Scorpions are Monsters from the deep!

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ranger_ric

ranger_ric

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May 29, 2014
213
Midland TX
Pool Size
16500
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
I went out to hook up my Diver Dave vacuum this morning before work. I noticed in my Hayward Leaf strainer a scorpion. I studied him a bit and noticed that he was on the pump side of the leaf bag. So I thought "muhahahaha" I will hook it up and let him get sucked through the pump. Well we let Diver Dave work on the pool until lunch time (about 4.5 Hrs). When I go to disconnect and put everything up I notice the monster has grabbed a hold of the leaf bag and is still in there. He couldnt still be alive could he? As I pulled the bag out to clean it he starts crawling around. Holy ****!! How Long can these suckers stay submerged?? I have him in a glass jar and am going to "disinfect" him in some bleach shortly...
 
When we moved to AZ I decided to read up on scorpions because we have little boys and a newborn.

Scorpions are INCREDIBLY resilient. Unless you smash them under your boot (no open toes shoes as they can sting you around the open edge of your shoe), they are practically indestructible.

-there is no pesticide that kills them (accept stuff that would harm you as well)

-they can live for weeks without much food or water

-they can be submerged in water for several hours without dying

-they can fit through cracks as small as 1/8" thick

-the AZ bark scorpion's venom is painful with numbness and pain at the sting site lasting for as much as 30 days. Their venom can be lethal to infants and immune compromised adults

-Scorpions will aggressively attack anything that threatens them

I'll see if I can find the links but I remember reading that they can be placed in vacuum bell jars and survive for hours. I also remember that they can survive flash-freezing as well.

In short, those little monsters are nasty creatures left over from some prehistoric age.

And yes, they can survive almost anything but the underside of your boots.


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Casey said:
Ewwww. Glad we don't have them here.
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On the upside, they're definitely low in the food chain. Plenty of predators to keep them in check - Gila Monsters, Road Runners (meep meep!) and chickens are very good at pecking them to death (helps when you're immune to their venom). Javelinas will eat them too but they really prefer what's in your garbage can instead.


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SunnyOptimism said:
-the AZ bark scorpion's venom is painful with numbness and pain at the sting site lasting for as much as 30 days. Their venom can be lethal to infants and immune compromised adults
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My leg was only numb to mid-thigh and limping for 3 days after getting stung on the toe :shock:

It is an interesting neurotoxin where pressure like squeezing my foot/leg did not hurt, but lightly brush your hand along the skin and OOWWWW!!!!

Putting on socks was horrible, but once the shoe was on not too bad. :D
 
I used to live in a house with those around. I found a couple babies indoors, and an adult one on my porch. That one must have been mad about the sprinklers being on, because as soon as my dad opened the front door, it came storming inside. Now all I have to deal with are snakes and spiders.
 

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jblizzle said:
My leg was only numb to mid-thigh and limping for 3 days after getting stung on the toe :shock:

It is an interesting neurotoxin where pressure like squeezing my foot/leg did not hurt, but lightly brush your hand along the skin and OOWWWW!!!!

Putting on socks was horrible, but once the shoe was on not too bad. :D
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I read that U of A medical center works with a Mexican pharmaceutical company to keep a stockpile of the antivenin (very limited supply due to foreign company). Apparently the only US company making it decided to cease their production in 2011.

So, while you can get the antivenin for a child, healthy adults just have to muscle on through the pain.

Also, some folks are a lot more sensitive to the neurotoxin than others. As well, scorpions don't always give you a full dose so there's simply no way to know how bad you'll get stung. Sounds like you got a feisty little one that got you good.


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ThinkPad said:
I used to live in a house with those around. I found a couple babies indoors, and an adult one on my porch. That one must have been mad about the sprinklers being on, because as soon as my dad opened the front door, it came storming inside. Now all I have to deal with are snakes and spiders.
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Freakiest thing ever is finding one of the mommy scorps carrying her nasty little brood of a dozen of those things on her back. Looks like a "fuzzy" scorpion until you get close enough to see what it really is. Bad part is if you scare the mommy all the little babies will go running in 12 different directions...it's like a scorpion explosion :eek:


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Beens said:
Been there, done that. ..but with wolf spiders. And they carry hundreds of creepy little babies.

Dear Lord please let me never experience that again.
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Ahhhhh yes... the wolf spider. I work at an abandoned mine and I have a BROWNING cammo lunch bag I take to work and look who hitch hiked home with me a couple weeks ago...



Those little specks are babies. It's funny because I had my hand in that bag, in the dark, through the night getting my drink and when I got home, I put my ice packs back in the freezer... I had baby spiders frozen solid on my ice packs when I went to put them back in the bag. That's when I found Momma. EWWWWWWW. Makes me wonder if I ate any. :mrgreen:

For anyone freaked out by spiders... You're welcome! lol
 
Casey,

Oh no girl!! You did not just try to one-up us on spiders???

Out here in the SouthWest, we got spiders that'll eat your little wolf spiders for breakfast....then they'll come knocking on your front door and swagger right on in....I'm talking spiders you can't step in cuz they'll just push you right back!!

:p

Peace!!


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I opened my little outdoor plastic container/shed to get out my robot a couple years ago and saw a big black widow sitting proudly in a web on top of the cleaner ... then I noticed the hundreds of tiny spiders all over the web throughout the container. :shock: Busted out a can of bug killer and went to town on all the babies and smashed the mother. Certainly do not need all those guys growing up around my house ... I find plenty already.
 
jblizzle said:
I opened my little outdoor plastic container/shed to get out my robot a couple years ago and saw a big black widow sitting proudly in a web on top of the cleaner ... then I noticed the hundreds of tiny spiders all over the web throughout the container. :shock: Busted out a can of bug killer and went to town on all the babies and smashed the mother. Certainly do not need all those guys growing up around my house ... I find plenty already.
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Black Widow sting = ooooowwwww! That hurts like mother....

Brown Recluse sting = "ok dear, time to go to the hospital before my hand goes necrotic and rots off into gangrenous stump..."




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My backyard has a spider problem. There are always dead spiders floating on the surface of my pool water, and live ones sitting at the bottom of the pool. Once there was a spider web with a spider on the underside of my skimmer basket lid. Just yesterday there was a decent sized spider stuck in one of the holes of my main drain. We've destroyed at least three large spider webs over the past month in our backyard.
 
ThinkPad said:
My backyard has a spider problem. There are always dead spiders floating on the surface of my pool water, and live ones sitting at the bottom of the pool. Once there was a spider web with a spider on the underside of my skimmer basket lid. Just yesterday there was a decent sized spider stuck in one of the holes of my main drain. We've destroyed at least three large spider webs over the past month in our backyard.
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You have a very "healthy" backyard! I posted stuff like this in another thread, but spiders, while ugly, are actually quite beneficial to your OUTDOOR environment (once they cross that threshold to the INSIDE of your home, you are the apex predator and the law of nature takes over).

You live in FL so without those healthy spiders around just imagine what kind flying insect CRAZINESS you'd be in. I hear the Mosquitos need FAA clearance to fly around there :)



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