Sabre52
Cave Dweller 
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,504
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 22, 2012 10:30:51 GMT -5
Well, with the rain we're having this year, we're also having a great year for these little boogers, the striped bark scorpions. If you live in south Texas, in a big stone house, on a rocky limestone hill, guess what? Your domicile becomes scorpion castle USA. This unlucky specimen, which my wife did a screaming tapdance upon, is number 172 for the season which means I'll probably set a new record this year. He's a male which you can tell by the super long tail and the females often have babies on their back this time of year. My wife, who I might add, is another biologist and a Texas Master Naturalist, cannot seem to understand you have to watch where your put you hands when gardening, shake out your shoes and clothes, and don't go barefoot at night in scorpion country. I really don't understand her attitude which I find frustrating, as we met on a Desert Biology fieldtrip and she should know all this, but still she's always getting stung. She says it's quite painful, though I wouldn't know, as I take all the above precautions. Hopefully, she won't grab one of our local coral snakes while gardening as that would be a fatal mistake. Must be a gender based problem like men not using maps. Anyway, here's unlucky number 172.....Mel  |
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Post by deb193redux on Aug 22, 2012 11:05:38 GMT -5
I think I saw a tv show where those got fried and eaten .....
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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 Aug 22, 2012 11:21:47 GMT -5
*L* I reckon somewhere or another, you'll find some folks who will eat anything. The eating might not be too revolting but the catchin might be a bit of a challenge....Mel
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Post by Bikerrandy on Aug 22, 2012 14:41:45 GMT -5
My wife walks around outside all the time (like around the rock cutting area and the my garage where I cut metal) and we have black widows, they're everywhere!
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Post by FrogAndBearCreations on Aug 22, 2012 14:47:34 GMT -5
They fluoresce and show up all nice and pretty in black light  so if you have one, go out at nite and look for them they will also walk straight into a fire in a fire place |
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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 Aug 22, 2012 15:04:05 GMT -5
Yeah. last thing i do before bed every night is go out and kill all the scorpions on the walls of the house. Don't really need a black light, just a headlamp. They're everywhere *L*......Mel
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Post by FrogAndBearCreations on Aug 22, 2012 15:33:11 GMT -5
maybe if you had an ultra violet light you would be amazed how many you don't see |
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Post by Bluesky78987 on Aug 22, 2012 16:05:50 GMT -5
Go take some blacklight pictures for us tonight! On my grand canyon rafting trip, the trip leader freaked us all out one night by walking around with a black light finding all the scorpions. One of them was about 3 feet from my sleeping bag. Took awhile to fall asleep that night.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2012 16:27:49 GMT -5
Maybe your wife just likes to get the exercise from all the jumping around. We had them in north central Texas also but not that kind of numbers. I found one here in Wyoming last summer and brought it home for a terrarium pet. They are few and far between here. I do not know what model they are though. Pretty small ones.
Jim
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Post by gr on Aug 22, 2012 17:52:59 GMT -5
Maaan! I just DO NOT like those things. If I lived where you do Mel, There would be a for sale sign in the front yard that day! Just the most wicked lookin bug on the planet! Not to many crawleys bother me but those do. Call me a weeney, I don't care Lol
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jason12x12
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since October 2011
Posts: 798
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Post by jason12x12 on Aug 22, 2012 20:45:22 GMT -5
172 wow.. cant tell who is winning lol theres power in numbers.
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Post by Woodyrock on Aug 23, 2012 1:05:31 GMT -5
Wow, that one is sure in much better condition than any MY wife has spotted! Most of them end as a damp spot in the dirt. She can get her rock hammer out faster than any fast draw shooter I have ever seen...and never misses. Hell, before I can focus my eyes on one, it has disappeared under the rock hammer.
Woody
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Post by tkrueger3 on Aug 23, 2012 21:26:48 GMT -5
172! That's a whole bunch of unpleasant hypos!
Mel, I heard someplace that with scorpions, as a general rule, the smaller the pincers, the more potent the toxin. Do you know if there's any truth to that? If that's true, then it might explain why these little Texas buggers feel like you got hit full force with an electrified roofing hammer!
