Original subtitles

I'm Coyote Peterson.

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

Here we go.

Oh, my gosh!

This is so much worse than a bullet ant sting!

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.

Ah!

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.

A fear that I probably conquered in the name

of science and education.

My second fear needs no elaborate introduction.

You already know what it is.

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

These voracious predators can occasionally

be encountered when exploring the deserts of the Southwest.

And 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.

Centipede!

Oh, look at this! Where?

Giant desert centipede right here, right on the other side

of this bush.

Where, where, where?

Wow! Look at that!

Hold on a second.

Let me try to bring it out here for you guys.

Pick it up with this.

Careful.

Oh, no, no, it's moving.

Here, give me that Tupperware container.

Mario, get that container out of your bag.

Use your hat, use your hat.

Oh, it's not working.

You get him?

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

Ah, I can't grab on to it.

Ah!

Hurry, hurry, hurry!

I got it pinned.

Oh, there he goes!

Oh!

Oh, [inaudible]!

Oh!

Nice.

Got it?

Woo!

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's 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?

That might be the biggest one I've seen.

It very well may be.

Wow.

You're looking at a living nightmare right there.

Look at that thing.

That is creepy, man.

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.

I could see that your gear's grinding.

It's got me a little nervous.

Well, I'm definitely not going to 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 thinking, no, absolutely not.

But I got to admit, part of me is curious, but part of me

is just incredibly fearful.

You're shaking your head no.

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

This is--

A bite too far?

- maybe a bit too far.

Well, let's do this.

We can certainly hold on to it overnight.

Worst case scenario, we do another episode with it

tomorrow.

Just kind look at it, it's anatomy under the light of day

and we cross that bridge when we get to it.

How about that?

OK, I can agree to that.

OK, well, let's hold on to it and see what else

we can find tonight. Woo hoo, hoo!

Man.

That's going to top off the night right there.

Great spot, dude.

Man, that's crazy!

When they say "giant desert centipede,"

they aren't kidding.

Look at the size of that myriapoda.

Wow.

It's even more intimidating in the daylight

than it is at night.

Now, we caught this creature last night.

And I said, all right, let's hold on to it.

Let me sleep on it.

Let me think if I really want to be bitten by this creature.

Here we are.

7 o'clock in the morning.

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

All right, guys, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to 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 myriapoda,

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?

Nope.

And I know this is something you've

been not looking forward to.

Well, people often want to know,

is there anything that scares Coyote Peterson?

I jump on alligators.

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, uh, I don't

want to 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 on to something.

And when they bite, those fangs ratchet down and they hold on.

So this is not necessarily a bite and run.

This would be a bite and hold.

Yes.

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

I hold on to them with the entomology forceps.

And when I do that, I let go.

The insect usually falls right off of my arm.

But in this instance, this myriapoda

is capable of holding on to me and inflicting

more than one bite.

All right, well--

Let's do this at this point, because I

know you guys want to get a slightly better look at it.

I'm going to 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?

OK, let's do it.

All right.

And to do that, I'm going to just gently--

Whoa.

Ew.

I've got to actually pin down its head to do this.

Oh. Oh, jeez.

Look how fast it is.

Man, you see how fast it is?

Now, Coyote, I've heard this is called

the Cheetah of the Desert.

Yes, that is because they are speedy and they are lethal.

Let me see if I can actually--

man!

You might need a bigger set of forceps.

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

Whoa.

That was a committed grab, if I've ever seen one.

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.

Ooh, each-- 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's rock solid.

And each one of those little leg segments grapples on to 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--

it's almost getting me right now.

My goodness.

Almost got me right there.

That was close.

OK, 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.

OK, 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.

OK, not an easy animal to hold on to because

it is so incredibly strong.

All right, guys, I'm going to place it back

into the plastic container here.

Take a minute to compose myself.

And then we're going to head into the bite.

You ready?

Really gently.

And there we go.

Nice.

Woo.

Barely escaped a bite there.

All right, guys, let me give you a little testimonial here.

So as we know, I have taken many bites.

Some of them non-venomous, some of them

venomous, lots of stings.

And the giant desert centipede is the one animal that I always

thought to myself, you know what, I never want

to be bitten by that creature.

But I have the opportunity to do this, and I guess part of me

is doing it for curiosity.

Part of me is doing it for science.

And part of me is doing it to find out just how

painful this bite really is.

Now, I've heard from several different sources

that it can be more painful than a rattlesnake bite,

not as painful as a Gila monster, which I've been bitten

by, and some people say it's no more

painful than a honey bee sting.

So it's all about how my body reacts to the venom.

Now, it is going to attack my red blood cells,

and I don't know what that will do.

It could potentially rot a hole in my arm.

It may just cause some localized swelling and pain,

and I may be just fine.

But I've kind of climbed the insect sting pain index,

and I feel when it comes to bites,

this has got to be the last one.

Oh, boy.

This just became a reality.

Wow.

There it is, the giant desert centipede,

and I'm about to be bitten by it.

OK, well, the next thing we need to do

is actually get it out of this plastic container.

And to do that, I'm going to gently go in and pin it.

Ready?

Yep.

That's creepy.

There's the commitment.

OK, got a hold on it.

Ow.

Man, those little legs are digging into me.

Woo.

Look at those fangs.

My goodness.

OK.

Now, I do, as always, have an epinephrine pen.

I'm just stating that for the record.

And--

You also have that.

Emergency satellite phone.

Always important.

Never had to use it.

Please don't let today be the first time.

Camera three rolling.

GoPro is rolling.

OK, here we go.

Ready?

I'm Coyote Peterson.

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

Here we go.

