Well is this little bugger poisonous

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

Was walking outside the workshop this morning and came across this little bugger





Now I have heard that these little men if they have large front claws, they are not poisonous?

Or it the ones with the small claws?

But I did not even try to pick the little fellow up, he was arching his tail into a tight curve as if ready to strike, thus I just let him go in some nice plants against the fence that is open to the fields with no other buildings.

[george]

Hi Simon.The ones with the small claws are more poisonous.
Just remember they are all poisonous.Some of them are just more lethal.
Rather avoid them

[astam]

At the risk of being pedantic, scorpions are never poisonous but often venomous. The difference being that poison usually refers to a toxin absorbed through the skin or stomach, while venom refers to a biological toxin (in the case of scorpions, neurotoxins, which affect your nerve cells) usually injected by a sting or bite.

With scorpions it's easy to remember which are more venomous than others. As George correctly pointed out, smaller pincers= higher venom,
or put differently, large pincers+small sting= less venomous (the logic is that with with bigger, stronger pincers the scorpion needs less powerful venom to kill its prey.) Conversely, small pincers+large sting=highly venomous (let the venom do all the killing work while the pincers just hold the prey down for support!)

Interestingly enough, the most venomous species in Southern Africa (apologies, the name escapes me) is in fact one of the smallest species and an untreated sting from a matchbox-sized scorpion can prove fatal.

As scorpions like warm, dark places, here is another good reason when hiking/camping to always check your boots/shoes before putting them on in the morning!

[george]

Thanks Adin for clearing it up.
I presume the one in the picture is thus not to dangerous?

[Niel]

Astam, first thing they told us in the army (Upington) check your boots....... some guys never listerned to the good advise. I never got a surprise. :D

[Scooter]

Thanks Adin for clearing it up.
I presume the one in the picture is thus not to dangerous?

That all depends on your definition of dangerous. I have first hand experience as to what a Mozambiquen yellow burrowing scorpion can do and believe me it is not at all fun.
A short story for the masses.
It was December 2004 and we had gone to Moz, Vilinculous to be exact, for the new year and a fair amount of quading and fishing. Anyway, alot of drinking and fun was to be had by all. The new year came and well abroken small toe on my right foot was my prize for the amount I drank, I swear the log jumped out at me.
Well it hurt either way and I figured that was the end of my troubles on holiday and I could still ride and fish, so who cared. Drink more said the mates.

Then two nights later at around 6, while still hopping around, I was braaing while the others were preparing the rest of the food, when I cried out with language that is not for public display. For an instant I thought I had stood on a hot coal but as I looked down, scurrying acroos and burying itself in the sand was a scorpion.

The bast@rd stung me and on the same foot as the broken toe, and while I understand it was only protecting itself, it was the worst pain I have ever felt. And by the way, I have a very high pain threshold. Anyway, as coincidence would have it, my mates had been talking about scorpions when I cried out. They came running to find me doing a little dance outside and they too thought I had stood on a coal.

Needless to say, the scorpion had burrowed itself and dissapeared. I sat down and waited, for what you ask, for the venom to work its way through me. Being a neurotoxin, it moves slowly through the body, affecting everything and giving me a feeling of pins & needles throughout my body from the waist down.
We called home to try find out what it was and came to the conclusion that if it was deadly I would not have time to get to a hospital for "anti-vemon", so we decided to wait and see.

I am alive to tell the "tail" and wiser for it. I was unable to walk for 4 days as the venom stayed in my system and caused serious headaches and whats worse, I couldn't drink, smoke or ride.

What I learnt: Wear sandles or shoes when walking in places you don't know, even on the beach. I say this because where I was standing on beach sand at the time of being stung.

We had also, earlier in the week, found a centipede strolling along on the beach and they are pretty poisonous too.

Unfortunately I didn'g get a pic of the bugger, as I was a bit pre-occupied with the pain but I found this one thanks to GOOGLE! The one that stung me was lighter in colour and matched the sand.

Scorpion.jpg (10.3 KiB) Viewed 1877 times

[Family_Dog]

Hell Scott... that was a nasty surprise. Not a very nice feeling knowing that you are well one second, and then possibly facing a painful death the next. I know the feeling, I was fine, but had an itchy mole on my chest some years ago. Had it removed, felt fine, until the biopsy report came in... malignant melanoma, 1.1mm deep. I never felt any pain, but had to go to hospital where they removed a 50mm chunk of my flesh on my chest. Looks like I have a built-in ashtray, and I don't even smoke.

But, hey! - I survived! We are a tough race, the human race.


-F_D

[Scooter]

F_D, that's definately not a nice feeling but I'm glad you are ok now. I guess I would rather live with an ashtray than not at all?

Like I always say, "I'm still walking". I had an opp last year that made me a legend of sorts in the hospital as I should never had made it due to the infection caused. But as you say we are a tough race and well even though im still recovering, im stronger for it. We can beat all odds if we want to. :!: :!: :!:

[Family_Dog]

Scott,

A positive way of thinking has a lot to do with it as well. Someone brought me a pile of Reader's Digests to read while I was recuperating in hospital, and one of the articles concerned a young Wits University student who also had MM. Sadly, it had progressed too far in his case and had already began to attack his other organs. He wrote the article up to his last few days, mentioning that he was on Morphine for the pain right up until the end, when a family member took over authorship of the article.

I still had never yet experienced any pain, but reading an article like this tends to make one realise just how fragile our tenantship on this planet of ours really is. That depressed me a bit, but the nurses were good. One nurse mentioned to me that she also had recovered from MM but then suffered a re-occurrence a few years later where it had also progressed to her internal organs. But she also survived - they caught it in time. I still go for annual check-ups although it probably is no longer necessary as I had the operation in 1992. But to this day, I cover up when out in the sun, I learnt my lesson - my own stupidity caused it in the first place.

-F_D