The Bad in Arizona by Marion Ekholm

I was relaxing in my chair in my living room when I noticed a slight discoloration in my beige rug. When I got up to check it out, I found a scorpion about an inch and a half long, just a little darker than the rug. I got my pinchers and picked it up, deposited it in a plastic container and quickly put on a cover. Mr. Scorpion did not appreciate it and zoomed wildly around the airtight container. Days later, I still wasn’t sure if it was dead even though it no longer moved. Do scorpions have lungs and require oxygen? Ten days later I opened the cover to take his picture. No food, no water, no air, and he was still alive. Scary.

 

I’ve had some experience with scorpions in the past, so even though I loathe them, I know what to do. I’ve been bitten twice, both times in the foot. The first time I was taking the trash out at night, in the dark in my bare feet when I was new to Arizona. Talk about stupid. I didn’t see the culprit, but felt the sting – and felt it for several hours after that. I called poison control and found it wasn’t necessary to go to an emergency room unless my condition worsened. The pain is very distinctive, pulsating in and out. Aspirin or Tylenol can be taken for relief, and it was also suggested that I get a Tetanus shot, which I did.

The second time I was stung, I was barefoot again, but this time in my bedroom. This scorpion we caught and killed. Twenty plus years at that house and I only came across two scorpions. My new apartment has had two sightings in five years. The first time my son was visiting, sleeping on a mat on the living room floor when something crawled on him. When he turned on the light, he found the scorpion. These creep him out, but it didn’t bother him at all when he went searching for tarantulas in the desert.

He and a friend thought they’d find desert tarantulas and sell them. He found one hairy dark fellow under a rock, brought it to his sister’s apartment and deposited it in a small barred cage meant for mice. But when he went to show his sister, no tarantula sat in the cage. He was in mortal danger. Not from a tarantula’s sting, which isn’t as lethal as a scorpion’s, but his sister was furious. She taught Wing Chun and had broken a wooden dummy with her blows. He managed to make a quick exit. Two weeks later she found the tarantula under some clothes.

Although scorpions and tarantulas exist here, they aren’t too much of a problem. Just remember to wear shoes!  And check those shoes before slipping your feet into them!