One, two, three.

Ah!

Oh, my gosh!

Right there, those are the fangs, when

you see those puncture marks.

Oh, yeah.

Wow.

Describe the pain.

Immediately searing!

Oh, my gosh!

This is so much worse than a bullet ant sting!

Ah!

Talk to me.

Ah!

This is searing my skin.

Oh, my gosh.

This is the worst pain I have felt since the gila monster.

This absolutely just completely eclipses all

the insect stings I've taken.

Ah!

How sharp were the fangs?

Hold on a second.

Oh, my gosh.

I could see where they went in right there.

Double chomp.

Could you even see that?

It bit, and then curled the skin up, and then

let go and bit a second time.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

I see blood coming to the surface.

Talk to me, talk to me, talk to me.

OK, OK.

I got to know you're not in serious trouble.

You've got to keep talking to me.

It's a different pain than any sting I've taken.

It's searing.

It is absolutely searing.

Ah, sorry.

I can't get those words right now, man.

You let me know if you

feel like you're in trouble.

Any swelling to the mouth?

I just need water. I need some water.

Oh, my gosh.

Describe to me where you feel the pain.

Is it just localized to the bite?

It's going up my arm.

It is going up my arm, just like the venomous Gila monster.

Man, look at the welts that are forming in my arm.

Dude, we might need to use that venom extractor.

This is--

Just cut-- cut the cameras, cut the cameras!

We got to get the venom extracted!

We got to get the venom out of my arm!

Ah!

I'm serious.

Cut the cameras, cut the cameras.

Never before had I asked for the cameras

to be turned off during a bite or sting episode.

Never before had I been in such uncontrollable pain.

And never before had we not completed an episode.

There are many things that crawl in the night.

And on this dark monsoon threatening evening,

the crew and I were headed out into Arizona Sonoran Desert

to find such things.

Our mission was to search out a dry, walk-able wash, which

is an area that water flows through the desert

during a monsoon.

A wash is a great place to look for creatures at night,

because animals use it as a highway to either move

up and down or they have to cross it,

moving from one section of the desert to another.

And we're looking for a wash so that we

can travel down it and hopefully encounter some cool creatures.

One of the most likely candidates

has been causing nightmares for centuries.

And if we located a giant arachnid,

the goal would be to get the cameras up close

and myself even closer.

All sorts of little holes down here,

but I don't see anything yet.

So the reason that I'm shining my light

down the length of the wash is the spider's

eyes reflect light in the dark.

And this will actually give them away and give me

the advantage to get close to one

and hopefully get my hands on it.

All right, let's keep going and see if we can find one.

Bugs.

Oh, got a good set of eyes.

Here you go.

Get the light on, get the light on.

We've got movement right up here by this rock.

Look at that.

Finally.

All night, I thought all we were going to find

is anthill mounds, and there you have it.

One big spider.

Wow!

OK, just kind of approach slow.

That is a tarantula.

Wow, we have been out here searching for,

what, a solid two hours now.

Seen nothing but ants and moths flying around by our lights.

And just when I thought we weren't

going to come across anything, you have it right here.

And it is-- this is a desert blonde tarantula.

It's a male, and the way I can tell

is that the males have dark brownish black legs.

Females have light tan legs.

And this is about as big as they get.

Males grow a little bit larger than the females.

Now, I want to stay as calm as possible in this situation.

If I stay calm, the animal will stay calm.

And they actually use all these little hairs

on their legs to kind of sense the ground

as they're walking so it can feel all

the vibrations in the ground.

And you see that little defensive pose right there?

He's pointing his abdomen up in the air.

And you see all those tiny little furs

on the back of the abdomen?

You get too close to those, and those little hairs

kind of flick off and they really cause a real kind

of nasty itching sensation.

I know for those of you out there who have arachnophobia,

this is probably your worst nightmare.

Wow.

That is a big spider right there.

Look at that.

What a handsome fella.

I feel all those little tiny hairs on his legs

crawling up my arm.

Hold on.

I don't want you going up there.

No, I don't want you going up there.

Now he is up and on my back.

Is he on my back?

He's on your backpack.

This is one of the most common species

here in the Sonoran Desert.

Thankfully, they don't eat coyotes.

And where is he?

Is he off? There he is.

He's going around the corner. - Oh cool.

All right, all right, there we go.

All right.

I feel a little bit better now.

These spiders are out this time of night.

They're mostly nocturnal, trying to avoid the heat of the day

by staying in burrows.

And what they're looking for is insects.

And a spider of this size can even

take down small lizards or small rodents, believe it or not.

Wow!

Absolutely beautiful!

All right, I'm going to put him down and gently pick him up

so I can show you the underside and see if we

can take a look at his fangs.

I want to get him off of my arm for this.

Come down here, buddy.

Here we go.

Now, this is in no way, causing any injury to the spider.

It just will allow me to get him up

so you guys can see those fangs.

I'll tell you what, if you're a moth or any

of the other little bugs that run out here in this wash,

you meet up with that set of fangs,

it's going to be the last meeting you ever have.

I definitely don't want to be bitten by this spider.

It is venomous.

And it's not a venom that's really

going to cause you any more discomfort than a bee sting,

but still, I want to be as careful as possible.

Now, arachnophobia is one of the most common fears

that people suffer from.

Obviously, I'm not afraid of spiders, but I won't lie.

Holding a tarantula of this size definitely gets

my heart racing.

I'm Coyote Peterson.

Be brave.

Stay wild.

We'll see you on the next adventure.

All right, I'm going to put this big guy back into the wash

so he can go feast on some beetles.

See you later, fuzzy butt.