The downside to living in Paradise

[doccherry]

This isn't a pig story, but you'll find it interesting.

It's just after midnight as I write this. I woke up at 10:30 PM with a burning sensation below my left ear, just back aways in the hairline. I had dreamed that I had pulled a clump of hair from the back of my head. Turned on the light and sat up. Nothing crawling around so I went back to bed. The pain got worse and worse until it was like a bad bee sting. Turned on the light and looked around. Nothing. Went back to bed but the pain continued to get worse. Now it was like a dozen bee stings in the same area. My wife checked out my neck and found what looked like a huge red mole. Now the pain was so bad that I couldn't sleep so I just lay there in the dark and tossed and turned. Got up and turned on the light and a 6-inch centipede crawled down the bed and onto the floor. I grabbed a booked and smashed it.

Now it's an hour and a half later and my neck is so sore and swollen that I can't move my head. Got a whopper headache, too. No way in the world to sleep.

Guess this is all part of the price of living in Paradise.

I hate those little bastards. They're everywhere. The pigs love them and so do the wild chickens and turkeys. We'll call an exterminator service tomorrow and get on a regular monthly spraying. No way I want to go through this again.

Now it feels like a branding iron being held up against my neck. According to people I know, it should feel better in a couple hours. Or maybe it was a couple of weeks? Guess I'll just surf the Internet or watch TV until then.

Aloha for now.

OUCH!!!

 

[EvBouret]

centipedes are nooooo fun...gotta get your house sprayed and keep your screens shut all the time to try to keep them out. i have a friend who had a cat that would point them out when they came in the room and growl at them.

 

[Glass eye]

I feel your pain. I've been bitten by them twice over there, really burns. I have a brother that it has no effect on, he just shrugs em off, but I have another brother who has very strong reactions to their venom and he swells up big time. Once, he got bit on the forehead and he developed a huge knot, he looked like a cyclops !
Remember the Loggins & Messina song, .....look out, there's a centipede comming your way.....

 

[Speckmisser]

Dang I hate centipedes! The stuff of my childhood nightmares!

There were some doosies in Puerto Rico when I was a kid. We were properly terrified.

 

[rtbx15]

Sorry for your pain, Doc. That sounds like a bad one. Maybe you could put some ammonia on it or some baking soda to draw out some of the venom. If that all fails, try some ice...in a glass...with a slug of bourbon in it...I'm hoping you feel better very soon.

 

[THE ROMAN ARCHER]

does'nt sound like fun at all Doc, hope ya feel better! now what about those island roaches!.....tra!

 

[doccherry]

It's 5:30 PM and my neck is no longer swollen. Not too painful anymore. I had bad stomach cramps all day and a slight fever. We contacted a pest control company and they start this Friday. They assured me that they'll put an end to our centipede problem. Our neighbors use them and they recommend them highly. I'd much, much rather face a boar in tight quarters than have a centipede share my bed. Doesn't make sense, but those things give me the creeps.

Now on to some pig news:

The principal of a school just down the hill contacted me through the principal of my school. A large boar is camped out in the shrubbery adjacent to their school [young kids, first grade thru 7th] and it pops out and wanders around during school hours. Her comment is that it has huge tusks. Not sure what that means exactly. I'll set up a time and check it out. My questions are: Is it a resident or does it pass through? Is it an evening pig or a morning pig? Is there a trail that it and the other pigs use to come onto and to leave the school grounds? If it's a whopper, I may use a 12 gauge with buckshot, since it's only 300 yards to the main highway and a centerfire rifle or pistol is out of the question. I hate using a bow or crossbow in the really thick guinea grass, which is 7 feet tall this time of year. You never, ever kill them dead on the spot and then you have to follow up to make sure they aren't wounded and pissed off. Remember, this guy apparently sleeps only 75 yards away from the playground.

That brings me in a roundabout way to another point. I'm becoming more and more a believer in old Elmer Keith and his school of thought. Use the biggest, baddest gun you can possibly handle when hunting dangerous game. I've killed about 25 hogs during the past 18 months, some with a .308, some with the 30/30, some with the 7/08, and several with the .300 Win Mag. With only 1 exception, the .300 Win nailed them in their tracks. No fuss, no muss. That exception, by the way, was a lung-shot boar of about 125 pounds or so who acted like nothing had happened. He scampered off and died in his tracks, 100 yards away. Go figure.

Aloha for now. I'm losing my pot belly so there will be wild bull hunting soon, as well as sheep, goats, and pigs. That is, if the centipedes don't get me.

Man, I hate those things!!

 

[Glass eye]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (doccherry @ Oct 16 2007, 08:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

I'd much, much rather face a boar in tight quarters than have a centipede share my bed.[/b]

Two of my brothers were tent camping on Oahu and during the night Marc tells Bob to "get off of me" and when he didn't budge he opened his eyes to see Bob on his opposite side. There was a pig outside of the tent laying against it on top of Marc.

He screamed and the pig ran off.

 

[leftyhunter]

Doccherry,
I don't know what the laws are in Hawaii regarding what it takes to be a big game guide but with your expertise it might be a profitable sideline. I imagine that there are a lot of tourists from say Japan and Korea that have really no hunting opportunities in their own country unless of course they are really rich and they might like to wack a pig, goat or wild bull just to put it above the mantle. Here in Cal a quality fair chase guided pig hunt will be north of $500 a day with the advantage of course that getting meat from Hawaii to the mainland would be a real hassle. Nonetheless a US tourist might like to wack a pig just for the novelty trophy aspect and the meat could be donated to a local charity. Sounds like a enterprising Hawiian could make some serious dough if he invented a centipeide repelent.

