# Vinegaroons
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vinegaroons/19557
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 15, 2000, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vinegaroons/19557 "2000-05-15T12:48:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2000, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vinegaroons/19557/1 "2000-05-15T12:48:44Z")
When I was a kid, I found a creature in my dad’s house. It was flesh-coloured and looked like a spider. It was about two inches long. I was told it was a “vinegaroon”, but a quick search on the 'net showed a “whip scorpion” that didn’t look like what I saw (i.e., no “whip” and no claws that I remember on the thing I saw. Also, the colour was different).
Any idea what I may have seen? This was in Dagget, CA, in the Mojave Desert.
Also, the folklore I heard said that a vinegaroon bite will make the victim taste vinegar, but they’re not dangerous. I thought I heard that they emit a vinegar smell. What’s the Straight Dope about vinegaroons?
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### Author:  [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2000, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vinegaroons/19557/2 "2000-05-15T14:02:57Z")
Well, according to my quick search, [this](http://www.zoomwhales.com/subjects/arachnids/whipscorpion/Vinegarroon.shtml) is some quick SD on vinegarroons. Looks like the little spidery doodad you found was misidentified. Being totally unfamiliar with the fauna of the Southwest US, I can’t help you much there.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2000, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vinegaroons/19557/3 "2000-05-15T14:14:38Z")
While there is only one true vinegaroon in the U.S., several of the whip scorpions an wind scorpions are tailless and may have picked up the vinegaroon name by association (i.e., anything scorpion-like that can’t sting gets called vinegaroon). This is, admittedly, a WAG.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2000, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vinegaroons/19557/4 "2000-05-15T17:40:55Z")
There are links to pictures of wind-scorpions and whip-scorpions [here](http://www.ufsia.ac.be/Arachnology/Pages/A_pictur.html). You might check out [Solifugae](http://www.ufsia.ac.be/Arachnology/Pages/Solifugae.html) first.
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### Author:  [@junebeetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/junebeetle)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2000, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vinegaroons/19557/5 "2000-05-15T17:54:08Z")
I grew up in the Mojave desert and I often made acquaintance with such a creature. Check out [Sun Spiders](http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/PUBS/INSECT/05589.html)
- JB
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2000, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vinegaroons/19557/6 "2000-05-15T18:02:22Z")
Thanx for the links! This one [http://wrbu.si.edu/www/stockwell/photos/solpugid3.jpg](http://wrbu.si.edu/www/stockwell/photos/solpugid3.jpg) looks like the one I saw when I was a kid.