Whoaa! Litter bug!?

My cat loves to scratch at the side of the little box, instead of scratching litter over her 'do'es. But this time it was interesting, and it's never a great surprise to wake up around 6:30 in the morning to find a strange creature in your litterbox. (I can't imagine how the cat felt, going in there with that thing in there.)

This bug is NOTHING like I've seen before... It was almost like a millipede, but with jointed legs, and it's body was much thinner. Needless to say, I a) killed it, it freaked me out and b) cleaned out the litter.

From the other things I've read, it seems that the litter gets bugs when it's been dirty for a while, but I try to clean the litter every other day. So I can't imagine where this guy came from.

After I'd killed him I flipped him over, and he had a tan-ish colored underside, unlike the brownish-blackish topside.

I hope this event doesn't repeat itself, but does anyone have any ideas -- at least to what kind of bug it was?

Sure it wasn't a centipede?



They can get pretty big (click photo for larger size):
http://media.photobucket.com/image/giant centipede/cacoseraph/pals/yikes/King_of_Heros.jpg?o=1

Also, not sure what you meant by clean the litter every other day - do you completely toss it every other day day, or just scoop every other day. I find things stay cleaner if I scoop at least once a day, preferably twice. Then again, I have a fussy boy, so he makes darn sure I scoop twice a day, or else!

I have found the odd bug in one of the boxes, especially in spring or fall as the critters start waking up or coming in for the winter - but the frequent scooping does seem to help that part as well.

Good luck!

Oh my gosh I would have freaked out. I hate those tan centipede things and they are REALLY fast. I usually spray them with hairspray and that slows 'em down. lol

I'm such a girl when it comes to bugs (well, I am a girl... but still!). I would've been out of that room in a heartbeat, luckily I have a manly man boyfriend to help with that sort of thing. If on my own, gosh, it would've been tough for me to handle.

Now I'm going to be nervous cleaning the litterbox!! At least I scoop every day so hopefully there will be no moving bits in there...

Ugh, centipedes... I don't mind millipedes, they're even kinda cute, but centipedes... well... they bite.

GAH!!!! That just gave me the heebie-jeebies! I had that happen once...moved the dryer to try to get something from under it and this HUGE freakin millipede thing came out!! I was screaming at the cats not the touch it (new toy for them) and screaming for the old man to come kill it...I was on top of the kitchen counter.

I'm fine with bugs, but centipedes and millipedes just GROSS me out!