So How Did You Get Introduced To This Hobby?

[KUJordan]

When I was around 8 years old or so I was fishing with my family at Toronto lake in Toronto, KS. I never had the patience to fish, so I was always out flipping rocks and looking for bugs. One rock I flipped had a C. vittatus (didn't know ID at the time) under it and I was scared/excited to death! This was the first live scorpion I had ever seen and I didn't know at the time that there were so many of these guys all around me when I was growing up. From that moment on I started to research scorps and for my 13th birthday my mom bought me a gravid Emperor scorp and she had babies two months later! I was hooked. I was only 13, but I still managed to successfully rear nearly all of her little ones. She died about 4 months later and it was very devistating for me, but I was able to enjoy her legacy through her little scorplings that I had for a few years. Now my arachnid collection is out of control like most of ours are!

 

[Mr. Mordax]

I was just the creepy kid that wouldn't let anyone step on bugs.

Huzzah to my brethren!

I've been a bug-person since before I can remember . . . even before I learned how to walk! When I was a kid I'd always be running around and catching local species, eventually working up to keeping the local mantids as pets. Most of the biology of mantids I know is from personal observations, so I make it a point to debunk the mate-icide myth everytime I hear someone mention it.

In high school, I was tempted to get a tarantula (even though I knew nothing about them), but my stepdad wouldn't let me. He was paranoid about one laying a sac and then the slings escaping all over the house. I was similarly tempted by the big beautiful emps in the same petstore.

When I got to college, I was thrilled to see the local Petco carrying AGBs and eventually got one for myself. Then I discovered the OSU Bug Zoo (and wound up becoming president for my sophomore year).

My collection expanded to more myriapods when I got an adult S. subspinipes. I only managed to ID it after buying it. :8o When I was at millipedes, centipedes, cockroaches, and a hermit crab, I was slightly tempted by scorpions again. My fiance said no to multiple venomous pets (saying that her ambition to breed tarantulas didn't count ) back when she only had one T. She came around and in June of 2005 I got my first pair of emps.

So I've only been in the scorp hobby for less than a year, but there was quite a build-up to it. I now own three species and four specimens and expect to get more at the animal expo next weekend.

Forgive the long-winded life story.

 

[jeroenkooijman]

I started with keeping scorps after I had read a book about them.
The book was given to me by a friend because I collected books about various animals. After the first scorp book I got more books about them.

About ten years ago I started with 1 scorp, a Buthus occitanus (european).
After a while a bought another Buthus occitanus, then a Hadrurus arizonensis, etc.

I now own about 60+ scorpions, love them all, but my main favorite is still the Pandinus imperator. I love their black color and size.

 

[8ball]

I've been catching bugs ever since I was little, I started out with little things like stinkbugs and rolly-pollys, then when I was 6 I had a bunch of black widows I caught (surprised I was smart enough not to get bit) then from there I pretty much caught any kind of bug that I saw in my yard

 

[PIter]

My friend at the time, around 2004, had a brother who had a Pandinus imperator so I asked if I could see it a we snuck into his room, later that year I wanted one for Christmas. Now I've got 80-90 scorpions

 

[azureus]

Bryant Capiz

I had met Bryant Capiz at the schaumburg, Il. show 13 years ago and have been battling an addiction ever since. He had this room packed full of tarantulas at his moms apartment in Chicago that I will never forget. Man, I miss him.

 

[ScorpDude]

Since I can remember I've had an interest in exotic pets, through that somebody planted the idea of arachnids into my head (they didn't insist I get one or anything, they just planted the idea in my head through seeing their own interest in it). I originally wanted to keep tarantulas but as my brother is scared of them that was a no go. I figured, whats the next best thing? Scorpions of course. I can put my current interest in them down to G.carnell I guess, damn him

 

[Galapoheros]

I've always been interested in this stuff. I was introduced to inverts by inverts. My first memories around 3, 4 and 5 are of keeping cocoons, caterpillars, mantids, beetles.. stuff like that in pickle jars back in the late 60's. The bug thing fit right in with the herp stuff. I was all over the place. I got my first C. vittatus sting when I was 10 while turning over a log. I didn't know much about scorps and was worried I was going to die! So I ran home and told my parents while holding my finger like I was holding back the venom ! My parents are bugaphobic and never knew much about bugs, but they knew I would be OK. I remember that I didn't believe them. I remember being a little mad at them because I didn't think they were worried enough. But I woke up the next day ! I never did get into mammals. They always seemed boring to me. Inverts were different and made me much more curious. Then I saw my first emp in a pet store in the mid 70s. I worked in the Summer and forked over the money ($30 back then). My parents didn't like it but let me keep it. I bought another one, I think in 84, while in school. I didn't know how to keep them though. No internet and little info about non-native stuff back then. So I jumped in and out of the hobby over the years. I don't consider myself hardcore like some of the people on this forum. But I really like to have at least a few buggy things in the house. Right now I think it's the craziest it's ever been in the house here. I'm over-weighted in centipedes but I'm curious about the parthenogenesis thing right now since I have allot of CB babies. After that, I'm going to cut back on the pedes and prob get more scorp sp.

