Scorpions

[rezman]

Anybody out there having an issue with scorpions around their place? . I used to see some now and then, but over the last two years, there's been an increase in scorpion activity around our house. It usually starts with seeing one or two in the house. No big deal, just get the fly swatter and BAM!. But when I do see them, I started hunting them on the outside of the house and find more around the perimeter of the house, and crawling up the sides.

Monday night, after finding a couple more in the house, I went out on a hunt and killed 34 of them around the outside of the house. Tuesday morning while it was still dark, I went out and killed 11 more. Last night, around 8:00pm I went out and killed 20more, and at about 10:30, killed another 10. ... all just around the perimeter of the house.

In order to do my hunts, I went out and bought a battery powered black light, which makes the scorpions glow bright green and very easy to spot at night.

Just wondering if any one else is experiencing the same thing.

[RadicalModerate]

That is downright creepy. I've only encountered maybe a dozen scorpions in my entire life.
What you are experiencing seems to be like something out of a Stephen King movie.
(shudder)

We once did some remodeling work on a small lake house by Lake Texhoma (in McBride) that was infested by about a billion wasps and that was disturbing enough (i'm allergic to bee and wasp stings) but scorpions . . .
(cringe)

[ThomPaine]

I'm sorry, this is the first thing I thought of for some reason. Your house may be on an ancient burial ground! Yikes!

[RadicalModerate]

I'm sorry, this is the first thing I thought of for some reason. Your house may be on an ancient burial ground! Yikes!

That was the first thing I thought of too! This was the second thing:

"We do spiders AND scorpions . . ."


Rezman: If I'm not mistaken, didn't you once say that you live out there around Arcadia or Luther or Jones or someplace in that vicinity?
Maybe all those earthquakes have disturbed The Mother Lode of Scorpion nests . . .
(just kidding . . . I hope . . . [insert Theremin arpeggio] )

Edited to Add:
Came across this working a Cryptoquote the other day:

“The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately.” — Thomas Paine

I guess he was right. Yet it should be common sense that he would be. =)

I think THEY should be forced to change the name of that word puzzle from "Cryptoquote" to something less scary. =)

[kevinpate]

We've seen one scorpion in a couple of years. Maybe it hitched a ride one day when I was in OKC. Now, spiders ... they've been everywhere this year, in large, large numbers, and various types. More this year than probably the previous 5 or 6. It's been disturbing to my lovely and a new neighbor due to the sheer numbers. On a brighter note, due to all the extra practice, her aim has sure improved.

[RadicalModerate]

And what about the CRICKETS ????

(that's the Franklin Gothic Font, btw)

If I were going on a scorpion hunting expedition, I'd be sure to be carrying a pair of sharp scissors along with the blacklite flashlite.
This way, you can remove the dangerous part of the creature and allow it to continue to lead a peaceful life in the surrounding environment, doing whatever scorpions do besides creeping out humans.

Of course, then you might be opening yourself up to attacks by P.E.T.A. . . .
But what do they know about plagues of scorpions, running amok, unchecked?

[rezman]

... This is all good stuff guys. .. and I have noticed a correlation between the presence of scorpions and the absence of crickets. AND visa versa.

It's an intermittent deal, and like I said, it's not a problem inside the house. A couple sneak in through a crack, just like any other bug, and when I take a look around outside, I'm amazed at what I find.

The last time was during the summer, same thing. Hunted them for a couple evenings, each night the numbers would be smaller, and then no sign of any.

Along with my black light, I carry a long flat blade Craftsman screwdriver.

Hey Rad, doesn't P.E.T.A. stand for "People Eat Tasty Animals"?

[RadicalModerate]

... This is all good stuff guys. .. and I have noticed a correlation between the presence of scorpions and the absence of crickets. AND visa versa.

It's an intermittent deal, and like I said, it's not a problem inside the house. A couple sneak in through a crack, just like any other bug, and when I take a look around outside, I'm amazed at what I find.

The last time was during the summer, same thing. Hunted them for a couple evenings, each night the numbers would be smaller, and then no sign of any.

Along with my black light, I carry a long flat blade Craftsman screwdriver.

Hey Rad, doesn't P.E.T.A. stand for "People Eat Tasty Animals"?

If P.E.T.A. doesn't stand for that it ought to.
(of course, P.E.T.A. doesn't stand for much of anything as near as I can tell)

Ever heard that old saying involving circumstances and yellow citrus fruit?
How about . . .

"If Life Hands You Scorpions . . . Make Belt Buckles."

Why . . . Folks might think that you are, like, an Environmentalist Motivational Speaker or sumpin'.
Might even be able to sell a few at a P.E.T.A. convention . . .

