- [Coyote] I'm Coyote Peterson,

and I'm about to be bitten by the giant desert centipede.

Here we go.

(shouts in pain)

Oh my gosh, this is so much worse than a bullet ant sting.

(theme music)

(exciting music)

It's a fair statement to say that I am no stranger to pain,

as over the past two years, I have arguably taken

more intentional bites, chomps, pinches,

and stings, than any other human being.

Some people say that I'm absolutely crazy,

while others have labeled me as being admirably fearless.

However, I describe myself as a passionate educator

who has endured these wild experiments

so that we can all learn about animals,

and ultimately take away from my discomfort

a newfound respect

for these oftentimes misunderstood creatures.

So while I might be a little crazy,

I certainly am not completely fearless,

and have made it very clear

that there are only two creatures on this planet

that make my skin crawl.

The first is infamously known as the toe biter.

Scientifically, this alien-looking creature

is addressed as the giant water bug,

and its bite, which is inflicted

with a needle-like rostrum, is unbelievably painful.

(shouting in pain)

Since we first featured one of these insects

several years ago, the Coyote Pack has been requesting

both a bite, and aftermath episode.

So I faced my fears, safely caught one of these giants,

and then in poetic fashion, let it latch on and bite my toe.

It was a pain that I will never forget,

and a fear that I proudly conquered

in the name of science and education.

My second fear needs no elaborate introduction.

Already know what it is.

And yes, I will be bitten by the giant desert centipede.

(suspenseful music)

(shouting in pain)

These voracious predators can occasionally be encountered

when exploring the deserts of the southwest.

Whether you stumble upon one under the light of day

as it disappears into a burrow,

or you happen to bear witness to one as it hunts

under the darkness of night,

the reaction by most is usually the same:

screaming, running in the opposite direction,

and then mentally navigating a thick cloud of disbelief

for what your eyes had just seen.

A giant, leg-covered, venomous fang-wielding terror

that could only have materialized

within one's most horrifying nightmare.

However, this is no bad dream.

And it's certainly no figment of your imagination.

In fact, this animal is as real as it gets.

And for me, the moment you have all

been waiting for, is closer than you think.

(brush crunching under foot)

(suspenseful music)

Centipede!

Whoah, look at this.

- [Mark] Where?

- Giant desert centipede right here.

Right on the others side of this bush.

Wow, look at that!

Hold on a second.

Lemme try to bring it out here for you guys.

Pick it up with this.

- [Mark] Be careful.

- [Coyote] Oh no, no, it's moving.

Here, gimme that Tupperware container.

Mario, get that container out of your bag.

- [Mario] Here, use your hat.

Use your hat.

Oh, it's not workin.

Did you get him?

- No, no, no, it's so fast.

I can't grab onto it.

Hurry, hurry, hurry.

I got it pinned.

There he goes.

Ooh, he got out.

(groans)

- [Mark] Nice.

Got it?

- Woo!

- [Mark] That is a big centipede.

- That will get your heart racing.

The bite from this creature is

one of the most painful here in the southwest,

and if there is one creature that gets my heart racing,

it is the giant desert centipede.

Wow, that is a big one, too.

You see that through the container there?

- [Mark] That might be the biggest one I've seen.

- [Coyote] It very well may be.

Wow. You're looking at a living nightmare right there.

Look at that thing.

- [Mark] That is creepy, man.

- [Coyote] Oh my gosh.

I can't tell you how many people

have requested me to get bitten by this creature.

It's a lot.

It's a lot of people have been wanting to know

how bad the bite is from this thing.

- [Mark] I can see it has your gears grinding.

It's got me a little nervous.

- Well I'm definitely not gonna

do it under the darkness of night.

What I might be willing to do is sleep on it,

and maybe tomorrow, under daylight, we consider it.

But, in the moment right now I'm thinkin no.

Absolutely not.

But I gotta admit, part of me is curious

but part of me is just incredibly fearful.

You're shakin your head no.

- Yeah, I don't know if I'm comfortable with that, man.

This is...

- [Coyote] A bite too far?

- Maybe a bite too far.

- [Coyote] Well let's do this.

We can certainly hold onto it overnight.

Worst case scenario, we do another episode with it tomorrow,

just kind of look at it, its anatomy under the light of day,

and we cross that bridge when we get to it.

How bout that?

- [Mark] Okay, I can agree to that.

