Heterometrus spinifer Maggots

Albireo Wulfbooper

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They are inside the claw what more is there to determine?
If the claw was damaged and a fly subsequently laid eggs in the exposed tissue, then we're talking maggots that are eating dead flesh, not actively hurting the animal, and it might be saved. If it's a parasite, they they are eating living tissue and the treatment options are as far as I know virtually nonexistent.
 

Outpost31Survivor

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ContributionPosted: 08.08.2011, 21:56 Title: Diseases among the scorpionsReply with quote
The following diseases can occur in scorpions:

- Mycosis and other fungal infestations (recognizable by brown to black spots)
Occur in wild-caught and usually in arid scorpions that are permanently kept in humid surroundings. Remedy through drier or correct housing conditions. Mycosis is irreversible in adult animals and can only be contained, in juvenile and subadult animals the infestation can disappear through a molt.

Mycosis infestation picture from MDJ! - weight loss




Takes place after a molt, steady decrease in weight indicates imminent death. Either triggered by old age or contamination with internal parasites, viruses or bacteria. These were either brought in by feed animals or caught in the wild. Actually no remedy possible because too little is known.

- Injuries (bruises, holes or amputated limbs)
This happens through turf wars, pairings (holes made by stabs in the pleural membrane- so-called love stings), injuries from furnishings and skinning. In adult animals, missing and bruised limbs are irreversible; in juvenile animals, limbs can possibly grow back - the more the molting, the greater the chance. In fights that keep animals solitary, as fights can sometimes lead to the death of an animal. Holes in the pleural membrane are usually only blemishes and grow back so that they can hardly be seen. - Dehydration (recognizable by retracted legs and reluctance to move) Usually when caught in the wild due to long transport or incorrect housing conditions, e.g. humid scorpions that have to live in an arid environment. Use the remedy with watering and proper housing conditions.







- Mites infestation
Occurs in wild-caught species and usually in humid species. This can be caused by introductions through feed animals and unremoved leftover feed in the warm, humid environment. This can be remedied by removing the leftover food and vaccinating the terrariums with springtails and white woodlice. Use predatory mites to combat mite infestation, as chemical agents can kill the scorpion. If the scorpion is slightly infested, brush it with alcohol and keep it a little drier in a quarantine tank. Clean and boil the terrarium, as well as clean all furnishings in the oven or with hot water.

Scorpion infested with mites Image by MDJ.
Should you ever have to kill a scorpion to free him from his torments, you should freeze him in the freezer.

Here is another example from Chrisological of what an internal parasite infestation looks like! Chris cut open this scorpion completely!

Hello everyone,

I would like to tell you something here.
Not long ago I had 2 Pandinus spp. Get wild caught. They both died of parasites. Or I have both frozen to redeem them.
At this point I will tell you about the career and also show you pictures of the dissected animal.

Initially, a scorpion showed only a slight symptom, which was rather inconspicuous in terms of parasites, as it could have been caused by all possible external influences. The scorpion always kept a pair of scissors drawn, comparable to a kind of relieving posture. Nor did he open the scissors or move them very well.
Both ate normally, so you couldn't guess anything at first.
Even after a few days and weeks there was no other behavior and the 2nd Pandinus sp. was also completely unremarkable. In retrospect, I can say that the 2nd tier was even more agile.

Here is a picture of the Pandinus sp. with the scissors on


As I said, no other abnormalities were observed for some time. Since I look through all terrariums, boxes etc. every 3 days at the latest, I can say that the significant deterioration occurred within such a period.
During the said control I noticed that the animal twitches completely uncontrollably, fiddled wildly with the scissors, flung the metasoma around and came to rest again. With the slightest disturbance, however, the spectacle started again. The next day, finally, it was the case that the scorpion had almost no control over the limbs and wriggled until it was on its back. As soon as I turned it over, the uncontrolled movements began until the supine position was reached again. Then I wanted to freeze him, but by the time I had pulled out the HD he was already dead.

The 2nd had so far shown no symptoms at all.
About 2 weeks later I discovered the first signs of the 2nd Pandinus sp . Here it was a pedipalpe againand this time one of the front legs that were dragged or moved uncontrollably. The next day the whole thing was much more advanced, 3 legs (one-sided) and the entire scissor hand were already affected. I decided to freeze the animal right away.

When I cut open the scorpion, I was amazed and immediately found the pests. There were all white maggots about 1mm - 5mm in size in the Scorpio. These had already hollowed out the entire pedipalpe as well as the arm and 2 legs and had also penetrated the jaw claws and to the nerve center.

Dead Pandinus sp. Underside - the hollow scissor hand can already be seen so well. Red = 'Eggs' conspicuous from the outside?






Green = Only springtails were.
Turquoise = I found the pattern very conspicuous and unfortunately I don't know whether this is the case with the species, whether it also indicates the parasite infestation.


