# What to do with bark scorpions?



## genzo22 (Oct 8, 2007)

*What to do with bark scorpions? Centruroides exilicauda*

I am new to the boards here and have a question about bark scorpions.  The woman that I have been dating for a while has found a total of 37 bark scorpions in her house in the last 2 years.  Last night we decided to go into her backyard and see how many we could find with a blacklight.  She has been told that her neighborhood has the 2nd highest scorpion population in our city.  Well we found 25 of them in about 1 hour.  Now being that we both have small kids that enjoy playin in the backyard I am trying to figure out something to do with them after I capture them.  I do not know if people buy them or if they have any medical use at all.

I do not want to keep the scorpions and I do not want to kill them either.  I figure if people buy them or they have any other use it would be nice to know.

Thanks


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## Cyris69 (Oct 8, 2007)

genzo22 said:


> I am new to the boards here and have a question about bark scorpions.  The woman that I have been dating for a while has found a total of 37 bark scorpions in her house in the last 2 years.  Last night we decided to go into her backyard and see how many we could find with a blacklight.  She has been told that her neighborhood has the 2nd highest scorpion population in our city.  Well we found 25 of them in about 1 hour.  Now being that we both have small kids that enjoy playin in the backyard I am trying to figure out something to do with them after I capture them.  I do not know if people buy them or if they have any medical use at all.
> 
> I do not want to keep the scorpions and I do not want to kill them either.  I figure if people buy them or they have any other use it would be nice to know.
> 
> Thanks


Arizona bark scorpion (Centruroides exilicauda) ?
http://phoenix.about.com/od/arizonapicturesandphotos/ig/Arizona-Bark-Scorpions/index.htm

I'm not very knowledgeable of many scorpions just wanting to check.

I'm sure people would like to adopt or buy some.


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## genzo22 (Oct 8, 2007)

Centruroides exilicauda

Yeah that is the one.  Depending on how things go it would be a very large scale that I would need to get rid of them on.  Not only did I see the 25 in her yard I saw just looking over the neighbors wall with a black light another 5 of them.  Like I said before with young kids running around in the backyard I do not want to have one of them get stung.

I am a bit confused though as to why they like the neighborhood so much.  She lives in the middle of a huge neighborhood with no washes nearby and no open desert nearby.

Thanks for the reply, if anyone knows what to do with these scorpions on a pretty big scale please let me know.


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## Cyris69 (Oct 8, 2007)

Go over to the classifieds http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/forumdisplay.php?f=24

Sell them there, just get an idea of pricing and go from there or just adopt them out.

I wouldn't mind having one. I'm not 100% on that but thinking about it, that and I couldn't afford one and the shipping at the moment


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## genzo22 (Oct 8, 2007)

Thanks for the fast response.  I will check out the classifieds and get a feel if people would want them on a large scale or not.  If people seem interested then I would have to capture and sell all within a day or 2 because I really don't want to have to take care of scorpions while trying to find a buyer.


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## Cyris69 (Oct 8, 2007)

Then sell them cheap or give them away and charge for shipping.

You could turn a nice profit if not all at once, just go get some crix and feed them till you sell them all since they are free from your back yard.


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## TheDill (Oct 8, 2007)

make sure you got something for them to hang upside down with like a piece of wood, when molting bark scorpions like to hang upside and use gravity to aid them..


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## ~Abyss~ (Oct 8, 2007)

I would want some but like some people here im also on a budget right now.


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## Bear Foot Inc (Oct 8, 2007)

I'd say leave them there, as fast as you remove them, more will be there to fill there place, just edjucait the kids on them and remove them from your house.

I found this on a good site 



> This is what spark a small research on my own ending with Dr Stockwell strongly worded but highly enlightening insights with the more recent publications. No death from this species has been recorded in Arizona since 1968. The Arizona State University claims it to be the success of their anti venom but it is more probably due to less use of inappropriate treatments like injection of potent opiods. The use of this species as a 'scapegoat' seems to arise since Stahnke (1928) who's researching on antivenom for this species label it as Arizona lethal scorpion. Even though, this species DO NOT strictly belongs here (it is not a deadly species), it deserves a mention for those still in doubt.


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## Cyris69 (Oct 9, 2007)

Relocation...?

