) located at the adjacent part of their head.

As compared to other venomous insects that stings, centipedes does not inject their poison but they do deliver it right into their victims through their bites. When a centipede is going to attack its prey, it will grab its target followed by a quick bite and at the same time releases its toxic venom. The poison will immediately take effect paralyzing the victim making it unable to move.

Giant Centipede Defensive Mechanism

No matter how fierce the centipedes as predators, they can also end up as prey against other more superior creatures in the forest. In order to defend themselves, centipedes has the ability to "camouflage" (conceal or hid themselves). But their most interesting defensive mechanism is that, if a tougher predator managed to grasp a centipede's leg, the centipede can actually drop or release its leg off from its body to flee itself.

The Giant Tarantula

A giant tarantula is a spider-specie that is feared by many individuals especially in the US. The size of this spider alone is very frightening and the threat of their bite to humans is also similar to the centipedes. Tarantulas also possess "neurotoxic venoms". According to some scientific studies, a tarantula's venom isn't good enough to kill humans or animals. In fact, there weren't any recorded incidents or verified cases of human death concerning about a tarantula bite.

Giant Tarantula Attacking Mechanism

A tarantula's main offensive weapon is its pair of fangs. The fangs posses muscular base that is attached from the head. It can be described as a "backward-pointing" fang in which the venom comes out (secreted from the glands inside the basal part).

When a giant tarantula attacks its prey, it will aggressively drive its fangs right into the body of its victim. At the same time, the venom is injected causing its prey to be completely paralyzed.

Giant Tarantula Defensive Mechanism

According to some scientific research, the hairs of a giant tarantula spider can penetrate through the soft skin tissues of your skin. This can result into "urtication" or "irritation".

Who do you think will win the match between a giant centipede against a giant tarantula?

Before you derive on your own conclusion, you may first want to watch this short video of an actual battle of the two competitors above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf8pAwGsuF4

Based from the video, the giant centipede easily preyed on the unsuspecting giant tarantula. The spider got bitten from behind (or ambushed) making it unable to fight back and defend itself. If it happens that the tarantula managed to avoid the centipede's sneaky attack, do you think that the spider have the chance of beating the centipede?

The answer is "No". If the tarantula will simply run away then it will have better chances of surviving but if not, the giant centipede can still take the spider down. It's because the giant centipede has tougher armor and equipped with more legs that can easily out-power the pitiful tarantula.

Giant Centipede versus Giant Hornet/Wasp


When a giant centipede will aggressively attack its prey, you will be surprised by its fast and very speedy crawling prowess. When you see one coming or charging towards you, you can actually outrun it provided that you are a good runner. But, not for the case of a flying giant hornet.

Giant hornets actually belong to the "Wasp" family. They are flying insects with large, fat rounded bodies and they do emit a noisier sound as compared to their ordinary species. The most fearsome about them is their powerful sting filled with high-volume of venom that they use as defensive mechanism.

Despite of the hornet's fearsome appearance and annoying vibrating sound, they are not aggressive to anyone. To tell you something interesting, there were already several stunts performed by different individuals allowing themselves to be crawled by a large number of hornets all over their bodies. As a result, no harm was done to them by this kind of friendly wasps.

Is the hornet venom dangerous to human?

Unfortunately, there were a few records of individuals who died from wasps sting. Most of these individuals were those with allergic-reaction to the flying insect's venom. Hornet's sting can be really painful where the damage or harm that it can bring to their human victim is comparable to the Yellow Jacket or Bee.

As mentioned above, hornets are not aggressive type of insects but they won't hesitate to attack anyone who are blocking their flight-path or moving rapidly towards their nests.

Common to all wasps, a hornet's stinging apparatus consists of a "sac" which contains the venom. Along with the sac is a sharp injection-tube which they use to penetrate their victim's flesh before extracting the venom in.

According to some scientists, a hornet's venom sac contains around 50 mg of venom. And when they do sting their prey, they usually inject about 10/15 mg of their venom which means that they can sting up to 3 to 5 five times before their sac of venom is emptied. Once their sac got completely depleted, it may take some time before it gets to be filled up again.

Here is an interesting video that I found about a giant centipede preying on a giant hornet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZZE_Trw5zE

Based on my observation, the battle between the giant centipede against the giant hornet was a "slaughter". If you are going to take a close look, you will realize that the two contenders were enclosed inside a glass-cage. With such battleground, the giant centipede surely does have the upper hand.

Hornets actually rely on their flying capability to hunt down their prey (usually by surprise). But with an enclosed environment, the hornet cannot barely fly around until it got tired and was caught by the giant centipede.

