To not be convinced that millipedes are 'well cool'?

[smudgethepuppydog]

DS is studying animal management at a local college. He already has a Beardie and a snake but he is on the lookout for a new animal to increase his knowledge. He handled Giant Millipedes at college today and is now trying to convince me that they are "Well cool especially when they move as the feel like unpeeling velcro".

He is wrong. I am right, millipedes belong in the rain forest, not his bedroom .

My fear would be that it would escape from ds's room, get into my room while I was asleep in bed, and velcro itself on to my top lip, like a grotesque moustache.

urgh.

Well cool. Well at least I thought they were til I thought about MillyR and her velcro moustache.

Wtf is a Beardie when it is at home? A small lentil weaving, guitar strumming hippy is what springs to mind....

If only it were a small lentil weaving, guitar strumming hippy.

It's a rather large, scaly looking lizard who is soppy enough to let the locusts, that should be his dinner, sit on his head. Nah. Billy the Beardie is quite sweeet in his own reptilian way. MillyR's velcro 'tash is another good reason for NOT having a milliepde!

As a compromise I could send him a small African bush millipede? They are quite cute. Or perhaps a chameleon to keep Billy company?

Millipedes are well cool

A chameleon is on his 'hit list' but I want him to get a job first so he learns the true cost of keeping exotics (or any pet really). He's 16 now and we fund Billy and his snake, Fluffy, and a chameleon will add quite a bit to the food bill as he wants a Panther so I'm keen for him to see just how much exotics cost in upkeep.

What's a bush millipede? He's not heard of one of them. I did manage to win the 'Hissing cockroaches are not ideal pets' argument but he's still keen on something with lots of legs.

What type of snake? ds has a royal pyhon nd he is luverly

Good lord! Vile creatures. Things meant to populate nightmares not bedrooms.

A millipede fell on me whilst I was showering in a rented flat many moons ago. Millipedes are NOT well cool

I'm sure i was bitten by one once when having an outdoor wee in Kenya (long story) and very itchy and painful it was too...

may have been a centipede though, the little bugger was off before I had a chance to count all it's wiggly legs.

Smudge - your message freaked me out....

My younger brother is studying animal management at college. he has a snake and tarantulas and this is exactly the type of thing he would want.....and my mum has a dog called smudge (not a puppy anymore)

Are you my mother? Are you just secretly pretending to be a technophobe who can barely work the tv whilst all the time surfing MN?????? If the answer is yes.... Don't check out any of the other threads I've been on please - I am too old to be grounded!

PS - Millipedes are a bit freaky but very hypnotic to watch.....

millipedes are uber cool.

Noonki, I reckon it must have been a centipede - they all tend to be venomous and bitey (even some in the UK), whereas millipedes are peace-loving vegetarians. Even if you wee on them (probably)

He's just informed me that they may not be poisonous but they do give off foul smelling odours sometimes (I think he's truly dug his own grave there with millipedes now).

Nissa-I don't think I'm your mum but our dog is called Smudge and he's no longer a puppy, although he acts like one most of the time. I promise not to ground anyone though.

If a millipede fell on me whilst in the shower I reckon those in the next village would hear my screams.

I weed on a rat that was swimming in our toilet not so long ago..is that like weeing on a centipede/millipede?

allace-he has a corn snake but he longs for a python (and he can keep longing or he and his zoo can move into the shed!)

I'd be a sight more worried about a (wild) rat than a millipede. (Pet rats are lovely, though)

It was a wild rat. It was early in the morning (and semi dark in our bathroom) I didn't put the light on because then the extract fan comes on and wakes the whole house so I did a wee (I did kinda register 'something' in the loo but didn't inspect it closely as I was desperate for a wee). It was only once I'd weed and flushed that I clocked the fact that whatever 'it' was, was swimming back up the pan at me! It was a baby rat. I fetched DS who 'helped' the rat into an old beaker using his dad's toothbrush! He did ask if he could warm it under the lizard's heat lamp but I think the look on my face said it all.

Thank goodness it didn't get near to Billy! Things could have got nasty. I'm just checking which kind of millipedes we have here, it is of course entirely possible that ours are of the Giant variety, and I have just been thinking that Giant is the norm.

Yep, it seems that Giant is the norm for us. We also get these Tanzanian Arboreal Millipedes which are much smaller. I also picked up a scorpion the other month, when we were on safari, I thought it was one of ds1's plastic toys I soon put it back down sharpish I can tell you.

Giant Millipedes can reach up to 11 inches! He didn't mention that bit [shock}.

Can I send him to live with you? He thinks the Tanzanian milipedes are 'well cool'.

With pleasure. He can spend hours explaining to ds1 all about hairy caterpillars and why chameleons have horns.