# A good reason to like spiders... (no spider pics)



## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

Ok, it's a good thing the board has censor software... well, I've calmed down a lot now, but it wouldn't have done to hear me when I found this thing in my house today! 

I hate spiders. (well, I did...) Since my daughter was old enough to get around I've worried about her gettin' ahold of one and gettin' bit. Well, that worry is NOTHIN' now compared to worryin' about her gettin' on one of these bad boys. Findin' this thing inside my house (in my master bathroom sink) horrified me for three big reasons...

#1- My kids! I'm horrified at the thought of one of my babies gettin' on one of these bad boys and gettin' popped. HORRIFIED!!!

#2- I don't want to get stung...

#3- MY KIDS!!!

After seein' this thing in my house I no longer care about havin' spiders. In fact I'd play with spiders if it would guarantee that no more of these things would come in around my kids. Did I mention I was horrified at the thought of one of my kids gettin' popped? 

For those of you that have had them, what gets rid of them? I'm callin' an exterminator tomorrow to see what they say. Need more input though. I can't co-exist with these around my kids if it's at all possible to get them gone. 

Oh, and ya know that now everything that touches me in the house is a...

SCORPION!!! 

I'd say sorry for the crappy pics, but to be perfectly honest my #1 priority wasn't good photos. It was makin' sure that little !@#$%^ didn't escape in my house! For what it's worth, it's dead now.


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## boneboy96 (Sep 20, 2009)

yeah, they don't grow to be more than an inch and a half or 2 inches.  I've never seen one bigger locally here.


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## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

boneboy96 said:


> yeah, they don't grow to be more than an inch and a half or 2 inches.  I've never seen one bigger locally here.



Well... this one "looked" 'bout 6 feet long when I first saw it.


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## DRB1313 (Sep 20, 2009)

Should have taken him outside with a black light and see if he glows
I would not want him in my house with the kids either.


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## HoytGirl07 (Sep 20, 2009)

I feel like I have creepy crawlers all over me now! That is something I have never had to deal with and I hope I never do. Roaches creep me out enough. When I was growing up the house I lived in was old and it was on 71 acres and every now and then(mostly when we bushhoged)we would come home to find a snake in our house. I do remember one time it happened and apparently it was a girl snake and she left her scent behind cause a couple of hours later we had like 20 snakes at the sliding glass door trying to get in. That was creepy!! I dont think I have ever been so scared in my life!!


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## FERAL ONE (Sep 20, 2009)

i may be a bit strange chris, but i like them things !!! not in the house mind ya but i do like them.  they are real prevalent after a new construction job  and if you have leaf litter or mulch near the house.   their sting is mild compared to a wasp . the big danger is the anaphilactic (sp)  shock  but that can come from bees , wasps and even fire ants.   and drb is right, they glow in a blacklight !!!    forgot to say cool shots !!!!


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## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

DRB1313 said:


> Should have taken him outside with a black light and see if he glows
> I would not want him in my house with the kids either.



I did think about that, and would have if I'd had a black light. Would be cool to get a photo of one glowin'!


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## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

HoytGirl07 said:


> I feel like I have creepy crawlers all over me now!



Yer tellin' me! Heck, everything that touches me now in my house is a scorpion in my mind!


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## redneckcamo (Sep 20, 2009)

gettin stung by a scorpion builds character  .!


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## cball917 (Sep 20, 2009)

i have them in my house. an exterminator will not get rid of them. dont waste your money. the best thing for them is clean your floors with whatever you usually use but mix it with vinegar. they hate vinegar. another thing is get some game chickens if you can. they will take a alot of them. scorpions love to wat termites so if you find a lot check for termites. i have been dealing with them for 2 years. they still give me the creeps


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## Razorback (Sep 20, 2009)

I've never seen one this not squished flat!

I've been hit twice by these guys...reel mild sting...lasted a few minutes then was over w/ a small red mark.  It felt like getting stuck w/ a sharp needle.

