Androctonus australis

[leiurus]

I had my first invertebrate when i was 13.
;P I started with a hadrurus spadix the best species ever
Dom

 

[dotdman]

It will kill kill her or make her deathly ill. You should keep them out of reach and locked securely if you can. Stop considering, and just get them. a $2 lock could save your sisters life!!

there was a thread posted recently, where someone was stung by a baby death stalker I think, and within seconds he was getting all sorts of symptoms. A 9 year old could easily die. You better start beng extra careful. If she get's stung most likely it will not be one of those "I'm sorry it won't happen again" moments

All of my inverts are kept where they won't be bothered, and my room is locked the vast majority of the time I'm not home. My sis knows better than to open any of the cages I have. Don't take my use of the word 'considering' as a sign of apathy. I'm currently taking every precaution to ensure my new arrivals are safe and secure, as well as my fellow family members.

Kindest,

Kevin P.

 

[NYbirdEater]

All of my inverts are kept where they won't be bothered, and my room is locked the vast majority of the time I'm not home. My sis knows better than to open any of the cages I have. Don't take my use of the word 'considering' as a sign of apathy. I'm currently taking every precaution to ensure my new arrivals are safe and secure, as well as my fellow family members.

Kindest,

Kevin P.

I'm not trying to put you down, I'm saying your scorps are like loaded guns. Notice how you said "majority" meaning sometimes you leave it open. Any kid at some point will disobey the rules, and why not? That's what we all did, but the one time you leave it open is the time she can get stung. And taking every precaution would mean you would have already gone and bought locks. Plus if the tank is high up, you may want to attach it to where it's sitting or place a belt around it attached to something to avoid falls. Evry precaution really means going out of your way so that only a very rare freak accident might enable the scorp to get out or someone to get in. Thats just my opinion, but it's also the reason I won;t get HOT species with a 5 year old in the house. Even though my son is younger, and I am very precautious with my current pets, I won't risk his life just to have a deadly pet. To me that is the opitome of taking every precaution, of course not getting one. Not trying to preach, just don't want to flick on the news and see you standing there with your sister being carried out of the house dead.

 

[errit]

I have read that somebody has fed His parabuthus T. with a black widow spider. Isn´t that dangerous for the scorpion as well?

 

[PIter]

I have read that somebody has fed His parabuthus T. with a black widow spider. Isn´t that dangerous for the scorpion as well?

Thats a quite large scorpion vs a small spider, it might be dangerous but the scorpion would kill with out a problem in nearly every case.
But it The scorpion get tangled up in a web.. Thats a different ball game.

 

[G. Carnell]

yea, u could rest a pencil on a bw web!
so damn strong

 

[dotdman]

I'm not trying to put you down, I'm saying your scorps are like loaded guns. Notice how you said "majority" meaning sometimes you leave it open. Any kid at some point will disobey the rules, and why not? That's what we all did, but the one time you leave it open is the time she can get stung. And taking every precaution would mean you would have already gone and bought locks. Plus if the tank is high up, you may want to attach it to where it's sitting or place a belt around it attached to something to avoid falls. Evry precaution really means going out of your way so that only a very rare freak accident might enable the scorp to get out or someone to get in. Thats just my opinion, but it's also the reason I won;t get HOT species with a 5 year old in the house. Even though my son is younger, and I am very precautious with my current pets, I won't risk his life just to have a deadly pet. To me that is the opitome of taking every precaution, of course not getting one. Not trying to preach, just don't want to flick on the news and see you standing there with your sister being carried out of the house dead.

The only time my door is actually unlocked an open is when I know my sister aren't going to be home. My cages are all securely shut, though I dare not say escape proof (I think they're as close as I can come at the moment, but I'm sure the appropriate set of circumstances could randomly come into play and prove me wrong). I take precaution with all of my inverts, as I'm used to keeping things that I and my family members would really rather not be bitten or stung by. I take special precautions with my hot scorps, as they are by far the most venomous and potentially life threatening animals I have ever possessed.

Loaded guns require respect, precaution, and locked cabinets. You won't see me keeping a Leirus quin under my pillow for easy reach either. As for my tanks, mine (with the exception of my current enclosure for my Parabuthis transvaalicus) weigh no less than thirty to forty pounds a piece. They're loaded to say the least. That doesn't keep me from being sure that there isn't a risk of them falling from their current positions (ie: on my desk, nightstands, etc.). The lids are all very secure and don't have any openings large enough to be taken advantage of by a scorp of the size I'm currently keeping. To put it bluntly, when I'm in bed, I have a Leirus quin to my left and an Androctonus australis to the right. My A. amoreuxi is sitting on my hardwood computer desk. My P. transi, the least venomous scorp currently in my possession, resides in a smaller round glass tank on my dresser. In other words, I'm surrounded by dangerous animals (I'm not taking into account the multitudes of Latrodectus mactans I keep during the warmer months of the year). And I'm mortified of being stung by any of them. With the two most venomous scorpions in existence residing roughly two feet from my head while I sleep, I'm not to keen on the idea of lax cage security.

In short, they won't be getting out of their tanks unless I give them the opportunity to. After all, a loaded gun can't shoot anyone all by itself.

And I know you weren't trying to put me down. Everyone needs to be reminded of the possibilities involved when keeping hot scorp species every now and again. I actually really appreciate the concern (I don't want to give a hobby I've been in for most of my life a bad name, and I sure as hell don't want a family member to die because of my indiscretion). I also understand your decision not to keep any hot species with a five year old son around. *Insert Murphy's law here...* My sis knows better than to open any of the cages I have, but I'm not giving her the option either way.