Leftyhunter

 

[doccherry]

leftyhunter:

One of the best centipede repellents is a wild hog. They love the things. So do the wild chickens [they're everywhere] and the wild turkeys. By the way, I have an appointment on Thursday at 3:30 to meet with Mrs. Woerner, the principal of Innovations Public Charter School in Kona, just a mile down the street from my house. The pigs [and one huge boar] are tearing the school grounds to shreds. She'll give me the key and I'll drop by after work and on weekends and do some damage with my crossbow.

You guys reading this, imagine farmers and ranchers [and school principals] calling you and begging you to come and hunt the hogs on their property. They'll even pay you for it. The Board of Directors at the Hawaii Veterans Cemetery has asked me to come over and kill the wild goats that are eating the landscaping. The wild bulls at Hokulea [I spelled that wrong, I'm sure] Preserve are doing so much damage that they want hunters to get rid of them. Same thing with the Nature Conservancy Lands down south. Pigs, goats, sheep, bulls---Please come hunt them!! It's almost a joke, there are so many people asking me and other hunters to come help.

And you guys pay 500 bucks a day for a "maybe" at a pig.

If Nick and Ev can't make it over in December, now that I'm getting skinny and in shape [sort of, anyway], one of you guys reading this should contact me. If you're honestly in good shape and can hike 8 hours in tough terrain, I'll take you back into the Wailuku River headwaters [beautiful, fairly open country] and I'll bet you nail a Vancouver bull. I'd give you a 50/50 chance on a one-day hunt. I'll provide the firearms. You'll need a license, but you can get that online. That hunt, my friends, is like a cape buffalo hunt, a once-in-a-lifetime kind of deal. You buy the gas and the after-hunt cocktails, and you're on. It's a lot of tough walking, but where else can you hunt wild bulls in the US?

Darn, I should be out hunting now instead of writing this silly post. You guys gotta come over here and visit. You won't believe it. Do you want to hunt big game 7 days a week? You can do it easily here. Problem is that you'll need a walk-in freezer to store all the meat.

Aloha for now. Nic and Ev---interested in a late December bull hunt? Let me know.

 

[Uncle Ji]

Back in 2000 me and 5 other siblings with our kids invaded our parents (rest in peace Mom & Dad) home in Kailua for a surprise 50th anniversary celebration. Quarters were tight so I volunteered to sleep on the Lanai floor on a futon. Around 2 a.m. I feel a sharp pain on my ankle so I look and see 2 little fang marks like a mini-vampire nailed me so I shake the futon and out drops a centipede. I look around and grab a 10 lb. dumbbell and it takes several hard blows to finally kill the bugger. I put the now flattened centipede in a plastic cup and pour white vinegar over it to preserve it to shows siblings next morning. My lymph nodes in right legs gets very sore for several hours, and same night my kid sis in another room also gets bit. After returning to Maui I get a envelope from Dad and in it is my now dried out centipede which I had completely forgotten about nicely laminated in plastic, kind of a joke from Dad but now a precious keepsake I use as a bookmark which reminds me of that wonderful 50th anniversary celebration and my precious Dad whom I still miss a whole lot, Mom too.
From superintendant of a whole county to now a tutor of Kindergarten and ADHD kids in a local elementary school a humbling but rewarding experiance, but I GOT TO get a hunt in soon before I go nuts. Doc I'll be sure to let you know when I'm in town (Kailua-Kona) I think we can get a handgun hunt in at Holualoa on private land, and maybe we can get a birdhunt in. I can hike pretty darn good and walking is good for my back. Stay in touch and I'll do the same. A hui hou, Ji

 

[Glass eye]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (leftyhunter @ Oct 17 2007, 08:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

I don't know what the laws are in Hawaii regarding what it takes to be a big game guide but with your expertise it might be a profitable sideline.[/b]

Commercial Guiding is NOT allowed on public land. Only exception I see is on the Lanai draw hunts but the guide has to be drawn also.

 

[Nic Barca]

Evan, should we book tickets?

Centipedes... brrH-H-H-H-H-H-hh I get the shakes just thinking of them. Somehow, I have not been bit yet. Had about 7 instances of them crawling or bouncing off me. Must have killed hundred myself... my yard is infested.

My advice Doc, is not to go the chemical route, but rather to clean up any mess in the yard that makes good centipede country and kill those you find. Think of it like ...centipede "hunting". And inside your house, make sure everthing is sealed up from the outside. Control cockaroaches, do not leave damp and wet items on the ground, and keep the house dry in general. We got a million pedes in my yard, but I have never actually seen one in my house. This one day I killed 20 in a rock pile. By the end of that day, I lost some of the creeps, but the other day I counted 20 while hunting at Polehale and that just flat out trawmatized me.

PS, I'ld be happy to guide anyone.

 

[leftyhunter]

Thanks Nic and Doc for the very generous offer to guide us mainlanders. Hawaii isn't a state that one would think of has having great hunting but it sounds good and it has great scenery . I will research airfare and buying gas and after dinner drinks sounds fair. I am not sure what the Hawaiian tourist"off season" is so one can get a better deal on airfare and hotels from priceline et all.

Thanks;
Leftyhunter

 

[Uncle Ji]

Hey Leftyhunter, I just returned from a wedding in Bay Area and a around trip flight from Honolulu to San Jose ran about $300 with booking 2 monhs early. Hawaiian and Aloha airlines fly to smaller airports in Cali at a savings to you, check them out BUT reserve in advance for best prices, and best time is November thru January as far as fares, and weather here.

 

[leftyhunter]

Thanks Uncle JI. I will do some research $300 round trip is not bad at all!

Leftyhunter