East Texas

[Devil'sRival]

Will someone point me to a good place to find C. vittatus in East Texas? I'm in Liberty and looking for somewhere within 1-2 hours from me. I went to San Antonio and struck out on the one day I had to look for them and won't be going back any time soon. If there's a place that also has decent hiking and camping, that would be great. I want to get my kids out in the woods more.

I plan to buy a black light and have several long tweezers. Any certain containers y'all like for field collecting or other things that are useful? What are the best months to go out?

 

[Galapoheros]

I'm surprised you haven't found them in your house there. They should be in any natural wooded area around there, I'd go to the national forest just north of you. You should find them at night right now and prob to September.

 

[Devil'sRival]

I've lived in the area for years and have never seen a scorpion. I honestly thought they were all in West Texas. I've read some of your older posts about finding 30+ and wish I could come across that many. Which national forest? I was thinking about trying Livingston but don't want to make that drive for nothing.

 

[Galapoheros]

Yeah I'll never forget that. I was on some land close to the Navasota River, turned over a log, it broke up a bit and they were running all over the place. I bet I could have grabbed 50 of them out of that log. I know where that spot is to this day. I usually see 2 to 5 together so that was new to me and I've been turning over rocks and logs for 45 years, not every day though haha. Actually I haven't looked around for anything this year, I have the stuff I want. But yeah, "anywhere" there is a natural area there in east tx, there will be vittatus, they range into Louisiana. There is some cool stuff in e. tx, I'd go with an attitude about finding anything, not knowing what you might find. There are cool salamanders there, giant beetle grubs, cool snakes like the Louisiana milksnake. Yeah, Lake Livingston, The Big Thicket, places like that, public areas of course, anywhere over there you will find scorpions and who knows what else. If you live in one of those cookie-cutter subdivisions where there's saint augustine grass in all the yards, that's the reason you don't see scorpions and other things, other than a lot of toads when it rains. People have controlled the area, the neighbors spray and put out insect bait, scorpions don't have much of a chance in those areas.

 

[Devil'sRival]

I despise cookie cutter subdivisions where you can hear your neighbor fart the houses are so close. I've hunted bugs and reptiles my whole life and it's always fun no matter what I find. My kids are suspicious now when I tell them to grab something. I got two of them on different occasions to catch a mole cricket. They didn't find it as funny as I did. I pulled a rather docile 4' rat snake out of the chicken coop a few nights ago. When I get a black light I'll take it to my property in the Trinity river bottom and see if anything glows. I should have a free weekend soon so I'll definitely head to Lake Livingston with the family. The one thing I really wanted to find in San Antonio was a Heros castaneiceps.

 

[Galapoheros]

Hate'em too, might as well get an apartment. I really like the Trinity area, gets a bad rap from central Texans and I won't deny there are some "rough people areas", ...spotty. I was looking at houses one time along the Trinity, south of Lake Livingston and ended up in an area that looked like it was straight out of the Deliverance movie. Some older lady invited me in her house and told me she was scared haha, man that was an experience but I like a lot of the areas over there, big trees, a lot of water and creeks, good soil to grow things. Chicken coop?, yeah if you have one or more of those, seems a little strange you haven't seen a scorpion. I see them more when I'm not looking for them, it can all go that way. Especially Heros can be hard to find and you can even find them in e tx but it's rare, I've only read reports and know somebody that found one around Galveston, on one of the barrier islands. There aren't many but I've seen some rocky outcrops in e tx, I can't remember where I found them, seems like it was south of Crockett somewhere, it surprised me, that kind of terrain is where you might find heros. I know they can be found at Somerville. I might find 5 of what I'm looking for in a day, then I may have several days in a row of finding nothing.

 

[TheScorpionMan]

I despise cookie cutter subdivisions where you can hear your neighbor fart the houses are so close. I've hunted bugs and reptiles my whole life and it's always fun no matter what I find. My kids are suspicious now when I tell them to grab something. I got two of them on different occasions to catch a mole cricket. They didn't find it as funny as I did. I pulled a rather docile 4' rat snake out of the chicken coop a few nights ago. When I get a black light I'll take it to my property in the Trinity river bottom and see if anything glows. I should have a free weekend soon so I'll definitely head to Lake Livingston with the family. The one thing I really wanted to find in San Antonio was a Heros castaneiceps.

Man i've seen about 5-10 heros castaneiceps in my life living in the San Antonio region. I only managed to capture 2 though throughout my efforts. When i was in Tyler tx i found some polymorpha. Im not sure how far that is in relation to you

 

[ErinM31]

I believe they are all over the state and I can assure you that they are abundant in San Antonio although I cannot say when and where they are found besides occasionally in my apartment when it's especially hot out!

The most I've seen in the wild was last June in Burnet. I was looking for a particular species of cockroach and under almost ever rock I turned up a scorpion!

 

[Devil'sRival]

We have some of those rough areas around here. River rat is a common term and they come out into society occasionally. We're looking for a house right now and some really nice houses are in areas I don't want to live. I'm not looking at junk cars while a one eyed dog barks at me every day. I asked my dad if he'd seen any scorpions around here and he said very few and it's been years. They must not be prevalent quite this far south yet. I looked around the Guadalupe River while we were that way and didn't find anything. I think it was too hot and the kids were too tired and cranky to stay till dusk. My expectations about finding a heros weren't high but it would've been great.

Hate'em too, might as well get an apartment. I really like the Trinity area, gets a bad rap from central Texans and I won't deny there are some "rough people areas", ...spotty. I was looking at houses one time along the Trinity, south of Lake Livingston and ended up in an area that looked like it was straight out of the Deliverance movie. Some older lady invited me in her house and told me she was scared haha, man that was an experience but I like a lot of the areas over there, big trees, a lot of water and creeks, good soil to grow things. Chicken coop?, yeah if you have one or more of those, seems a little strange you haven't seen a scorpion. I see them more when I'm not looking for them, it can all go that way. Especially Heros can be hard to find and you can even find them in e tx but it's rare, I've only read reports and know somebody that found one around Galveston, on one of the barrier islands. There aren't many but I've seen some rocky outcrops in e tx, I can't remember where I found them, seems like it was south of Crockett somewhere, it surprised me, that kind of terrain is where you might find heros. I know they can be found at Somerville. I might find 5 of what I'm looking for in a day, then I may have several days in a row of finding nothing.

 

[Devil'sRival]

We were staying in a hotel downtown. I guess I should have walked around the building at night looking for them but wasn't sure how that would look.

My kids and I found around 10 Suriname roaches while digging through our rabbit pellet compost pile. I kept them for a week but didn't find any more so I just let them go back in the pile. We have the opposite problem but I don't have to worry about being stung.

I believe they are all over the state and I can assure you that they are abundant in San Antonio although I cannot say when and where they are found besides occasionally in my apartment when it's especially hot out!

The most I've seen in the wild was last June in Burnet. I was looking for a particular species of cockroach and under almost ever rock I turned up a scorpion!