Have you seen wild scorpions in South Carolina?

Mr. Quick

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I am just curious as to wheter anyone in or near Northern South Carolina including counties such as Chesterfield, Marlboro, Florence, Dillon, Kershaw, Lancaster, the Myrtle Beach area, etc.and the surrounding North Carolina counties such as Scotland, Richmond counties, etc. have ever seen a wild scorpion in the wilderness. I know that some parts of South/North Carolina are homes to a couple of scorpions.

I am also interested to hear of people who may have saw wild scorpions in these and other areas of South/North Carolina...
 

357wheelgunner

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have ever seen a wild scorpion in the wilderness.
lol

With gloves go out and start tipping rocks and logs over, TOWARDS YOU, so that if any snakes are under they'll go away from you. Watch your fingers, I almost got stung in Arizona by a little orange scorpion...
 

yuanti

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Ok I'm not sure if they were native scorpions but...

A month after I arrived home from the middle east ( I also had 3 packages shipped from there, back in 2002) my parents, living in Mt. Pleasant, had various sizes of yellowish colored scorpions (3 total that they found). I know there are local species but I'm fairly certain that they were imports. Largest one was about 1"
 

Mr. Quick

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There isn't much rock where I live, but I do go outdoors, turning over bark, logs, etc. Lately I have found crickets, black widows, centipedes, millipedes, fungus (I assume) and ants. No scorps. I am nearly convinced that they are not near my home. When the weather warms up and stays warm, I will go out more.
 

Mr. Quick

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I went out "scorp hunting" again today. I saw many black widows and also two large black widow egg sacs. I also saw a colony of large termites with wings. I have never seen termites this large. They were winged and atleast twice the size of what I am used to seeing. I also found more crickets and also one that had freshly molted. Its body was a rust color but its wings were still white. Maybe the last couple of days (temps around 70 F), triggered it to molt.

No scorps though...
 

yuanti

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I've never seen any local scorpions however I have come across some very small centipedes and larger sized millipedes in my yard. I have some wetlands right behind my house.
 

Mr. Quick

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I've never seen any local scorpions however I have come across some very small centipedes and larger sized millipedes in my yard. I have some wetlands right behind my house.
I can find centipedes and milipedes, pill bugs, etc in/near my yard also. There are probably no/not many scorps around my area.
 

brandontmyers

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There are reports of Centruroides vittatus, and Centruroides hentzi. Most of them are around Charleston. I think there are some C. vittatus in Columbia. Most of the V. carolinianus are distributed in the western part of the state. In the Upstate, and mountains. I have looked, not very much and still haven't been able to find anything. My parents live in Sunset Beach, NC, which is about an hour north of Myrtle Beach. It seems like a good place, since there are a lot of swamps, but to no avail yet. When it gets warmer I will look again.'

Brandon
 

Jeri

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Something else that might help is to take a portable blacklight. If there are any scorps that you might have missed they will fluoresce.
 

GartenSpinnen

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I used to live in Lugoff SC in Kershaw county. I went to a ball park down the road that was wooded and had a sandy rocky area. I searched every day for several weeks and found nothing but black widows, and large wolf spiders. However, one day i went out near night time and tore off some damp bark on a tree and found several very very small very fast V. carolinianus on the bark. They are usually so small and blend in so well they are hard to see, but i have heard of them getting around the 1-1.5" mark. So my advice is start looking around rotting damp tree bark laying on the ground in the woods. Go a little further south around Augusta and i seen birds dining on scorpions all the time, not sure what they were but they were decent sized. Good luck...
-Nate
 

Mr. Quick

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I used to live in Lugoff SC in Kershaw county. I went to a ball park down the road that was wooded and had a sandy rocky area. I searched every day for several weeks and found nothing but black widows, and large wolf spiders. However, one day i went out near night time and tore off some damp bark on a tree and found several very very small very fast V. carolinianus on the bark. They are usually so small and blend in so well they are hard to see, but i have heard of them getting around the 1-1.5" mark. So my advice is start looking around rotting damp tree bark laying on the ground in the woods. Go a little further south around Augusta and i seen birds dining on scorpions all the time, not sure what they were but they were decent sized. Good luck...
-Nate
Thanks. I've been through to Lugoff (we still call it Lugoff-Elgin). Lugoff is probably an hour or so from me. Maybe there are scorps near me after all. I may just have to go a little farther in the woods, etc. I am trying to find rocky areas. Also, I may try buying me a black light flashlight, although, I don't plan on scorp hunting at night. There are large rattlesnakes, and cottonmouths here and I do not like snakes. Maybe, if I purchase a blacklight, I will be able to use it right before dark, or early in the morning.
 

brandontmyers

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If you want to meet up sometime near Lugoff, we can do a little hunting. It's only about an hour/ hour and a half from me right down 77. I would be willing to drive.

Brandon
 

GartenSpinnen

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Just remember to look in the bark. Theres a baseball park in lugoff right off of highway 1 where i used to find them. Dont remember the name of the road. However, it was litterally about 1/10th of a mile from where i used to live, which was in S. village Ln. Theres also a good spot for finding inverts on the river in town, again right on highway 1. Theres a little back road right off the main road (right beside the bridge), take it all the way back into this park. Then you can go down to the river and theres nothing but rocks and you can find all kinds of stuff down there. Sorry my directions might be scratchy at best :(.
Happy hunting...
-Nate

Looked up some directions, the baseball park i am referring to is on Smith Rd. (SC-S-28-369).
 
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BurrowDweller

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I lived in Seneca up by Clemson for a bit and we frequently had V. carolinianus in our apartment (basement apartment). They seemed to be very common in that area.
 

brandontmyers

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Tim,

You still in Polk County? Looking to get some, but don't really feel like driving up to the Smokies to find any.

Brandon
 

Tim R.

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Nah, born and raised in florida and just had to come back home. I havent been there in two years.
 

Mr. Quick

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If you want to meet up sometime near Lugoff, we can do a little hunting. It's only about an hour/ hour and a half from me right down 77. I would be willing to drive.

Brandon

I appreciate the offer. Right now,my schedule is crazy. Also, I don't have my own place and my mother won't let me have scorps. But you never know. Maybe in the future we may try to get together for a scorp hunt. I am reading up and researching especially Emps and Hets. All I can do is wait for now.
 

meghanaut

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found scorpion this AM in my bathroom near the ceiling

Strange to see this site, I was looking to see what kinds of Scorpions live in SC when I came upon you. This AM I found a brown scorpion, small about 1 /2 to 2 inches long crawling along near my ceiling. It just went about a foot and turned around went back a foot turned around went back over and over.

I got a broom and knocked it into the tub, caught it and put it in a jar. with air holes. Don't know what they eat but at least wanted to know more before I put it out far away from my yard.

As I said it is brown and tannish and scary to be inside my house!
 

brandontmyers

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Where do you live at. 99% sure it is V. carolinianus. Not a threat. Beautiful scorpion.
 
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