The severed, infected scissor hand. Red arrow points to a breakthrough. The green arrow points to the inside, which should actually be whitish - here it is colored brown. Shows the cut open pandinus Green arrow points to normal tissue, whitish (nerve center?) Red circle marks the white maggots in the head area The red lines each point to the maggots Here you can see the infestation quite well in the intestinal tract




















Remaining sliced scorpion - was just a single red-brownish mud. You can find the complete gallery under this link: http://www.abload.de/gallery.php?key=cgLSohM0 _________________ Greetings Babycurus112
 

The Snark

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Regardless of the parasite, that odor is the give away. Let any person who has worked in a burn ward to take a wiff. The bacteria is the culprit.
 

Outpost31Survivor

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RoachCoach

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The first thing that should be examined is the symptom. Why does it stink? That's bacteria 100%. Why bacteria? What bacteria? Is it quarantined? If it is parasites there is someone that knows exactly what it is. They just haven't logged in yet. Bake and freeze anything you plan to add to enclosures always. You cook food. Cook your animals stuff too.
 

The Snark

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Gangrene is unmistakable by a magnitude of about 200x
Burn patient in extended debridement surgery. Between that stench and electro-cautery, memo to myself, walk very softly around the surgical nurses for the rest of the day.
 

The Snark

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Hah, a fellow medic I see.
NA, B-MET, EMT II. Remember one patient. Shipped to our hospital for follow up. Chemical burn, 9%. That odor drifted around the hospital for a couple of weeks. Could tell by the smell he had been in PT. Then afterwards he became a pathogen nightmare, contaminating all sorts of things around the hospital. Dead flesh is such a wonderful incubator.
 
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RoachCoach

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NA, B-MET, EMT II. Remember one patient. Shipped to our hospital for follow up. Chemical burn, 9%. That odor drifted around the hospital for a couple of weeks. Could tell by the smell he had been in PT. Then afterwards he became a pathogen nightmare, contaminating all sorts of things around the hospital. Dead flesh is such a wonderful incubator.
You can pretend you are disgusted by the smell of burnt skin, but a few of us know. We know man.
 

The Snark

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You can pretend you are disgusted by the smell of burnt skin,
Fire & rescue service. We (privately) call the deceased 'crispy critters'. If they have been around for a day or more they have a sweet sickly cloying stench that can penetrate your SCBA and taint your turnout for weeks. Important safety tip:Never toss your cookies while wearing an SCBA.
 

spideyspinneret78

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Not all maggots are harmless to living tissue. There are some that are parasites, like the spider fly maggot. I'm not sure if they infect scorpions, but the maggots of this fly will actually eat arthropods like tarantulas alive from the inside out. I believe they belong to the family Panopinae. Pretty nasty creatures. I know for sure that they're parasites of spiders, but I'm not sure if they can be found in other arachnids as well.
 

RoachCoach

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Hmm, no response to our barrage of questions. Me thinks we may have ben duped. Good research lesson though!
 

Scorpiobsession

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Sorry for the late reply, I haven't had a chance to take pictures, I just got to it. I kept the maggot specimen in case I need to perform the blood experiment on it. The "maggot" is on a piece of cardboard for size reference. It moves like a worm, moving it's mass forward and then back to propel itself forward. The smell doesn't smell horrible anymore, at first I could smell it before opening the container and now I can barely smell it.
IMG_4126.JPG IMG_4127.JPG
IMG_4128.JPG IMG_4132.JPG
The scorpion seemed to move a little bit, he's in a different position each time. The "maggots" are now mostly around the claw rather than coming out of it and on it, though there was one coming out when I checked on him. @CanebrakeRattlesnake was correct about the location of the "maggots".
IMG_4136.JPG IMG_4139.JPG IMG_4143.JPG
 

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Ian14

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There is a type of tiny fly that lays eggs on live flesh. I cannot for the life of me remember the name.
I lost two clutches of snake eggs after an outbreak of them and found a few of my snakes with them that had to be removed with tweezers after burrowing under the scales.
I wonder if this could be similar?
 

Albireo Wulfbooper

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There is a type of tiny fly that lays eggs on live flesh. I cannot for the life of me remember the name.
I lost two clutches of snake eggs after an outbreak of them and found a few of my snakes with them that had to be removed with tweezers after burrowing under the scales.
I wonder if this could be similar?
Could be something like a phorid fly larva, some of which are known to attack living tissue in the way you describe.

i would suggest to the op that the best thing to do at this point is to drop some of these larvae in some alcohol (or hand sanitizer) and send it to a local entomologist for identification. To me these don’t appear to be the same species as in the photos above, but I am not an expert in maggot identification.
 

Ian14

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Could be something like a phorid fly larva, some of which are known to attack living tissue in the way you describe.

i would suggest to the op that the best thing to do at this point is to drop some of these larvae in some alcohol (or hand sanitizer) and send it to a local entomologist for identification. To me these don’t appear to be the same species as in the photos above, but I am not an expert in maggot identification.
That's the one, phorid flies.
As I said, no idea if that's the case here, but it does show that there are flies that can infect healthy tissue.
 
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