Razor


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## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

FERAL ONE said:


> i may be a bit strange chris, but i like them things !!! not in the house mind ya but i do like them.  they are real prevalent after a new construction job  and if you have leaf litter or mulch near the house.   their sting is mild compared to a wasp . the big danger is the anaphilactic (sp)  shock  but that can come from bees , wasps and even fire ants.   and drb is right, they glow in a blacklight !!!    forgot to say cool shots !!!!



To be flat out honest, if I had ran across this guy in the woods I'd have thought it a cool find, especially if I had the camera with me. Heck, if I had found it on my porch I'd still have considered it to be a cool photo op. It just freaks me out to think that they are runnin' around in the house with my kids.  

And are you serious about the sting bein' mild compared to a wasp? I've heard that these things put a sho'huff hurtin' on ya.  I don't want my kids stung by anything, but if they truly are mild compared to say a yellow jacket or wasp, it's not quite as freaky to think about it.


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## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

redneckcamo said:


> gettin stung by a scorpion builds character  .!



Ummm. ok.


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## FERAL ONE (Sep 20, 2009)

yep, true about the sting.     we have even had them fall out of our ac vent's when i lived in texas.  not a good way to wake up !!!


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## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

cball917 said:


> i have them in my house. an exterminator will not get rid of them. dont waste your money. the best thing for them is clean your floors with whatever you usually use but mix it with vinegar. they hate vinegar. another thing is get some game chickens if you can. they will take a alot of them. scorpions love to wat termites so if you find a lot check for termites. i have been dealing with them for 2 years. they still give me the creeps



That's the first one I've EVER seen anywhere around here, even as much as I'm in the woods. NEVER seen one before in person. Hopefully I don't have a true "infestation". I'm hopin' he just happened in and this isn't the start of a bigger problem. Will keep the vinegar in mind though.


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## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

Razorback said:


> I've never seen one this not squished flat!
> 
> I've been hit twice by these guys...reel mild sting...lasted a few minutes then was over w/ a small red mark.  It felt like getting stuck w/ a sharp needle.
> 
> Razor



This is good news... but I still hope the kids don't have to experience it.


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## cball917 (Sep 20, 2009)

my little one has been popped by one. she cried more then than when she thought she could grab a yellow jackets nest off a hand rail. i have not been popped yet but i feel its near.


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## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

FERAL ONE said:


> yep, true about the sting.     we have even had them fall out of our ac vent's when i lived in texas.  not a good way to wake up !!!



Well, I'd have to sleep to wake up. Not sure how that's gonna go tonight. Every little itch is gonna be a six foot scorpion.


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## Crickett (Sep 20, 2009)

redneckcamo said:


> gettin stung by a scorpion builds character  .!




I have character!


Yikes!!! Yeah that is not something you want to have around in your house. We don't have any (that I know of) in the house we are in now. Which really suprises me b/c this house was built in '88. The double wide that we lived in when we got married was brand new & we had these things EVERYWHERE. Alicyn was about 1 1/2 & she had a toy box in our living room. Her daddy chews tobacco & one day she picks something up off of the floor next to the toy box. I glance at it & tell her to put it in the trash assuming it was just a piece of tobacco that had fallen out of the pack. Well she says "Bug" so I look at it & scream in horror as I realized it was a scorpion. I quickly slap it out of her hand. It took me a few seconds to realize it was dead. I was so thankful. Those things can put a hurtin' on you like you've never felt. I sure did not want her to know that kinda pain.


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## Crickett (Sep 20, 2009)

Oh yeah as for gettin' rid of them. Try some moth balls. Toss them on the ground along the outside of the house & if you have a crawl space toss some under there. If you have a basement & don't mind the smell in the house you can put some in there.


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## Browtine (Sep 20, 2009)

Well, after some research and gettin' some good info on here, both in this thread and via PM, I'm not as freaked as I was. Seems to be fact that in general they usually only pack about the same wallop as a bee or yellow jacket. Not that I don't mind my kids gettin' stung, mind you. But I had in my head that these things were much more potent than they appear to be. 