- Okay, well let's hold onto it

and see what else we can find tonight.

Woo, that's gonna top off the night right there.

- [Mark] Great spot, dude.

- Man, that's crazy.

(ominous music)

When they say giant desert centipede, they aren't kidding.

Look at the size of that myriapod.

Wow, it's even more intimidating

in the daylight than it is at night.

Now, we caught this creature last night

and I said, "Alright, let's hold onto it,

"lemme sleep on it.

"Lemme think if I really wanna

"be bitten by this creature."

Here we are, 7:00 in the morning,

I think we all know what's going to happen.

Alright, guys, I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna be bitten by the giant desert centipede

so that I can explain to you just how painful

the bite from this creature really is.

Now, before we get into the bite,

let's take a look at the anatomy of this creature

because it's just, it's like the perfect design

for everything that is creepy.

Now, it is an arthropod, like all insects and arachnids,

but technically it's a myriapod, also related to millipedes.

And when it comes to centipedes,

the giant desert is the largest in the United States.

And this is a creature that you don't often come across

because they're strictly nocturnal.

Now, it is so hard to sit behind

this container and look at this creature.

I mean, you can hear its little legs

scratching on the inside of this capsule.

Whoa.

I mean, Mark, seriously, have you ever

seen a creature that's more nightmarish than this?

- [Mark] Nope.

And I know this is something you've

been not looking forward to.

- Well people often wanna know

is there anything that scares Coyote Peterson.

I jump on alligators, and I jump into swamps

to catch snapping turtles.

I handle black widows, and golden orb weave spiders,

but the centipede, ever since I was a kid,

for some reason just always been like

(groans)

I don't wanna get near that thing.

Because it has so many legs, and each one of those legs

has a little hook on it, so when they grab on to something,

they grapple onto something.

And when they bite, those fangs

ratchet down, and they hold on.

- [Mark] So this is not necessarily

a bite and run, it's a bite and hold.

- [Coyote] Yes.

You know, when I've been stung by things in the past,

I hold onto them with the entomology forceps

and when I do that, I let go, and the insect

usually falls right off of my arm.

But in this instance, this myriapod is capable

of holding onto me and inflicting more than one bite.

(Mark whistles in surprise)

- [Mark] Alright, well...

- Let's do this at this point,

cuz I know you guys wanna get a slightly better look at it.

I'm gonna actually take it out of this plastic container

so we can get a good look at its body segmentation,

and the little hooks on those feet.

You ready for that?

- [Mark] Okay, let's do it.

- Alright, now to do that...

I'm going to just gently

- [Mark] Whoa, whoa.

- I gotta actually pin down its head to do this.

- [Mark] Whoa, jeez, look at how fast it is.

Now, Coyote, I've heard this called

the cheetah of the desert.

- Yes.

That is because they are speedy, and they are lethal.

Lemme see if I can actually ...

Man.

- [Mark] Might need a bigger set of forceps.

- There's just no good way to go about this.

(music crescendos)

- [Mark] That was a committed grab if I've ever seen one.

- Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

- [Mark] What's wrong?

Is it biting you?

- No, but each one of these little

leg segments is incredibly sharp.

Look at that body.

Wow, and it is incredibly rigid.

The exoskeleton on this animal is rock solid.

And each one of those little leg segments

grapples onto you, and it tries to pull itself down

so that the fangs can bite.

Now those fangs, are actually called maxilliped,

and they are modified legs on

(drum beat)

It's almost getting me right now.

- [Mark] My goodness.

- Almost got me right there.

- [Mark] That was close.

- Okay, I do not have as good a hold as I thought I did.

I can actually see venom coming out of the maxilliped.

Wow, look at those.

Okay, that's a slightly better hold.

It almost was capable of completely wrapping its body down

and inflicting that bite sooner than we wanted it to.

Wow, that is intimidating.

Okay, not an easy animal to hold onto

because it is so incredibly strong.

Alright, guys, I'm gonna place it

back into the plastic container here.

Take a minute to compose myself,

and then we're gonna head into the bite.

You ready?

Really gently, and there we go.

Nice.

Woo, barely escaped a bite there.

(eerie music swelling)

Alright, guys, lemme give you a little testimonial here.

So as we know, I have taken many bites,

some of them nonvenomous, some of them venomous,

lots of stings, and the giant desert centipede

is the one animal that I always thought to myself,