desertdweller
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since August 2006
Posts: 1,803
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Post by desertdweller on Nov 6, 2006 1:11:16 GMT -5
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Post by Bikerrandy on Nov 6, 2006 6:58:19 GMT -5
Wow, will those "mess you up" if the sting? We have pine scorpions in Florida, they'd put a nasty sting on ya but they wouldn't mess you up too bad.
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Post by pho on Nov 6, 2006 8:28:17 GMT -5
ewwwww.....man I hate those things. I always have a reaction to their stings. We get a lot of them here in Texas. I think they are called Box Scorpions. There have been some deaths from their stings.
Pho
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Post by akansan on Nov 6, 2006 9:41:00 GMT -5
Randy, the ones around here which look similar to those normally only cause the same reaction as a bee sting...unless you're allergic to them. Allergic reactions account for the only deaths in this area to scorpion stings.
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Post by Tweetiepy on Nov 6, 2006 10:45:43 GMT -5
I was just gonna ask if they're deadly? Is it true that if you splash alcohol on them they'll sting themselves to death?
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desertdweller
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since August 2006
Posts: 1,803
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Post by desertdweller on Nov 6, 2006 11:46:51 GMT -5
Randy, I have been stung three times and like the others said, you would have to be allergic to have them really do some damage. I didn't even think it was as bad as a bee sting, my friend kept waiting for me to drop dead because of all the stories about scorpions but I guess you never know what to believe until you actually get stung.
Tweetie, I have seen a few of them sting themselves to death, one because of alcohol and one because of pesticides.
We have a mouse here in the southwest that makes rattlesnakes and scorpions look like passive creatures, I read in an Arizona Wildlife magazine that if these grasshopper mice were the size of Collies, nobody would be able to go outside after dark.
Each mouse has an incredibly huge territory, something like two square miles. They have the metabolism of a shrew or close to it and can eat 18 times their own body weight every day. I have also read that they stand on their hind legs and howl like a wolf. They are probably the most aggressive predator we have.
I did a search on the internet and found out more about them, everything I read was kind of hard to believe.
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Post by cina on Nov 6, 2006 11:55:41 GMT -5
Them things just scare the you know what out of me I don't like spiders eather if I saw one I may pass out I just don't do creapy bugs! YUCK!
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181lizard
Cave Dweller 
Still lurking :)
Member since December 2005
Posts: 2,171
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Post by 181lizard on Nov 6, 2006 13:39:12 GMT -5
Sorry to those of you that have a thing for nature & all her critters...BUT, if that came close to me...I'd be doin the Scorpion 2-step all over it's ass!
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Post by gemkoi on Nov 6, 2006 17:42:54 GMT -5
Ya, ones that size may have a nice sting to them, but in the worst case. YOu get a achy back for a couple days. They sure are tasty little critters. I personally would rather have Scorpions and Spiders around than Termites and Roches. I once got stung by a 1/2inch baby scorpion and it was two days of a mild cold. Was still able to function and cut rocks no problem.
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Post by BAZ on Nov 6, 2006 18:12:36 GMT -5
EVIL!
Thanks for the nightmare tonight Jamie! Ha ha!
We have Centipedes up here, they are pretty creepy too. Haven't been stung yet (knocking on wood) but I almost stepped on one in the morning a few years ago. I turned on the hall light right as I was about to step down on the little bugger. Now I don't walk barefoot with the lights out anymore!
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Post by krazydiamond on Nov 6, 2006 19:06:17 GMT -5
i'm with Liz, i don't do well with bugs, especially ones that sting or bite. one nice thing about living in snow country is we have 6 months of no bugs.
that is just scary,
KD
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Post by Jurrasic Jonje on Nov 6, 2006 19:20:53 GMT -5
creepy lil critter. Guess we all better be careful when we open boxes from Jamie!!!!!!
