I was preparing to go to bed about an hour ago, and on the walk back from the bathroom to my bedroom, I noticed a silver fish / thousand legger on the wall, near the doorframe.
I am not a fan of these insects, but I won't kill them. It's location makes extraction risky, as if I try to prod it and catch it with a paper bag, and miss, the thing is likely to run anywhere, including up my leg.
The folks are asleep and waking them is not an option I am willing to consider. I am content to leave it alone and go to sleep, but then when I wake up, it will be gone, and I will just wonder where it is for days, even weeks.
I was very close to trying the folded paper and brown bag capture method, but opted not to, as if it misses the bag, the chances of it entering my room are greatly increased. As of right now, the chances of it entering my room are likely slim, due to it being "wedged" on the other side of the doorframe. In order to successfully infiltrate, I think it would have to go to the floor, and then enter my room the same way I do, as the door frame is seperate from the wall, and the insect too large to navigate over it (I hope?).
I've considered bringing its location to the attention of my cat, but ultimately that is just going to result in its death, and I don't want to be responsible for killing it, because I like animals, insects not as much, but still, random killing is stupid to me.
As I write this I poke my head around the doorframe to see if it still there.. The last three times it has been, but I am not sure which result I would prefer. If its there, at least I know where it is. If it isn't, it could be anywhere, and that is disturbing considering that I am starting to get tired.
This is likely one of the largest silverfish I've seen in my house. They are intriguing creatures, and they have lots of legs, which is what I think causes me to be leery of capturing them with my hand. As a kid, my dad would let them run up and down his arm while taking them outside, but just thinking about all those legs running up my arm and into my clothes makes me strongly re-consider finding my cat.
After opening up Microsoft Word and taking advantage of the embedded ruler, I've established that the silverfish is approxiamtely one inch long, legs included. It did twitch once while I was observing it, and it clearly has the speed required to evade my attempts at capture, which makes a miss too risky to consider. It appears to have about 16 legs on each side of its body. Its body seems to be multi-colored earth tones, and if it weren't in a shadow, and my house, I might be more obligued to look closer. I think it might be sleeping, as it did not react to various flashes from my cell phone's camera.
Below I have included a picture of the silver fish. They are common in this part of the country (East Coast, PA), and I don't think they are dangerous. They are a bit creepy, primarily because they really do seem to have a thousand legs.
The whole situation has put me on edge. We have fans going on upstairs, and I placed the potential capturing brown bag on top of the dresser, and it just caught a draft and was whisked away loudly, causing my to literally jump out of my seat. Upon further inspection, the bag is nowhere to be found, and I am not too inclined to start an in depth search. Despite my observations and travels from room to hallway, the silverfish remains in place, possibly sleeping.
Here is a picture of the silverfish. I took it with my cell phone's camera and darkened it a bit in PaintShop pro. The silverfish's size in the picture is about the size it is in reality.
I am going to bed now. One last check-up showed that it was still in place, and in fact is probably getting a good night's sleep; all the while preventing me from even dreaming of doing the same.