In addition to that "Life-Guide" and salute to "Carnegiean Capitalism" engraved along the top edge of the buckle, you might consider
"What's YOUR Sign?" or "What's In The Wallet of YOUR Subconscious?" along the bottom edge.
(sort of a zen-like, yin/yang, power of positive thinking deal . . . but I can't be sure.)
I hope that the screwdriver you carry with you on your nightly safaris is metric and properly licensed.
(and if you run across a scorpion with a name tag that says "Phil" abandon all hope because he'll probably ask for his screwdriver back . . . oh. you said "flathead" . . . be on the lookout for rogue catfish. especially the cricket eatin' kind.)

[RadicalModerate]

Did someone say something about "Crickets"?
Don't be dragging us into this mess . . .

(and when we say "us" we don't mean that dude, with the glasses, on the left)

[Sonny_Crockett]

The only Scorpions I want to see are the ones from Germany!!

[venture]

I've noticed more this year than in the past. Normally would get maybe 1 or 2 in the house per year. This year probably have caught 8 or 9. Most seem to get through the small space around the doors. Glue traps seem to keep them from surprising me though.

[RadicalModerate]

I've noticed more this year than in the past. Normally would get maybe 1 or 2 in the house per year. This year probably have caught 8 or 9. Most seem to get through the small space around the doors. Glue traps seem to keep them from surprising me though.

They may be fine for renegade scorpions (and the occasional cricket), yet how well do the "Glue traps" work for wandering glue?
(sorry, amigo--if i may call you that, without appearing to be overly presumptuous--yet, sometimes, i find the weather charts with the hieroglyphics just about that confusing. =)

f.y.i. In my experience, even one scorpion in the house is not normal. Huge grass spiders, wandering June bugs and even a 15 year cicada . . . meh, i say. par for the course . . . even one tiny scorpion. not normal. =)

[ctchandler]

I always have scorpions, where I have lived since 1975, but it is a rough acreage. I have killed four so far this year. I also have brown recluse spiders, and all kinds of stuff. Heck, my son was bitten by a scorpion and it was just a mild sting. He will tell you that a wasp sting is a lot worse. I even remember seeing them in the house when I lived in a residential area in the early 70's. If there are open lots, undeveloped land anywhere near, the chances are, there are scorpions and they seek cooler areas (air conditioned houses) in the hot summer.
C. T.

[ThomPaine]

I always have scorpions, where I have lived since 1975, but it is a rough acreage. I have killed four so far this year. I also have brown recluse spiders, and all kinds of stuff. Heck, my son was bitten by a scorpion and it was just a mild sting. He will tell you that a wasp sting is a lot worse. I even remember seeing them in the house when I lived in a residential area in the early 70's. If there are open lots, undeveloped land anywhere near, the chances are, there are scorpions and they seek cooler areas (air conditioned houses) in the hot summer.
C. T.

Thanks, I was just going to ask how bad the sting was.

[RadicalModerate]

The "badness" of stings is, i'm sure, relative to one's tolerance for the venom contained therein.
Wasp and bee stings hurt a little (and are potentially fatal to this recipient of that imaginary sting.)
Missing the scorpion and plunging the screwdriver into your hand (or smashing one of your fingers with the hammer) actually is, in reality,more painful.

Note that scorpions are not noted for their bite.
They are noted for their sting.
(and when they have stung you into immobilization, only then do they begin to actually "bite" . . .)

[stick47]

We have a Millipede plague out on the West side. Have about thousand little dirt hills in the back part of the acre where they hatched out of the ground. Been treating the perimeter but still get a few inside now & then.

[ThomPaine]

The "badness" of stings is, i'm sure, relative to one's tolerance for the venom contained therein.
Wasp and bee stings hurt a little (and are potentially fatal to this recipient of that imaginary sting.)
Missing the scorpion and plunging the screwdriver into your hand (or smashing one of your fingers with the hammer) actually is, in reality,more painful.

Note that scorpions are not noted for their bite.
They are noted for their sting.
(and when they have stung you into immobilization, only then do they begin to actually "bite" . . .)

I hate you.

[RadicalModerate]

We have a Millipede plague out on the West side. Have about thousand little dirt hills in the back part of the acre where they hatched out of the ground. Been treating the perimeter but still get a few inside now & then.

Millipedes are, like, about ten times worse than centipedes.
(yet it takes at least ten hundred millipedes to equal one scorpion)

Now, the dreaded earwigs (on the other hand . . .)

That being said . . . THIS is what we REALLY need to be looking out for:


Now . . . Imagine Scorpions on dope.

[GaryOKC6]

OK, Where do you get the portable black light. I see them occasionally at my lake house and I have heard that you can go outside and kill them. I usually use the RAID foggers every couple of months and they kill scorpions. I would like to buy yhe black light for amusement at the lake.

[rezman]

You can get them at Spencers in the mall.

I attached mine to the end of a broom stick and walk along as if using a metal detector. Don't forget to scan up the walls. Scorpions like to climb too.Their bodies fluoress under the black light and glow a bright lime green.

[GaryOKC6]

Great thanks for the info.

[OKCisOK4me]

Darnit! I thought this was going to be a thread about the band!

[rezman]

Here's a quick shot of one at night with the black light. Not high quality because it was trying to get away.