# Caught A Scorpion Climbing My Bedroom Wall Last Night **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 6, 2005, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623 "2005-05-06T00:11:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TwoTrouts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/21 "2005-05-06T13:23:19Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > I used to have a biology teacher who said she went out in the Mojave with a back light to find scorpons. Are Emperor scorpions indiginous to the Mojave? I also remember seening different scorpions glowing a the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I’ve actually done this out in the Mojave. I don’t think the glowing is limited to the Emperor scorpion, as we got the standard yellowish colored scorpions out there to glow. Here’s a [pic](http://zoltantakacs.com/zt/im/scan/inverteb/scorpion_8554-120.jpg) of one glowing. The spooky thing was that the scorpions would hang in low bushes about ankle or calf height. And I was walking through them in shorts! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/22 "2005-05-06T13:38:39Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Didn’t like it much. > Checked pillows and bedding before I went to sleep. > This is only the 4th scorpion we have seen in the house in 5 years. I’ve held tarantulas, petted them, and let them run across my back. I love snakes and have had them as pets. Mice? I trap them, and dispose of the corpse myself. Centipedes and scorpions both make me scream in terror and lose several years of my life. For a scorpion, I would also burn the house to the ground and run for it. _How can you be so calm???_ ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/23 "2005-05-06T14:07:06Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I know it’s not the solution you wnated to hear, but if I found a SCORPION in my house, I would move the family and pets out, put all the photos and special keepsakes in a duffle bag, pile it all into a car, move the car across the street, and burn the goddamn house to the ground. Holy shite that was funny! 😃 Thanks for the best (and only, come to think of it) laugh i’ve had this week **RickJay** ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/24 "2005-05-06T14:42:04Z")
I once spent a week rafting the length of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Some of our group slept in tents, but seeing as had perfect overnight weather, many of us didn’t bother. I used a sleeping bag, but since it was so nice out, I just laid on top of it. One morning, we woke up to find tiny tracks in the sand all around us. They were absolutely everywhere, including to and from everyone’s bedrolls. “Oh, they’re just scorpion tracks”, our guide told us. I thought there was a good chance he was yanking our collective chains, until I found a dead scorpion on my sleeping bag. Apparently, I had swatted and killed it in my sleep. :eek: I must say, though…as freaked as I am about spiders, I have no problem whatsoever with scorpions. Oh, and after that night, many more people decided to go through the trouble of setting up a tent. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/25 "2005-05-06T18:52:12Z")
> [@TwoTrouts](#): > > Here’s a [pic](http://zoltantakacs.com/zt/im/scan/inverteb/scorpion_8554-120.jpg) of one glowing. AAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH! Put a warning on that thing next time! _clutches chest and waits for heartbeat to return to normal_ ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/26 "2005-05-06T20:55:04Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > I just emptied a .45 into one from the safe elevation of an Army cot. What did the scorpion do? ---
**Author:** ![Tupug\_Anachi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/27 "2005-05-06T21:05:51Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > In Florida, we have the same issues with palmetto bugs, aka cockroaches. We get big ones, roaches you could spray-paint yellow and put in Easter baskets to pass off as chicks. But you could keep a perfectly clean, spotless house and never leave food laying out, and still find one scuttling around from time to time. I’ve seen a few in the house I moved into in December, and eventually stopped taking them as a personal affront to my housekeeping skills. I dislike huge roaches, but they just come with the territory when you live in Florida. Aye, yuh, and so do scorpions as I discovered many years ago when one stung me on the keester. Taught me not to leave my nightie layin’ on the floor for sure. About the same pain register as a small wasp and that was it. I didn’t die. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/28 "2005-05-06T21:07:55Z")
Do you own any cats? When my family lived out in the desert we had bunches of scorpions around at first. After adding free range chickens and about a dozen of the meanest damned cats on earth, the scorpion population was reduced somewhat. The chickens I’m not convinced helped with the scorpions directly, they may have simply eaten everything else and the scorpions didn’t come around. I’m just guessing there. The cats were definitely seen batting at scorpions but never ate much of them, I don’t think they appreciated the taste, just the entertainment. The big scorpions I was told (I’m no expert and the neighbor who educated us wasn’t either, so ymmv) aren’t as bad as their babies, the venom is more concentrated. An adult scorpion bite was likened to a really bad bee sting but usually not fatal or even worth a trip to the doctor. My dad stepped into a nest of maybe twenty young scorpions and they swarmed up to his knee in one pant leg. It swelled up to double it’s size, turned a purple blue that was almost black and after a couple of days dad conceeded he ought to have a doctor look at it. The doctor didn’t do much and sent him home to go through the healing process. Dad tucked his pants into his socks from then on. Coffee cans are good for putting over a scorpion. Just slide a thin cardboard underneath and then toss the whole thing out into the yard. After a bit you can collect the can and all is well once more. If you squish them they get guts everywhere. Bleck. And yard chickens are very in right now. Some dwarf auracanas would be quite spiff. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/29 "2005-05-06T21:30:26Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > It seems the best way to get rid of scorpions is to have chickens (they eat them) but I think my neighbors might look at me a little strange when they see a couple of chicken coups in the backyard. Cats will also eat the little buggers sans stinger. One of my past employees had two cats that would leave stingers all around her house, inside and out. Also, [Scorpion’s glow.](http://www.wonderquest.com/scorpions-glow.htm) ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/30 "2005-05-06T21:40:26Z")