Giant Centipede versus Giant Scorpion


Scorpions are just like crabs where they posses two-large pincers which they use to grab and wrestle their prey. They also have eight pairs of legs which allow them to move quick enough to catch their food. However, the most dangerous part of a scorpion's attacking mechanism are their tails.

A scorpion's tail actually consists of several segments with an average length that ranges from 9 to 21 cm. At the end or tip of their tail is called the "stinger" or "telson". This stinger or telson is a very sharp needle in which they use to sting into their prey and at the same time, apply their venomous toxins.

Are scorpions dangerous to humans?

There is actually a very large number of scorpions belonging to different species. But, most of their species are harmless to both humans and animals. According to some researchers, they had an estimate of about 2000 species of scorpions that currently exists on this period of our time. In addition, there are only 25 to 40 unique species that has the capability to inject potent venom to kill their human or animal victims.

Here's a video owned by "Monster Bug Wars" where they had featured a fierce battle of survival between a giant centipede and a giant scorpion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE-LMPHR_TY

As shown on the video, the giant centipede was the aggressor. It keeps on attacking the scorpion that was simply waiting and trying to defend itself. At first, the giant centipede was having a hard time on its attempt to grab the giant scorpion. This was because of the scorpion's large and strong pincers that prevents the many-legged creature from getting close to it.

After several engagements, the centipede was finally able to grab the tail of the scorpion. It then bit off the scorpion's tail to disable it from delivering or injecting its poison.

With the scorpion's tail disabled, all it can do now was to rely on its pair of pincers. Unfortunately, the giant centipede has a bigger size body with more number of legs which makes it impossible for the scorpion to out-wrestle it. As a result, the scorpion was defeated.

Centipede versus Grasshopper Mouse


Normally, centipedes only prey on small sized insects such as bugs, spiders and cockroaches. Interestingly, giant centipedes can also hunt larger-sized prey such as the "Grasshopper Mouse".

National Geographic Channel have a wonderful discovery about the outcome of a giant centipede battling a grasshopper mouse. You can watch the video on the link provided below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOsmeOceOsg

As shown on the video, the giant centipede had aggressively invaded the mouse's nest without fear. Those new born babies of the mother grasshopper mouse can easily be devoured by the giant centipede.

An interesting fact about a grasshopper mouse (especially females or mothers) is that, they won't back out from any challenge that involves threat to their offspring. And the most interesting fact is that, the females are the main combatants while the male goes to hide.

Going back into the video, the mother mouse went to confront the giant centipede. Their battle involves lightning-reflexes that when one of them receives a "vital hit", surely the creature that got hit will be the end of it. Fortunately, the grasshopper mouse was able to pin and disable the giant centipede saving its young from the unwary predator.

Snake versus Giant Centipede


Snake do belong into the "reptilian" world of creatures (while centipedes into the world of insects), but do you know that some giant centipede can go over-board by also attacking snakes as their prey?

The majority of individuals claim that there is no way for a snake to fall as prey by any giant centipedes. It's because any snake can easily crush the centipede with their constricting-body (or inject their poisonous venom with their fangs). However, this was not the case from an interesting encounter between a giant centipede and snake in the plantation area in Penang, Malaysia.

Here's the video that went viral around the web which was about a giant centipede feeding on its snake prey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooFSFR2s7Ig

As shown on the video, you can see that the giant centipede had genuinely grabbed the lower-half portion of the snake's body. The snake seem to panicked probably it doesn't know what to do. Suddenly, the snake rolled and twisted around showing some kind of painful struggle. At this point, the giant centipede had actually embedded its fangs deep into the snake's flesh.

After a few more minutes, the centipede's venom finally took effect where the snake can no longer move.

Giant Centipede versus a Young Viper Snake


In the Island of Macedonia, Golem Grad which is also known as "Snake Island", a group of scientists were surprised on what they had found on their exploration around the island. They had surprising encountered a young dead viper snake with a head and nose of a giant centipede sticking out from its stomach.

The scientists took both of the creatures in an attempt to solve the mystery. To find out the answer, they had dissected the snake's body to take the centipede out.

According to the scientists' speculations, both creatures had a duel and at some point, the viper managed to devour the centipede as a whole but still remained alive. Since the giant centipede was still alive, it chewed and ate the inside tissues of the snake. This was due to the findings of the scientists that the internal organs of the snake got dissolved and what only remains were the snake's stomach-wall. As a result, the snake died while the giant centipede died from suffocation or got poisoned by the snake's deadly venom.

The young snake viper measures exactly 20 centipedes in length while the giant centipede was about 16 centimeters. Thus, their difference in length is only 4 centimeters.

Wild Forest Ground

Overall, wild or giant centipedes have proven that they are indeed at the top of the food-chain specifically in the world of small creatures.

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