The scariest species of creepy-crawlies in Barbados - centipedes - have apparently invaded part of the Christ Church community of Ealing Park, creating a horror-movie scene for besieged residents.
The pestilence has already forced one occupant to flee her home of ten years she has shared with her son.
The woman, who would only give her name as Eugene, told Barbados TODAY she was desperate for relief, adding that she had reached the point where she has developed anxiety after several attempts to get rid of the insects.“I am not sleeping well. My chest is heavy. I don’t know what else to do,” she complained, moments after returning from a doctor’s visit.
“Two nights ago my son killed two big centipedes outside,” she added as she struggle to compose herself in recounting the ordeal.She has sprayed a variety of insecticides, including gasoline, cleaned surfaces regularly with bleach, even hired a pest control - cost: $2,000; all that was no match for the relentless march of numbers of centipedes into her home, ‘Eugene’ said.
She first spotted the creatures on the day she went to view the house in 2008 when she decided she wanted to buy it - but thought little of the appearance of the common household pest, notorious for its searingly painful bite.“I thought that was it but from then until now I just seeing constant centipede . . . but they never bite me, thank goodness,” she said, as she pointed to the stain from one of her latest kills on Monday morning on a section of the patio floor.
Another resident, Elijah Jean-Baptiste, told Barbados TODAY when he returned to the island on Monday from vacation he was greeted by one of the centipedes in his house.
“I have been here for six months now and I have seen probably about six of them. I guess I normally don’t see them as much because I work for the entire day. I was out on vacation and just came back on Monday and before bed I saw one in my room,” he recalled.
Baptiste, who has been bitten by one before, said he normally sees some “big blackish ones” and he would crush them with shoes, then burn them.
“Right now I am so paranoid. I didn’t even sleep properly last night. Every five or ten minutes I would be waking up looking on the floor and put my lights on. I don’t even want to relax on the couch,” he said, adding that he would welcome any help to get rid of the centipedes.
Another resident, who did not want to be identified, told Barbados TODAY while he did not have the centipedes inside his house they were everywhere outside.
“Definitely there is a centipede problem,” he said.“I don’t have centipedes inside of my house but the minute I step out I see them all over the place . . . I take precautions not to have them inside, but I can tell you that as soon as I step out I see them. So I have to be careful where I put my foot because they are running all over,” he said, adding that they were “pretty big”.
Stating that he would see them about three days in any given week, the concerned resident also lamented that he had no idea what else could be done to help rid the community of them.
In what could be described as a scene from a horror movie, ‘Eugene’ explained that it was constant peeping about for her in her own home, jumping on and off the bed at times, and running to action whenever she spotted one.She explained that the centipedes would show up on the ceiling in various parts of the house including her bedroom, the kitchen, bathroom, even coiled around light switches - and just about anywhere outside.
One even found its way inside her dog’s bowl in the garage recently.
Now at wit’s end, with no idea of what else could be done to ease her anxiety and rid her home of the centipedes, ‘Eugene’ said she would be moving out by next month and seeking to sell the property with the hope that the new owners would be able to find some answers.
“I can’t take it no more. My family is coming in from England and they told me, ‘You can’t break your heart over this.’ I don’t get no sleep. The centipedes are invading here now,” she said.
But it was after talking about it with a neighbour about three years ago that Eugene discovered the previous owners of the house fled the same problem, she added.
Fighting back tears, the mother said “it is worse now. I don’t sleep. I don’t sleep”.“I can’t tek it nuh more. I can’t tek it nuh more. They tell me I get anxiety attack. I can’t tek it nuh more,” she cried, as she recalled one of her latest ordeals in which she fell in an attempt to outrun one of the beasts.
Due to her constant fear of them showing up, Eugene would keep lights on throughout the night, leaving a monthly $300-$400 electricity bill.
It is believed that nearby farm land and an open lot were the breeding grounds for the centipedes. (MM)
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