Kindest regards,

Kevin P.

edited for continuity error

 

[dotdman]

I have read that somebody has fed His parabuthus T. with a black widow spider. Isn´t that dangerous for the scorpion as well?

My P. transi had no problem taking down a black widow, as it was considerably smaller than the scorp and wasn't web bound. But you won't see me putting my P. transi in a Lat mac cage full of webbing to feed it lunch.

 

[dotdman]

yea, u could rest a pencil on a bw web!
so damn strong

We have black widows to no end around here, so I always keep several of them every year (I've been keeping them since I was 6 and they still manage to amaze me...). I'd say that some of the webs I've seen could hold up quite a bit more than a pencil. And speaking of webs, I was walking through the woods last summer and found a rather largish female Lat mac with a web roughly a foot in height, three feet wide, and four feet long. I had never seen anything like it in my life. I don't know how practical it was for the spider, but it impressed me.

Kindest regards,

Kevin P.

 

[Stormcrow]

I experienced a similar problem with A.australis and A.bicolor, both weren't completely inactive or a pet rock so to say, being nocturnal they were active late at night but as soon as I turned on a light, the scorpions were gone like greased lightning back under their scrapes. Daylight hours, forget about it, they are truly pet rocks that hid under the bark throughout the whole day.

Leiurus quinquestriatus is entirely different manner, I have tapped the glass, shown flashlights on it, even removed the lids a few occassions without causing it to get flighty. Of the Old World Buthids of Africa, the least shy species I have ever owned were Lq and Parabuthus transvaalicus, that's not taking into account Hottentotta. But Leiurus quinquestriatus are a pure joy once their nocturnal behavior kicks in. Not the least bit shy and put on a great show.

Scorpions and Widow schematic:

Scorpion vs Widow sans Cobweb= Not a chance, scorpion entree!

Scorpion vs Widow in Cobweb= Not a chance, Widow slurp bag!

 

[leiurus]

I tought A. australis were active scorpions :? . My Hadrurus spadix is always out of its burrow, its amazing! I've never tried to feed it a spider.

Dom

 

[Cooper]

I don't usually tell many people around here this(for obvious reasons), but I am 14(almost 15) and own an A. Bicolor. I take all the precautions possible(locks, etc.) and have tremendous respect for the animal.

 

[carpe scorpio]

I am 14(almost 15) and own an A. Bicolor. I take all the precautions and have tremendous respect for the animal.

To hear that someone as young as you are, is that serious about safety, gives me hope for the future of our hobby.

 

[Stormcrow]

At one time I had just under a dozen A.australis, they're nocturnally active all right, but any slight disturbance sends they fleeing back to their scrapes. Most notably switching on the light in the room in which they were kept, nonetheless they would be at the entrance of the burrow, but until that lamp went back off, no more nocturnal meanderings for the rest of the evening. Androctonus in fact are the most flighty scorpion species I have ever kept.

 

[Nazgul]

Scorpions and Widow schematic:

Scorpion vs Widow sans Cobweb= Not a chance, scorpion entree!

Scorpion vs Widow in Cobweb= Not a chance, Widow slurp bag!

Hi,

here´s a nice picture of a proof of this schematic: http://www.geocities.com/calwolf24/images/research/widow_scorp1.jpg

Greetings
Alex

 

[fusion121]

At one time I had just under a dozen A.australis, they're nocturnally active all right, but any slight disturbance sends they fleeing back to their scrapes. Most notably switching on the light in the room in which they were kept, nonetheless they would be at the entrance of the burrow, but until that lamp went back off, no more nocturnal meanderings for the rest of the evening. Androctonus in fact are the most flighty scorpion species I have ever kept.

Very much so, its impossible to watch my young A.Australis unless you sit patiently for hours making no move with the lights off, its interesting that they seem to memorise the location of hiding places, four in my 45cmx20cm, and will always scramble to the closest one.

 

[Stormcrow]

Thanks for sharing that awesome pic Alex. Yesterday afternoon on the National Geographic Channel, they have a program called Nature's Nightmares (which usually focuses on predators, pests, nocturnal creatures, creepy crawlies, etc) had a episode called "Micro Monsters". I had missed the first 20 minutes or so, but I had flipped the channel at a most opportune moment because they were discussing true spiders and all the adaptations the aranae developed silk. Well it eventually focused mainly on the comb-footed order of spiders and show a clip of a Black Widow snaring and fatally envenomating a small-medium sized Old World Buthidae. Fantastic footage!

Ditto Fusion, I have even rearranged my collection so the Androctonus were as far away from the lamp as possible and it helped in small insignificant ways. Mainly due to the fact once a A.australis detects a foreign presence, it is basically gone from sight instantly.

 

[Chase]

Well, I'd like to say that some people should definatly not have 'hot' invertebrates. When I was 13, I was breeding P. transvaalivus, and Androctonus sp. For these species, I had seperate enclosures, made out of plastic - with a locked lid and decent sized wholes on the lid (Slid in/out). This gave me the insurance, if you will, that if this enclosure took a fall, it would not break. It would not be unlocked without my permission, and the dangerous species inside would not be able to escape without myself unlocking it. It was about 1' by 1' and ran me around $50 - but it was and still is a great investment. I am now almost 16 and am going to start collecting these animals within a month, right in time for the move into the new house.

Cheers,
Chase

 

[alex]

Keeping hot at an age of 13! I don't understand how your parents letting you have such venomous species.

 

[Cooper]

I can understand, so long as you are responsible, know what you are doing and take all the possible safety problems and then some, you 'should' be fine. There is always a risk.