Well, I think I probably had something happen to me today that no one else on this forum had.....I was stung by a scorpion this morning!

It woke me up right before dawn. Yep, in our bed. Felt a sharp pain above my knee, and knew immediately what it was. Quite a unique feeling. My initial worry was finding the little creepy crawler. Unfortunately the color of our bedding and carpet happen to allow a scorpion to blend in rather nicely. But, I did find him crawling next to my hand as I sat up. I automatically flicked it away, it flew and smacked into my computer monitor, thus rendering it a bit dazed and laying upside down. We promptly flushed it away.

A bark scorpion sting is quite painful. It's a burning, electrical stinging feeling that radiates from the sting site. The site itself is extremely unremarkable in looks. From the way it feels you'd think you are going to see a raw, open wound when you look at it, but it is not much more than a pin prick entry (it does have a small red bump for a few hours, but after that.....hardly a mark).
It's not fatal as some would lead you to believe, but it is not pleasant. Even though I have SEVERE allergies and asthma, including several anaphylactic episodes, this is not a systemic reaction, so I wasn't in danger of a breathing problem.

Obviously not flute related, but an interesting situation none the less. I'm just happy it didn't get me in the fingers or on the face!

On my gosh! And I thought those stupid flying water bugs were bad when I first moved to the south! I was so freaked out by all the bugs here. That is creepy! I bet you will always check your bed now before crawling in. I know I would! Glad you are okay.

Not quite like scorpions in my bed but this is a bad flea season up here. Insidious little vampires....

Yeah, I check my bed, shake out my shoes,shake out the towels, and yet I still get stung. It creeps me out that it was crawling around on me.
It's also really important to not reach into cupboards, under the bed etc. without watching where you are touching. Those little buggers hang around in the strangest places!

Getting scorpion stung ... in bed! What an awful experience.

I had a close encounter with a big black one many years ago, in a telecommunications mountain hut. We were forced to spend the night there because of a strong storm. But I was lucky enough because I saw the animal before going to sleep...on the floor

I have read somewhere that those little beast are somewhat shy and do not like show up when there is light in the place.

Could it be true or it's just another urban legend (or more appropriately, a desert legend)?

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OOPS
do not like show = do not like to show

sorry to hear that, not too many scorpions here in new york city, probably some bed bugs though...not to mention rats the size of cats and alligators in the sewers...

I see scorpions every day here in Tucson, and they are nasty little brown ones that pack a mean sting. I have never been stung, maybe because I spray poison around the house once a month to keep the little buggers out! I live on a golf course, so they have everything they want, crickets to eat, and rocks, and water. They are attracted to water, believe me, in a desert everything is attracted to water. They water every night on the golf course. I hate scorpions, but they are better than those little black spiders called Black Widows...those are dangerous if you ever get bitten or brown recluse spiders.

Not many scorpions here in Iowa either.. but definately doesn't sound pleasent!!

azflutist,
Yeah I live in the valley, and for some reason our neighborhood has cyclically dealt with scorpions. My folks live a mile away and have NEVER encountered one.

Lera,
Believe me, these scorpions ARE poisonous. They are a very painful sting that feels a lot like road rash, it feels like all of your skin has been scraped off of a very large portion of your body, and then all that is left is raw,weeping meat. But, it's actually all intact.

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arabians207: I'm originally from Iowa (Akron, Sioux City, Davenport, LeClaire, Cedar Falls, Marshalltown, Dubuque), and I definitely never saw scorpions there!

scorpians? i see them all the time here in michigan. theyre especially fond of the 13 feet of snow we get per month here in the winter...

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a=o

hi everyone my name is tatiana i am from puerto rico. im a flute major in puerto rico music conservatory. ive been readin the posts and will love to make friends and be a part of it please respond!!!

Hi Tatiana, welcome aboard.

This Forum works like this:

You can open a new thread by posting some interesting comment, question, or other amusing idea, the most related to flutes, the better.

Other members will answer your post and you will start making friends!.

Of course you can post in open threads, as you did in your first post. But the idea is to contribute to what's going on in the thread, just try to stay in the subject, if you can. (You will notice that sometimes we cannot...)

And enjoy!

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Or should it be "welcome on board"? Sorry, English is not may mother tongue.

Wow, scorpions are nasty, nasty, NASTY!

Make sure you flip your bed over and look to see if they are living under there. They hide under the bottoms of chairs, why not beds? Good luck with that.

I had a similar experience once. I was stung by a mon-o-war. If there is anyone who doesn't know what this evil monster is, it is soem kind of jellyfish that has a body that is blown up like a half-inflated balloon and tentacles that can go out around 25 feet in all directions. If yuo get a part of a tentacle touching you, it won't come off. It is like underwater super-epoxy. Inside the tentacle are little stingers that inject a horrible toxin into your body. The piece I got stuck to me was around 2mm long and looked like nothing but hurt like I stuck my hand in burning oil.

I am sorry but the thought of everyday having to speculate if I am going to go to sleep and have to be worried about a scorpion being in bed with me, literally send chills through me...acxgtrhrawt...I am sorry, I could not live where you live(no offense to you though)im just not used to something like that

Why in the world did this thread get resurrected?
As far as worrying about getting stung, every environment has something different, this one just happens to be scorpions. I haven't seen a mouse in the 20 years I've lived here, however, I saw them frequently in Iowa. Same thing with gnats, mosquitoes, house flies, etc.
Like I said, many people live here for years and never see a scorpion, I guess I just have been "lucky".