Tom
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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 Aug 23, 2012 22:52:34 GMT -5
Tom: No real truth to that. As a matter of fact, a lot of the really deadly African species have big fat pincers. The two most dangerous species in the US are in the bark scorpion group and are both genus Centruroides with the Arizona species often being considered the most dangerous. The Striped Bark Scorpion of Texas is apparently a close second but is usually not deadly. Both these dangerous U.S species are slender, fast, and the characteristic I most notice is the forcep part of the pincer is long and slender, usually longer than the hand portion. Also, I've noticed that when really moving, these scorpions hold their pincers pretty much straight out in front but then all scorpions do that to some extent. Like mentioned above, if you do take out a black light especially in Arizona or Texas, you'd be shocked how many of these boogers are around. I was camped at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum doing research one summer and the buildings there were covered with Centruroides at night. So many here at the ranch that when I gather rock for my wife's various garden projects, I always wear gloves because scorpions are under almost every rock. Pain from a good sting is supposed to be like having a hot nail or screw driven into the sting site plus you never know how you're going to react to the venom. Some folks here have been stung so many times they barely react at all. Stings near the heart are often much more dangerous. Biologist friend of mine was hospitalized when a plain old northern Vaejovis ( common all over the west in the mountains and relatively non toxic) stung him on his bare belly when he was hauling firewood. Judging from my wife's reaction, I'll try to forgo the experience of a Bark Scorpion sting as long as possible but quite frankly, even taking precautions, it's gonna happen *S*......Mel
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herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
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Post by herchenx on Aug 23, 2012 23:19:30 GMT -5
The trip before last to central Wyoming, we got in late and were looking around after dark for stuff that was easy to spot and I about jumped out of my boots when a Whip Scorpion ran across in front of my light. I didn't even know scorpions could live that far north. It was small though - maybe an inch long - and I don't think they can do anything harmful to a human. Pic of a similar variety to what I saw: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hubbardia_pentapeltis_female.jpgI grew up in Georgia and in some areas there were little (<2") scorpions that would get you every once in a while, kind of like a hornet sting. I don't think my wife would take larger stingy things that close to where we sleep. |
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Post by rockpickerforever on Aug 24, 2012 9:32:50 GMT -5
I'm not normally into crawly things, but about 25 years ago, we used to have a dune buggy. We were out in the desert in SoCal, near Superstition Mountain, the sun had just gone down, and it was starting to get dark. I was driving said dune buggy away from camp, down a slight hill, when all of a sudden, I see a large tire go rolling past me! Yup, it was mine. The lug studs had sheared off on the bleft rear wheel. I was only wearing flip flops on my feet, as I wasn't planning to be out walking about.
My husband brought the trailer down, and we got the incapacitated buggy loaded back up. With the flashlight he brought down, I saw a large desert hairy scorpion roaming about where I had been standing. It was a big one, a good four inches long!
We took this guy (gal?) home, where it lived for several years in a large jar on the counter in our bathroom. We fed it crickets, mealworms and other bugs we found in our yard (we didn't and still don't use poison in our yard). It never stung either one of us, but then, we didn't take it out and handle it, either.
Strangest "pet" we ever had. I know from when we used to raise snakes and did the snake shows that people sold the big black Emperor scorpions as pets, but I just found that you can purchase the desert hairy scorpions online now. Jean
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grayfingers
Cave Dweller
Member since November 2007
Posts: 4,575 
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Post by grayfingers on Aug 24, 2012 10:38:48 GMT -5
Wow, one nice thing about living where it gets really cold is that we don't have very many venomous critters.
In the mountains here you can toss your bedroll out on a tarp under the stars without worrying about getting bitten by anything worse than a mosquito or a small spider. (Oh, I did forget about the grizzlies though)
Bill
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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 Aug 24, 2012 12:38:17 GMT -5
Jean: I had a Great Hairy Scorpion as a pet for years. caught mine in Arizona. They are slower moving so can be handled and their sting is very mild. Best low maintenance pet I ever had...Mel
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Post by rockpickerforever on Aug 24, 2012 15:54:50 GMT -5
Mel - It definitely got visitor's attention when they went to use the bathroom, lol! He was pretty neat looking. Not the strangest thing we've ever had in our house, though.
We picked up a large female Solomon Island Boa at a local pet shop. The only thing was, the store had been unable to get her to eat anything but birds. So they had been feeding her finches from their store stock. We got her with the hope we could switch her over to eating something else. But in the meantime, she still had to have her finches. A friend that worked at a different pet store, had someone call them, saying they had an aviary full of finches that needed to be thinned out. So she called me, and we took some nets, and got the job done. Probably brought home about 20 of the little buggers!
These were society finches, and until we could use them, they went into a cage, which was put on the counter in the same bathroom (though not at the same time). We went out one evening, and came home to find that we had forgotten to close the bathroom door, and one of our cats pulled the cage off the counter, the bottom separated from it, and we had finches flying all over the house, making their "beep"ing noise, when we got home. Bird droppings all over the drapes, what a mess! I don't believe the cat even got one, after liberating them. Poor kitty.
Oh, the memories... Jean
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Post by Pat on Aug 24, 2012 21:37:20 GMT -5
I understand that some scorpions fluoresce the same color as benitoite, the California state gem. They also hang out in San Benito County where the benitoite is found. If your rock starts moving...  |
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