Make your kids wear shoes and not to stick their hands in holes orunder bark rocks ect.. lol


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## Michiel (Oct 9, 2007)

1. What is your location?
2. The food of scorpions is attracted by human waste in urban or populated areas, that's why they are around and can breed prolificly. 
3. Teach you kids about scorpions, that they musn't mess with them or stick their hands in holes or between stacks of wood. Especially if the scorpions belong to the species C.exilicauda, which is dangerously venomous for children, the elderly and people with certain pre-existing medical conditions,
4. Can you take a picture of them and post it, so we can ID it (possibly)?
5. You can sell them, or send them for the costs of shipping to enthousiast, but I would not hesitate to kill them if I where you. They are a possible threat to your kids and others peoples kids and if there are that many (many more then the 25 you caught in an hour. 
6. Did you report this to the authorities of your community? What will they do about it? 

Sorry for all the questions, but these need to be answered so I (and others offcourse) can give you a good advice. 
All the best,

Michiel Cozijn


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## genzo22 (Oct 10, 2007)

Michiel said:


> 1. What is your location?
> 2. The food of scorpions is attracted by human waste in urban or populated areas, that's why they are around and can breed prolificly.
> 3. Teach you kids about scorpions, that they musn't mess with them or stick their hands in holes or between stacks of wood. Especially if the scorpions belong to the species C.exilicauda, which is dangerously venomous for children, the elderly and people with certain pre-existing medical conditions,
> 4. Can you take a picture of them and post it, so we can ID it (possibly)?
> ...


Sorry to quote you but it makes reading the questions easier.

My location is a city called Sierra Vista in southern arizona.  The area she lives in is a very populated area that is near a golf course.  It has been said by a few people that it is the #1 or #2 highest scorpion population in the city.  We have talked with all of our kids on the danger of scorpions but the fact remains that with their age and size if one has a reaction to the sting it could be very bad.  We had a full grown adult get stung at work and the reaction he had made his arm swell up to about 3 times the size it should be.  This weekend I am going to see if her neighbor will let me go through her backyard and catch all that I can find.

In 2 years my girlfriend has found 37 in her house. 1 of which was on her vaulted ceiling above her bed. I figured going into her yard at night I would find maybe 4-5 of them.  When I found that many in the first 10 minutes of being outside I knew that there was a big problem.  When I was going through her backyard I placed the blacklight over the wall of both neighbors to see what I could find.  On 1 of the sides I saw 2 just hanging out on the side of the wall and in the other neighbors yard I saw 2 on the wall and 1 on the ground.  In both neighbors yards the scorpions were within about 5 feet of each other.

Now most people might laugh and say just teach your kids about them and that is all.  The guy at work I spoke of above was taking a roll of toilet paper off the top shelf of a closet, put his finger in the roll to take the outer paper off and was stung.  So yes you can tell your kids about them but for them to be able to see everything when reaching into a toy box or grabbing something off of their shelf is just not going to happen.

I appreciate everyones response to the thread and the PM's that I have received so far.

I do have 1 more question. I have done a small amount of reading on the subject of the bark scorpions so far and haven't really seen anthing that says they nest in large groups...Do they?  Of all that I found in my GF's backyard they all seemed to be spread out a fairly large distance.


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## genzo22 (Oct 10, 2007)

Oh I forgot 1 thing.

If I am able to get into her neighbors backyard I will capture all that I find and place into a large container of some sort and post a picture on here for you guys.


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## genzo22 (Oct 10, 2007)

Forgot another thing...sorry it is late.

As far as selling them I have no clue what kind of price tag would be put on them but it would probably be something cheap like $5 each unless you wanted a lot then I would drop the price.  Like I said earlier I really do not want to have to house them more than 1 or 2 days tops.

I have no clue what scorpions sell for so I do not really know if that is a very bad price or a really good one.  Let me know either way in this thread or in a PM.


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## Cyris69 (Oct 10, 2007)

5 would be great or just make anyone just cover the shipping cost like stated above.

I guess I wouldn't be worrying about a price tag as reporting it to your local authorities and getting rid of them. Then again your always going to have them in your yard no matter what.

I'd like to see some pictures as well. I might take one


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## genzo22 (Oct 10, 2007)

Another question I would have is exactly how to ship them.  I am really not to interested in learning how to care for them because I would like to be able to catch them 1 night and already have some buyers ready so I could ship them out the next.  I would also not be to interested in selling by sex just because I do not want to have to check all of them for their gender.


