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| SCORPIONS FOUND IN MARIN COUNTY - DANGER? ELIMINATION? | We live in Novato and found a scorpion in the back of our leather chair on the ground floor. The ground floor has crawl spaces underneath. I looked at the picture and description in the Western Exterminator web page and it is definitely a scorpion, but more browning in color. Only the legs and stinger end of the tail are yellow. It is about 1 inch long. Should I have an exterminator spray insecticide in the house and in the crawl spaces? How can they be eradicated? How poisonous are they and what physiological symptoms could they cause? Help, I'm afraid of putting on clothes because I read that they hide out in clothes! (Thu, 14 Dec 2000) | Small scorpions are common in the parts of the bay area. Their sting is similiar to that of a bee sting unless you have an allergic reaction to the venom. Scorpions hunt at night and it is correct that sometimes they can be found in shoes, etc that left on the floor or outside the door. I suspect that it wandered in from outside via the crack under a door and you will not be bother by anymore. A good cultural control for scorpions invading homes is to simply eliminate entry points by using rubber molding under the doors, or by placing a towel down to block the gaps. |
| SCORPIONS IN MARIN - DANGER? | We got your email address
from the Citybugs website, and have a question for you.
We were recently shown an inch-long, yellow-brown
scorpion by someone who said he found it in his house in
Marin County. Are there scorpions in Marin?? And, if so,
are they dangerous, to human or companion animals? (Mon,
11 Dec 2000) Thank you for your response, this is such a great service! We couldn't find any information about what kind of scorpions might be in Marin, and you helped us a lot. People who saw the scorpion (still alive in a jar) thought it was dangerous and wanted to kill it. Someone suggested very authoritatively that the smaller the scorpion, the deadlier the sting. I'm glad we trusted our instincts and offered to release it in the woods. We hid the jar on its side in some Eucalyptus branches in a (hopefully untrafficked) part of Glen Park woods, and poked a hole in the thick paper-towel covering with a stick so the scorpion would have a chance to make it. Our concern was we sure didn't want a dog or child to investigate our little stash and get hurt. Thanks again for your information, and for being there at CityBugs. P.S. By the way, we did also find a photo of what looked like our scorpion if it's the right size) at a So. Calif. poison control site http://health.ucsd.edu/POISON/scorpion.htm that also suggests a sting from a native scorpion is not as scarey as we thought. |
Yes there are scorpions in Marin! There are scorpions throughout many of the warmer parts of the Bay Area where development has not wiped out their habitat. These small scorpions-if it is a native one- are not dangerous and might have sting the equivalent of a bee sting. They are generally not a problem and enrich the ecosystems in which they persist. Having said that, there are dangerous scorpions that people may keep as pets and it is possible that your friend ran across someone else's pet, so the best thing to do is to gently sweep the little creature up in a bag without touching it, and release it away from the house out in the woods. If it is a non-native one it will probably die and the native one will be happily at home. |
| PSEUDO SCORPION IDENTIFICATION | Can you tell me what this
insect might be? I tried to use your online system but it
did not come up with anything like this. This critter was
living under an old portable spa in Scottsdale, AZ. (Mon,
22 Jan 2001) IMAGE |
The creature is a pseudoscorpion - Class Arachnida: Order Chelonethida/ Pseudoscorpionida. I am sure that you will find information on the web using pseudoscorpion as a search term. Sometimes, these sorts of creatures make really cool pets - for the entomologically inclined. Oh by the way great digital image..... |