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,504
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 6, 2006 23:07:19 GMT -5
Jamie: Neat pics! Neat to hear about the Grasshopper Mice too. A buddy of mine was studying them in college and I helped trap him some. They do sort of howl and are amazingly nasty. His actually used to kill and eat deer mice and would just leave the skins turned inside out. Kill the mice by biting through the skull. Pretty wild. I worked a bit with scorpions around the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in college and it always stunned me that the big ones, the Great Hairy Scorpions, are relatively non toxic while the small fast slender Centuroides, Centrurus ( ? on spelling *L*) types are horribly toxic. When we went out at the museum at night with black lights the nasty ones were all over where we were sleeping too. That was disconcerting! Have you seen the Scolopendra hero ( Giant Centipedes) in your area? We collected those too and the largest was one inch wide and over a foot long. Very savage too. Man, those bother even me and I used to collect baddies all the time.......mel
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desertdweller
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since August 2006
Posts: 1,803
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Post by desertdweller on Nov 7, 2006 2:48:30 GMT -5
HI Mel, I was hoping you would see this post and add some info. Yes I have seen some large centipedes, the biggest one was probably 9" long, dark colored, black and had a million little yellow legs on both sides. Does my description match the nasty ones? So you have worked with the grasshopper mice? The man that wrote the article for the Arizona Wildlife Magazine said that if they were the size of a dog, we would be in big, big trouble. It is hard to believe that a little mouse would need 2 square miles of territory. Do you know what else their diets consist of? I saw one bite the head off of a scorpion so I know they eat those.
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Post by rhodescabbin on Nov 7, 2006 3:07:03 GMT -5
I've never heard of the Grashopper mouse. I know about Shrews its wild watching them take on a snake...
That scorpion, Ya I would do the 2 step all over his azz too lol...
Speaking of scorpions stinging themselves have you ever seen a rattler nite itself to death??? I never believed that mess until it happened to me twice in one summer and one I captured on video. Crazist thing I ever seen. One of the boys yelled SNAKE in the yard and I ran out and grabbed the shovel and one of them wanted to get video of it. I kept yelling at everyong to keep atleast 6 feet away as he was going nuts rattling and striking. Then he bit himself, a long venom pumping bite and thats when it dawned on me we have encircled it...So that is true.
Back to scorpions the ones I have seen here are more orange colored and the percentage are not that big...Good Pictures!!!
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Post by rockyraccoon on Nov 7, 2006 3:22:06 GMT -5
jamie that is really cool to see the pics but i'm glad that thing is at your house and not mine!
kim
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Post by cina on Nov 7, 2006 10:58:32 GMT -5
Can you eat them? The scorpions that is my son has a sucker with a little tiny one in it we have wondered if that is a good thing to sell to kids hmmm I may have to see if they live in Wyoming we did get a Jerusalem Cricket They can be ferocious and cause a painful bite. if you would like to see one go to kaweahoaks.com/html/jerusalem_cricket.html my son had one get on his shoe on a field trip to get rocks he looked like he was gonna pass out he turned the color of paper and started to sweat it would not let him go then he got it off put it in a cup and feed it gum. This is a scary guy to but not as bad as what you have down there. Cina |
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,504
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Post by Sabre52 on Nov 7, 2006 21:58:27 GMT -5
Jamie: I didn't have the mice at my lab but helped my buddy do the trapping at Stoddard Ridge on the Mojave Desert and in Nevada near Washoe Lake for the Northern species. Foodwise they eat almost any large insects ( grasshoppers, cicadas, mantids etc) scorpions, lizards, and mice even larger than they are. They're small stocky and heavy skulled almost like mini Schartzeneggars. And they bite when you take them from the live trap if your not careful too though the Desert Woodrats we caught in the same trapline were even worse. If they were cat sized they'd be scary boogers! Don't know about that territory size as we caught several in one relatively small area. Probably related more to the quantity of food available.
The centipedes we caught were red brown and very heavily armored with huge jaws and poison glands. Not a lot of legs though, maybe 20 or so to a side. Sounds like that was probably what you saw as not many are that size in the US ( though in Texas theres a purple and red one almost that size. One ran up my sleeve when I was hunting crinoidal limestone. Man that one had me dancing around!)...mel
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