'The Maui' Raised Tent-Cot Introduced to Avoid Humongous Centipedes on Island

Noticing how many visitors are scared stiff of Maui's famous centipedes, the company Outsunny has introduced a new model of tent built atop a cot just to keep campers away from creepy-crawlers.

"The Maui" model tent-cot lets campers quickly and easily set up a place to spend the night ~ completely off the ground and away from the Jurassic centipedes on Maui.

"I saw one of those centipedes and thought, 'No thanks!' " said Gretchen Miller of Portland, Oregon, who was among a focus group arranged by Outsunny that resulted in the development of The Maui. "I could never sleep on the ground camping on Maui. Just the thought of those wavy backs and all those little legs gives me the shivers."

Members of the focus group were chosen based on their experience visiting Maui. Each participant has visited the island at least a dozen times.

And all of them complained about the centipede, a company representative said.

"We were perplexed that every single person we invited, to a study just to improve our tents, mentioned centipedes on Maui," said Jackson Lolich, spokesman for the company based in Wilsonville, Oregon. "So we did some research, and they scared us, too. And none of us in the company had ever even been to Maui."

So they designed a tent to keep campers off the ground at night, and named it after the island that company designers learned of only through the focus group comments.

"One time I stomped on one of those centipedes on a crushed-rock driveway, and when it kept moving, I cut it in half with yard shears," said Myron Kaline of Bend, Oregon. "Then, both halves kept coming at me!"

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There are 3 kinds of centipedes in Hawaii, and among them only the Scolopendra bites human beings. Still, those who have experienced the pincer-like chomp say they are very painful.

The Maui tent-cot is developed for a single camper at a time, complete with the cot, the tent that assembles atop it, plus an air mattress, sleeping bag, pillow, carrying bag, and foot pump for the mattress air.

The company now is in development for larger models, starting with a 2-person, and eventually getting up to ohana-sized, Kaline said.

"We envision a nice big round cot that could sleep up to 10 under a single canopy," Kaline said. "Plus, it would have an option to set up a little yard attached to the big tent, also raised off the ground, for campers to talk story without worrying about centipedes crawling up their legs."