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## cacoseraph (Oct 10, 2007)

genzo22 said:


> Another question I would have is exactly how to ship them.  I am really not to interested in learning how to care for them because I would like to be able to catch them 1 night and already have some buyers ready so I could ship them out the next.  I would also not be to interested in selling by sex just because I do not want to have to check all of them for their gender.


packing them is probably covered in another thread... but shipping them... well... there is no legal way to ship in the USA.  read into that what you will 


sexing adults is pretty easy with this species... males have these long goofy looking tails, compared to females.


the $5 plus discount for bulk seems like a very appropriate price


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## genzo22 (Oct 10, 2007)

cacoseraph said:


> packing them is probably covered in another thread... but shipping them... well... there is no legal way to ship in the USA.  read into that what you will
> 
> 
> sexing adults is pretty easy with this species... males have these long goofy looking tails, compared to females.
> ...


Thanks for that info.  I did find out that they can be shipped for research reasons and identification reasons but that is all.


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## Cyris69 (Oct 10, 2007)

A nice packaging video, for babies but just do it the same way just on a larger scale, Deli cup ect..
http://www.scorp-corp.com/videos.html

When I had my baby P.imps shipped to me via UPS 3-day he told them what they where they maked them as such and there wasn't any extra cost.


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## Rosenkreuz (Oct 10, 2007)

genzo22 said:


> Now most people might laugh and say just teach your kids about them and that is all.  The guy at work I spoke of above was taking a roll of toilet paper off the top shelf of a closet, put his finger in the roll to take the outer paper off and was stung.  So yes you can tell your kids about them but for them to be able to see everything when reaching into a toy box or grabbing something off of their shelf is just not going to happen.


Well, unfortunately, there's not awhole lot more that can be done, unless the authorities are willing to exterminate on a widescale basis in your area. There's obviously something in the area they like, and they'll most likely keep coming back. The only real options are to live with them, or to exterminate, and probably do so on a consistant and regular basis. And last I checked, long term exposure to even trace amounts of pesticides isn't a good thing.

Catching and selling them certainly isn't a bad idea. You'll probably turn out a nice tidy profit...which will probably end up being used to scorpion-proof your house and yard as best you can.


Just my two cents.


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## genzo22 (Oct 10, 2007)

Rosenkreuz said:


> Well, unfortunately, there's not awhole lot more that can be done, unless the authorities are willing to exterminate on a widescale basis in your area. There's obviously something in the area they like, and they'll most likely keep coming back. The only real options are to live with them, or to exterminate, and probably do so on a consistant and regular basis. And last I checked, long term exposure to even trace amounts of pesticides isn't a good thing.
> 
> Catching and selling them certainly isn't a bad idea. You'll probably turn out a nice tidy profit...which will probably end up being used to scorpion-proof your house and yard as best you can.
> 
> ...



Yeah the catching and selling has been on my mind for a few days now because it could be a huge cash cow.  Only problem is finding a way around the shipping rules.  There has got to be some company out there that will not have a problem shipping the scorps.  If there is an actual law against shipping them I need to find a loophole in it so I don't have to worry about getting in trouble for anything.  If it was just 1 or 2 here or there I wouldn't care much but the amount that I want to be able to ship out might piss some people off if they find out about them.


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## Vfox (Oct 11, 2007)

I am not sure if it's illegal, but maybe not something they want to ship. Then again what they don't know won't hurt them right? Just pack them well, don't make your boxes obvious, and use no more than 2-3 day services.


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## SNAFU (Oct 11, 2007)

Yep the shipping can sometimes be a hassle. I purchased some Babycurus Jacksoni from a fellow scorp lover in my own state of Texas & when FedEx found out what they were they would not ship them. This was just a few weeks ago. He sent them by USPS just marked FRAGILE all over the box & they made it here with no problems. Good luck getting rid of them!


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## Cyris69 (Oct 11, 2007)

I had my 3I emps send from Texas to Indiana where I live and he told them what they were the UPS place labeled them as such and had live animal written all over the box with This side up too.

Maybe it depends place to place.


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## Bigboy (Oct 11, 2007)

Honestly, the best thing you can do is educate yourself, your partner and the kids about the scorpions.  They were there before you noticed them, they'll be there after you leave, and the only thing you can do about it is be aware of the environment in which you live.


