Scorpions are not Insects

[Tucson Grower]

Here in my yard in Tucson and over at my Mom's in Marana, among other things, we have scorpions. There are somewhere between 40 and 60 different species of them, here in Arizona.

I remember, as a small child, when our family would be passing through, on one of our many trips between the West coast and the East coast, stopping at one of the many rest stops off the highway. My brother and I, at night, with a flashlight, would turn over rocks to see what we could find. In the desert of Arizona, we'd often find scorpions. I found/find them to be fascinating creatures.

Now that I'm living here, I can find one almost whenever I wish, just by turning over rocks, scraps of lumber, or a piece of cardboard. One of the largest species in North America is native here, the Giant hairy scorpion (Hadrurus arizonensis). Though I could never find a Giant Hairy at my place, to my dismay. My brother was always finding them at his place, 18 miles NW of my place. I had him catch them in jars, then I would release them here at my place. Yaah, after doing this for almost 10 years, I recently spotted one of them roaming my yard at night.

Despite having such a diverse scorpion population, there is supposed to be only one truly deadly variety and it's supposed to be one of the smallest. I've seen them once in awhile, and though I've been handling scorpions since I was a child, I have not yet been stung even once.

[heavyhitterokra]

I think they make up for it by stinging me. I've been stung by scorpions several times in my life, usually by stepping on them or by picking up rocks from our fields and accidentally touching one on the underside of a rock. I had one fall off the ceiling in my bedroom that stung me 5 times before I could get out of the covers and turn the light on. One fell off the ceiling once and landed in a skillet full of hot grease while my wife was cooking supper.

The variety we have around here is called a striped Bark scorpion. We never go barefoot at night in our house because of scorpions.

One unique thing about scorpions is that they glow a bright green color under blacklight. I have a 100 cell LED blacklight flashlight that I use in summer to hunt scorpions. It also works very well for finding horned tomato worms at night.

[Tucson Grower]

heavyhitterokra, Sorry to hear about your receiving my portion of scorpion stings. It wasn't intentional, I assure you. Yep I did know of the black-light illumination. My sister-in-law lives in one of Arizona states 3 scorpion hot spots, they patrol their home every night with a black light flashlight. They often find them in their footwear.

bon, Was it you who really do not like these creatures?

Here is a linked-in photo of the large species-->

[heavyhitterokra]

I had never even heard of a Giant hairy scorpion until you posted that. It was very interesting to read about those. I learned something new today. I never knew what scorpions ate until I looked up the Arizona scorpion website.  I also never knew they had another set of eyes on their back.  God makes some cool stuff!

[heavyhitterokra]

I don't slap bugs in the dark anymore, that's for sure! I have my wife turn the light on now if I feel something crawling on me at night. One scorpion in the covers was enough to last me a lifetime.

[chrysanthemum]

We get bark scorpions in our house, too, though fewer this year since it was a less dry summer. I had been told when moving here to shake my shoes, but no one warned my about shaking bath towels. The first summer I lived here one got into my bathrobe which I didn’t know to shake. I tied it up onto myself after a shower one day and got five good stings before I knew what was going on and threw the robe across the room. Awful.

Now I’ll probably stay away from this thread because I will admit to a bit of a phobia regarding spiders and scorpions, and I don’t even like seeing a picture.

[Tucson Grower]

I must admit, being a beekeeper from the age of 9, I'm now 65, has probably modified how I think of insects/arthropods, and especially stinging ones. I've been stung by harvester ants, they have a venomous sting, similar to honey bees. And fire ants, who also have a hypodermic venomous sting, have stung me, en masse, on too many occasions. I like to work my own bees, primarily in shorts and T-shirt, though I do have the full regalia, when necessary, for problem colonies.

When working my bees, I am frequently stung inside my nose, on my lips, and on my fingers - when I am too clumsy and pinch a bee. Even my carefully nurtured European bees, there are sometimes guard bees that present challenges. Working them, without gear allows me a gauge of their natural temperament, permitting me better input for management decisions.

[heavyhitterokra]

Chrysanthemum,

Your bathrobe experience and the scorpion is similar to my bath towel and the fiddle back spider experience. When we first moved here, I didn't shake things out either. Then one day, I was getting out of the shower and grabbed a bath towel off the rack without shaking it out first. There's nothing quite like placing a towel to your belly with an angry spider balled up inside.

Fortunately, spider bites don't hurt anywhere nearly as bad as scorpion stings though. That experience that you had would be enough to give anyone a phobia. All the spider did to me was make a big red whelp, similar to a bee sting. It did get kind of scary purple and black in the center a few days later, but it never was very painful.

I can certainly relate to Tucson's nose stings though! I once had a red wasp fly up my nose while both my hands were busy with a coil of rope in our barn. My dad had sent me home from the field to fetch a big coil of 3/4" manila rope. The rope was hanging from the rafters, by a piece of old bailing wire. I had climbed on top of a bucket to reach it to untie the wire. Right when the coil of rope fell from the rafters, a red wasp flew up my right nostril and stung me on the inside of the nose.   By the time I got the rope to the hay truck, both of my eyes were swollen shut.

Dad, being of short temper, came to the barn a few minutes later, ready to stomp a mudhole in me for having taken so long to fetch the rope. Fortunately for me, he calmed down when he saw that I couldn't see to drive the truck back to the field.

[macmex]

Yikes Tucson! I learned beekeeping under the tutelage of old timers who wouldn't wear any protective gear, but I concluded that a veil is essential. Every now and then I'll forget to put it on and be working happily, thinking, "Man, it sure cooled off all of the sudden." But soon as I remember it, I put it back on. Been stung on the end of the nose and it dropped me in my tracks. There sure are a lot of nerves in ones nose!