- I'm Coyote Peterson, welcome
to the desert millipede versus the desert centipede. (upbeat adventure music) Venturing into the
nighttime desert is not for the faint of heart, as this cactus strewn ecosystem is laced with a plethora
of nocturnal predators. Whether it be
scorpions, spiders, that right there
is a black widow, solpugids, or vinegaroons, these arachnids are
certain to be on the prowl, as they use the
cover of darkness to silently hunt for their prey. Look at that. Does that thing not
look like an alien? All arachnids come
equipped with eight legs, and most are also armed
with a set of fangs or a venom injecting stinger. That is the most venomous
species of scorpion in the United States. And he's on my hand. All right, this makes
me a little bit nervous. I wanna see if I can get
him to just sit still. However, if eight legs, fangs, and stingers aren't
enough to scare you, Arizona's Sonoran
Desert is also home to a subphylum of creatures with even more
legs, the myriapods, which consists of
centipedes and millipedes. At the end of the day, both of these animals do
their best to avoid humans, however, today we are going
to capture one of each so we can get them in
front of the cameras for an up close comparison. First, let's talk about
the desert millipede. Now, millipede
means thousand feet. And each one of these
little body segments has two pairs of legs on it. Now there's no way
that I'm going to get underneath this creature
and count its legs, but I can tell you from
it crawling across my arm, that there are a ton of
them tickling me right now. It feels like a bunch of
little tiny pieces of Velcro grabbing onto your arm hairs. Despite the name,
there isn't actually a species of millipede
on the planet that has a thousand feet. On average they have around 400, with the record being 750, more than any other
animal in the world. These myriapods have
very poor eyesight. They have very
simple eyes up front, so they're really using these
antenna to help them navigate through the environment. And you'll see as he dances
up in the air like that, he's basically looking
for what his next move is going to be. If he can't feel anything
with those antenna, he's kinda like, woah, woah, I've run out of road here. And until he bumps
into something that he can walk on, he's just gonna stay
put until he can get those front legs planted. Now, the millipede doesn't
have many predators, and that's because
these little myriapods are actually poisonous. They do have glands that run
along the side of their body, and if they are really,
really threatened, they will secrete a
nasty orange fluid. And it absolutely stinks. I actually got it all over
my hands the other night. Now, if you get this
poison on your skin, all you need to do
is wash you hands with soap and water, and you'll be just fine. Now I'm completely
comfortable with millipedes. They don't bite. If it doesn't bite, it
can crawl all over me all that it wants. But the centipede is a
whole different ball game. And we're gonna get that
guy out in a second, and get a close look at that
venomous little desert dweller. The desert millipede is
virtually harmless to humans. And if you encounter
one in the wild, just admire it from
a safe distance. (breathes out) OK, now we're
on to the part of the episode that I have been dreading. There is no good way to do this. You just have to plop
him out and go for it. All right, here we go, ready? Oh boy. Now he's kinda like,
oh, I'm on the ground, and I'm on the move. Desert centipedes can
inflict a very painful and venomous bite, so I stress, never
attempt what I am doing. OK, there we go. Now that I have his
head under control, and more importantly,
those fangs, I feel a lot better
about this situation. Oh, look at how creepy that
little desert creature is. Now, what's really interesting
is that the centipede means hundred feet. Each species of
centipede varies. There's no way that this
one has a hundred feet, but as they continue to grow, and their body
segments elongate, they grow more legs. Now one major difference between the centipede and the millipede is that the centipede has
a very flattened body. This allows them to fit
into crevices between rocks, and allows them to
glide very quickly over the surface of the desert. Now, these are
voracious predators. They are out here right
now walking the washes and searching through the
rocks for other animals. They will eat bugs,
they will eat scorpions, they will eat lizards, and the ones that
grow to the size of the giant desert centipede, they will even take rodents. But the bite from a
centipede of even this size is gonna put you into
some incredible pain. That's why I wanna be
as careful as possible while handling this myriapod. One really interesting
feature about all centipedes is that you see
the back end here? This rump? You have these two modified legs on the back end here which have little hooks in them. And this back end is
pretty much a false head. It's the same color
as the head is. And these two little modified
feet on the back end here have hooks on them. So, let's say you're a predator, and you're coming, and
you're like, all right, I'm gonna get him, I'm gonna
bite his head right off. These little modified
feet go up in the air, boom, and you get pricked
with those little spikes, throws you off guard, the
centipede spins around, and that's when you get a bite
from those venomous fangs. This is not a creature that
is very easy to consume. Centipede venom is not
considered deadly to humans, however, the pain has been
said to keep a full grown man on the ground and in
pain for several hours. Moral of the story, steer
clear of centipedes. I hope everybody
enjoyed this comparison. The desert centipede versus
the desert millipede. Both species are native
to the Sonoran Desert. And I'd suggest avoiding both because the
centipede is venomous and the millipede is poisonous. I'm Coyote Peterson. Be brave, stay wild, we'll see you on
the next adventure. Both of these myriapods
play an important role in the ecosystem. And while they may be creepy and have a gazillion legs
as compared to you and me, always try to remember that they're going to
use each and every one to run in the
opposite direction. If you thought that
comparison was cool, check out the alligator
snapping turtle versus the common
snapping turtle. And don't forget subscribe
to join me and the crew on this season of
Breaking Trail.
Pretty cool! But I honestly thought they were going to fight.
I don’t fuck with no centipedes.
Not enough legs