on Centicidal Maniac Spiders

What are Centicidal Maniac Spiders, you ask? Specially bred wolf spiders that only eat centipedes.
We breed em, right in our basement.

Because in our basement is the nexus of the homicidal centipede species.

(Wolf spider with babies on board)

My 15-year-old son told me about it. And it explains a LOT -- like why there are so many centipedes and wolf spiders in our basement every year, spring through fall.
According to my son, many, many years ago, before Cambridge came to be, a young boy was bitten by what seemed to be a normal centipede on the land now occupied by our home. Think centipedes don't bite? Go away and don't bother me.
The centipede enjoyed the taste of human flesh so much that it taught all its young that human flesh is tasty.
This isn't the centipede from James and the Giant Peach, folks. I'm telling you. That one may have been big, but it was friendly. Small ones that can hide under your couch until they're ready to strike are much more scary.

So ever since then, the centipedes that live here, in this little piece of the world, have been man eaters. Well, they're small, so man-nibblers, I guess. It's still bad! Piranhas are small, too!
Years later, perhaps when a village stood on this site, someone realized what was breeding in the crevices of the ground. And they knew that to save mankind, a predator must be developed to deal with the freakish, blood-thirsty centipedes.
Research happened.
It was discovered that a certain variety of wolf spider did not fear the centipede. The spiders were carefully collected, bred, and developed to vanquish the awful centipede hoards.
As time passed and the area was developed, always, always, whoever lived here made sure there were some of these special wolf spiders -- the so-called Centicidal Wolf Spiders -- on this land.
And so it continues.

My older son tells me there are terrible centipedes in other parts of the world. Bigger ones. Harder to kill. For the house centipede we have here is fast, oh, yes! But it is soft and vulnerable.
But this is the one we fear.
I think there must be centipede/wolf spider battles in other parts of the world.
I have a vague memory -- one I've tried to quash -- of sleeping in a basement in Maryland about 20 years ago. I awoke in the middle of the night to see -- someTHING-- carrying away the body of a centipede. I think it was a Centicidal Wolf Spider -- or a centipede wolf.
So if you come to my house, and go into the basement, watch the floors. Hold your skirts up when you walk. And never, never kill a wolf spider. It could be the last thing you do.