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## genzo22 (Oct 13, 2007)

I caught 20 of the scorpions last night.  Had a few fatalities catching some and a few got away but all in all 20 scorps in 3 hours is not too bad.  Would have been faster but we were taking out time because my girlfriends kids were with me.  I will be posting pictures later on today.

I think the luckiest catch we had was just a little tiny (i am guessing baby) scorpions that probably isn't even 1/4 inch long.  Then we had a few that were about 1-2 inches long.


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## Vfox (Oct 13, 2007)

genzo22 said:


> I caught 20 of the scorpions last night.  Had a few fatalities catching some and a few got away but all in all 20 scorps in 3 hours is not too bad.  Would have been faster but we were taking out time because my girlfriends kids were with me.  I will be posting pictures later on today.
> 
> I think the luckiest catch we had was just a little tiny (i am guessing baby) scorpions that probably isn't even 1/4 inch long.  Then we had a few that were about 1-2 inches long.


This is when I wish I didn't live in PA, lol.


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## genzo22 (Oct 13, 2007)

Vfox said:


> This is when I wish I didn't live in PA, lol.


Yeah it was pretty fun but we need to find a better way of catching them because of the dam rocks they want to hide under.  I am so suprised that we did not kill more of them trying to catch em.  I have no idea how my buddy was able to catch the baby one without killing it.  Being that we had no good tools to use we used some tongs and put some sponges on both sides slightly damp so they would not get crushed when we grabbed em.  Most of the fatalities happened by them getting crushed with rocks.  I think though that we only lost about 3 total due to not having the best tools to grab them with.  Still had 4 that got away... so we would have almost been up to 30 of them caught if we had no deaths and none getting away.


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## radjess331 (Oct 28, 2007)

not sure as to why you removed them this is my reasoning

you have a city(back yard) filled with people(scorpions) to the point that its overcrowded...then all of a sudden almost everyone disapears(caught) leaving there houses(crevices/hiding spot) empty and perfect to move into.....dont you think the houses are going to fill up with more people who are happy to find a new home pretty fast....

so unless your out there spraying every day which is harmfull to you and your kids you will never get rid of them....


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## Michiel (Oct 30, 2007)

_Now most people might laugh and say just teach your kids about them and that is all. The guy at work I spoke of above was taking a roll of toilet paper off the top shelf of a closet, put his finger in the roll to take the outer paper off and was stung. So yes you can tell your kids about them but for them to be able to see everything when reaching into a toy box or grabbing something off of their shelf is just not going to happen._

I understand, you can't keep an eye on your kids or be on your toes allday. These situations (grabbing toys/ tools or whatever from a place you cannot see very well) are quite usual for sting incidents. You can educate kids, but when they are playing, they are playing and not always minding their surroundings or remembering what their parents told them (we have all been young , you know what I mean) 
Educating your kids is one thing, but other measures are needed if you want control over this problem. 

You can safely say the scorpions like the area. Their are two main reasons for this a) shelter (in and around houses and yards, in rubbish or under rocks laying around) b) The presence of lots of food.

I would take a good look at your house and fit all openings and drains with screens. Clean your yard or garden from loose rocks or stacks of rocks or i.e. firewood and keep lawns trimmed. Remove all trash, bits of food etc etc and keep it in bins because this attracts insects which in turn are eaten by the scorpions. You could reside to insecticides and I would bring this under the attention of your local authorities and don't have them send an exterminator once, there should be a long term approach to this problem. 

Hope to have helped you a bit,
Cheers, Michiel


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## edesign (Jan 10, 2008)

Sorry to drag up an old post but is it just me or does the grip on the tail in the pic in the following link look a tad tight? Almost appears to be crushing the tail...I recall the tail of the scorps I have had (B. jacksoni, S. mesaensis, and H. arizonensis) as being very hard and was afraid to grab them that hard. 

http://phoenix.about.com/od/arizonapicturesandphotos/ig/Arizona-Bark-Scorpions/Scorpion-01.htm


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## Cyris69 (Jan 11, 2008)

Wow, deff flattened. Stupid people should leave things as they are.
There is a very good chance this person has no knowledge about handlng scorpions or seems to care about the well being. Then again "The venom of a bark scorpion can cause serious discomfort." lol


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