Hopefully he was a lone straggler that just wandered into the wrong territory. Just gonna keep an eye out for now and see if any more turn up. If they start to be a problem I've got a good line on some competent help. 

Still not crazy about this... but I do feel better about things now. Aside from an alergic reaction, the kids should be fine if hit, aside from the short term effects similar to a bee sting. Much more tolerable to think about than my original thoughts about scorpions.


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## Crickett (Sep 20, 2009)

Just from my experience it was a LOT worse than a bee sting. My big toe swelled up & was black & blue for about a week. I had a hard time wearing my shoe b/c my toe was still so tender. I was a teenager when that happened & I NEVER want to be stung again. Dern thing got into my bed somehow & stung me in my sleep. The pain was so bad it woke me up. I immediately knew that I had been stung by one. I was hopin around on 1 foot tryin' to find the little critter.  Oh & boy did I find him.... he got squooshed flatter than a pancake. When I was done w/ him wouldn't nuthin' left but pieces.


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## GAranger1403 (Sep 21, 2009)

Generally the two scorpion species we have here in Georgia are harmless. Both the striped and the southern devil scorpion pack much less punch than the desert and old world scorpions. Generally it hurts less than a wasp sting and little worse than a bee. That being said some people have a severe reaction to foriegn enzymes and proteins in their body. I heard of a few cases of acute reactions to our scorpions venom. I know somone whose child was stung and actually had some minor nervous system reactions including uncontrolable jittering of the eyes for a few hours. Only a couple of fatalities have occured in the US from scorpions and both of those were from the desert bark scorpion. Unfortunately the are much more common than most people realize. I often take people on night hikes at the park and people are always freaked out by the amount of scorpions we find with a blacklight. Not uncommon to find 40-50 in an hour or so! If you have big pine trees around your property you have tons of scorpions, they especially love longleaf! They also can squeeze just about anywhere, if a dime can fit in a crevice so can both Georgia scorpions. I catch dozens of them a year and have been poped by several. To me they hurt alot more than a bee but less than a good wasp sting. In my opinion they do not pack the wallop of most of our larger spiders. I've been nailed  by house and wolf spiders and would take my chances with the little scorpions anyday!


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## GAranger1403 (Sep 21, 2009)

Not trying to make light of anyone's scorpion bites, like I said they do hurt! Im just saying most of our larger spiders have a more toxic venom and inject alot more of it!


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## Crickett (Sep 21, 2009)

That is some good info GAranger. Especially about the pine trees. We have several pines on our property.


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## Hoss (Sep 21, 2009)

Good shots of em Browtine.  Hate having those little critters in the house.  We used to have one show up now and then, but haven't seen any for several years.  

Hoss


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## Browtine (Sep 21, 2009)

GAranger1403 said:


> Generally the two scorpion species we have here in Georgia are harmless. Both the striped and the southern devil scorpion pack much less punch than the desert and old world scorpions. Generally it hurts less than a wasp sting and little worse than a bee. That being said some people have a severe reaction to foriegn enzymes and proteins in their body. I heard of a few cases of acute reactions to our scorpions venom. I know somone whose child was stung and actually had some minor nervous system reactions including uncontrolable jittering of the eyes for a few hours. Only a couple of fatalities have occured in the US from scorpions and both of those were from the desert bark scorpion. Unfortunately the are much more common than most people realize. I often take people on night hikes at the park and people are always freaked out by the amount of scorpions we find with a blacklight. Not uncommon to find 40-50 in an hour or so! If you have big pine trees around your property you have tons of scorpions, they especially love longleaf! They also can squeeze just about anywhere, if a dime can fit in a crevice so can both Georgia scorpions. I catch dozens of them a year and have been poped by several. To me they hurt alot more than a bee but less than a good wasp sting. In my opinion they do not pack the wallop of most of our larger spiders. I've been nailed  by house and wolf spiders and would take my chances with the little scorpions anyday!



Was hopin' you'd chime in. Thanks for the info. Goes along with most of what I found online. I still don't want to take a hit from one, but not as freaked as I was to begin with.


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