--- title: The Texas or Giant Redhead Centipede Will Haunt Your Nightmares description: The Internet has been responding to a photo of a huge centipede posted to the Facebook page of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department canonical: https://time.com/3946151/texas-centipede-giant-redhead/ author: Helen Regan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-06T04:18:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:21:46.206Z og:title: This Texan Centipede Is Real and Will Haunt Your Nightmares og:description: The Internet has been responding to a photo of a huge centipede found in Texas. og:url: https://time.com/3946151/texas-centipede-giant-redhead/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Texan Centipede Is Real and Will Haunt Your Nightmares twitter:description: The Internet has been responding to a photo of a huge centipede found in Texas. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Is the Most Frightening Thing You're Going to See This Week ## Video: Giant Insect Ambassadors for the Rainforest [Watch (HLS stream): Giant Insect Ambassadors for the Rainforest](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EE1L3Qy7.m3u8) (4:46)  _Published 2009-10-21. The Insect Discovery Lab in San Francisco puts giant walking sticks and millipedes into kids' hands to teach about habitat destruction_ by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Jul 6, 2015 4:18 AM UTC by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Jul 6, 2015 4:18 AM UTC The folks over at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department [posted](https://www.facebook.com/texasparksandwildlife/photos/a.84866843692.83704.48009558692/10153003713988693/?type=1&theater) this terrifying photo to their Facebook page Friday of a huge redheaded centipede. Known as the Texas or Giant Redhead, this [particular](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/07/05/texas-redhead-centipede-garner-state-park/29751773/) monster — with its long black body, yellow legs and red head — was discovered in Garner State Park in the Hill Country, reports _USA Today_. > [](https://twitter.com/TPWDparks/status/616309284968767488) The giant centipede preys on invertebrates but has been known to catch and eat lizards, snakes, toads and rodents. According to the _Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine_, their South American [cousins](http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2014/oct/scout5%5Fwildthing%5Fcentipede/) have even been recorded catching bats and snatching flying bugs out of the air. “They use their legs to grasp prey while feeding and their ‘fangs’ (actually an additional pair of highly modified legs) are capable of piercing the skin and injecting a painful toxin,” Ben Hutchins from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department [wrote](http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2014/oct/scout5%5Fwildthing%5Fcentipede/) in _TPW Magazine_. Thankfully, the nightmarish creature doesn’t pose a serious risk to humans and its bite is usually a sharp sting that can cause momentary swelling. Still, you wouldn’t want to find one of these babies lurking in your shoe! \[[_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/07/05/texas-redhead-centipede-garner-state-park/29751773/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3946151/texas-centipede-giant-redhead/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3946151/texas-centipede-giant-redhead/"},"headline":"This Is the Most Frightening Thing You're Going to See This Week","datePublished":"2015-07-06T04:18:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:46.206Z","description":"The Texas Redhead centipede is real and will haunt your nightmares","url":"https://time.com/3946151/texas-centipede-giant-redhead/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Texas","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3946151/texas-centipede-giant-redhead/","name":"This Is the Most Frightening Thing You're Going to See This Week"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Giant Insect Ambassadors for the Rainforest","description":"The Insect Discovery Lab in San Francisco puts giant walking sticks and millipedes into kids' hands to teach about habitat destruction","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/EE1L3Qy7/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-10-21T15:08:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EE1L3Qy7.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3946151/texas-centipede-giant-redhead/","duration":"PT4M46S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3946151/texas-centipede-giant-redhead/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```