> [@Yeticus Rex](#): > > Cats will also eat the little buggers sans stinger. One of my past employees had two cats that would leave stingers all around her house, inside and out. > > Also, [Scorpion’s glow.](http://www.wonderquest.com/scorpions-glow.htm) I am sure this will endear me with few, but I would rather have the scorpions than a cat in the house. I am going in search of a hand-held black light this weekend. Will do my Darth Vader impersonation at night, flashing my black light laser over the floor and in closets to see what alien scorpion forms I might find and destroy. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/31 "2005-05-06T22:14:55Z")
[Other methods of getting rid of scorpions.](http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/swest/msg122346418850.html) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/32 "2005-05-06T22:31:44Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > …chicken coups… I, for one, welcome our new feathered overlords… Desert-dwellers, how are these bugs getting into your homes, anyway? Are they able to squeeze through the tiny gaps under doors, or what? Could you keep them out if you rehung your exterior doors or installed those little rubbery strips on their bottoms? Are they able to climb up walls? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/33 "2005-05-06T22:52:21Z")
I just read the thread link posted by **Yeticus Rex** , and that had the answers to my questions. Gadzooks, scorpions are an awful thing to have to put up with! ---
**Author:** ![DirkGntly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/34 "2005-05-06T23:35:21Z")
Here’s an interesting tid-bit about scorpions. Put one in a jar and leave it in the sun (even on a cool day) and it will die. Ultraviolet light is their kryptonite - this is one of the reasons they run AT you in the daylight: they’re trying to get in the shadow under your foot, like they would a rock. ---
**Author:** ![Unregistered\_Bull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@Unregistered\_Bull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unregistered_Bull)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/35 "2005-05-07T00:56:02Z")
Found one in my bed when I was a kid. Lived on a small West TX farm/ranch that was thick with them. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/36 "2005-05-07T03:22:43Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > What did the scorpion do? :dubious: Died. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![stanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@stanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stanger)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/37 "2005-05-07T05:21:21Z")
Here in Central Texas, scorpions are fairly common in my house. Scorpions are very hardy critters and regular insect treatments don’t faze them much. I used to find about 20+ each year in the house - and that’s just the ones I saw. Often I will see them walking across the carpet at night, casting a shadow from the TV screen. They seem to be attracted to the light. I had an exterminator put a poison around the house and in the attic that acted as a stomach poison. It helped a fair deal, but had similar results with Mr. Scotts insecticide (scorpions noted in the bottle) sprayed around the house at the doors and windows. They crawl up the brick walls outside the house and get into the attic. Most of them come into the house from the small closet that houses the central AC and heating. They usually stay on the ground and hug the baseboards. In the spring and summer months, each morning I check the floors for scorpions and usually find one or two a week. I get them in the morning when it is cool and they are sluggish. I have been stung three times by scorpions that were in my bed. It will bring you out of a deep sleep real quick to be stung in bed. Twice I have woke up because one brushed past my nose while I was sleeping. Now I never let anything hang off the bed to the floor, never let the headboard get too close to the wall, and I always put my shoes somewhere off the floor. My main fear is stepping on one in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom. If that happens, I know that I will not be able to put on shoes or go to work the next day becasue of the swelling. And it burns like fire. I hate the little bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/38 "2005-05-07T05:21:38Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > What did the scorpion do? He’s coming right at us! _blam __blamblamblam__ bam_ ---
**Author:** ![Tixenfleaz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@Tixenfleaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tixenfleaz)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/39 "2005-05-07T12:46:47Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I know it’s not the solution you wnated to hear, but if I found a SCORPION in my house, I would move the family and pets out, put all the photos and special keepsakes in a duffle bag, pile it all into a car, move the car across the street, and burn the goddamn house to the ground. And if at all possible, nuke the neighborhood from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. Nasty little stimulus-response monsters! We hates them! ---
**Author:** ![Lola\_Granola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Lola\_Granola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lola_Granola)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623/40 "2005-05-07T16:09:13Z")
Living in Vegas myself, I have to say the little buggers scare the bejesus outa me. A few months ago Hubbie sprayed around the house for black widows. We get alot of them around the foundations of the house. Knowing that I scream and get all flustered when confronted by the little black crawly things, he brings out the poision and sprays every so often. Later that day, we decided to go out. I get my keys, and prepare to get into the car. A little brown thing on the ground, which I ASSUMED was cardboard… moved. I screamed. Ok, it was more of a gargled yelp. I jumped about two feet up, and three feet back. Hubbies eyes get huge, “What is it?” I manage to get out a “Thing! Moved! ARGGGG!” So what does my brave hubbie do? He comes over to my side of the car, says, “Oh. A scorpion.” and then procedes to STOMP on it. Numerous times. YUCK! Then there was the time one was lurking on a doorknob that I was reaching for… SHUDDER. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-a-scorpion-climbing-my-bedroom-wall-last-night/302623.md?page=1)