 

[John Bokma]

3 years ago my partner got stung by an adult male Centruroides flavopictus flavopictus in our house. I captured the scorpion (no idea at that time what species it was) to show it at the hospital, and if it was not dangerous, to keep it.

So the hobby introduced itself so to speak. We still live in the same place, and we still find scorpions now and then in the house (bathroom, bedroom, on the ceiling, in towels). My partner got stung a second time (scorpion in a towel) but she has no problems with me keeping scorpions, going on a field trip to find them, or even handling them now and then.

 

[Bayushi]

I won't say my introduction to the hobby was when i a child, but i remember my mother bought me a tarantula when i was like 12 because i was afraid of spiders. from 12 to 19 the only invert i had was that single tarantula. She passed away during a winter 7 years after i got her and for nearly a year i didn't think about getting any new pet bugs. Then one summer i was at work cleaning out one of the scorpion enclosures and BOOM... i ended up taking 3 of the buggers home.. from that moment on i have always had a scorpion or some other bug as a pet...

 

[Zman16]

As a child I would always catch bugs and spiders and stuff, because I thought they were amazing.Then when I was 5, I got a tarantula from my uncle. Today he's close to ten years old. Then I was watching this thing on animal planet called "A Scorpions Tail". After seeing it I thought, wow, scorpions are amazing! Since then I was doing research on scorpions, specifically the Emperor Scorpion. Finally, Just yesterday I got my first scorpion.

 

[WickedThird]

a) My roommates would've killed a tarantula if I'd gotten one.

b) It was a Valentine's Day present

c) Dogs are so boring...

 

[intrinsic_scorp]

Amazing!

I love reading everyone's posts! I just recently joined this site and am happy to see that there are other 'bug geeks' out there!

Someone said they were a rock flipper as a kid. That was me, too. I used to collect and make habitats for all kinds of bugs. My first bug book was Simon and Schusters guide to Insects.

Originally, my favorite insect was the ant. I used to collect 100 mound ants and 100 stinging red ants and put them into seperate containers. Then I would dump them in together and they would have a huge ant battle! What REALLY amazed me was after awhile the ants would just GIVE UP! They all must have realized they were stuck together and would co-exist as a colony if fed and given dirt to dig in. It was like the pheromones of both species mixed and they become one. Very amazing!

The first scorpion I found was when I lived in Central Oregon. I flipped a rock and noticed a bunch of dried much (kind of like a Mud Dauber Wasp's nest) stuck to it. I began running my finger along the rock to remove the dirt when all of a sudden a stinger came flying out! Unfortunately for the scorpion, I had unknowingly crushed him at the same moment with my finger (he was small). This was a HUGE rush for a nine-year-old boy.

Back in high school I got my first Emperor. I left the hobby as I got into things I shouldn't have (I know many of you can relate). Now, I am a 22 year-old college student and have 2 breeding Emperors and an LQ, with an Androctonus Australis on the way soon!

Thanks for letting me share my experience!
-Luke

 

[Mr. Mordax]

Where in central Oregon?? Whenever people ask me if Oregon has native scorpions, all I can tell them is I think there's some Centruroides* in the southern / eastern regions.

*At least I think they're Centruroides -- I saw them referenced as bark scorpions.

 

[skinheaddave]

Whenever people ask me if Oregon has native scorpions,

I direct you to Kari's checklist of scorpions by state:
http://www.angelfire.com/tx4/scorpiones/states.html

Cheers,
Dave

 

[drapion]

We have tons of U.mordax down here!!! Every rock or log you flip has a couple under it..And I can tell you there isn't any Centruroides in Oregon..Just some Hadrurus spadix,Paruroctonus boreus,Uroctonus mordax and Vaejovis confusus... But I have yet to find H.spadix or P.boreus and I don't really know if the small Vaejovis I caught was a V.confusus..I just hope I find another one some day soon so I can get it IDed

 

[Mr_81]

I bought my first scorpion about a year ago, it was Pandinus imperator. It is the most common first scorpion, because here in Finland pet shops sells these and sometimes Heterometrus spinifers. Since last autumn I have purchased more and more different kind of scorpions. I can't find words to discribe what makes these creatures so fascinating, there just is that something in these. Now I want to get to know international hobbiers and share my thoughts and also learn more of these fascinating creatures...

 

[Zope]

I have always loved animals that most people thought were mean or ugly. My favorite animal and one day pet is the American Alligator. Well I've been going crazy trying to figure out what kind of pet I wanted since I have a apartment to myself and I could do it now. Well after telling myself a billion times that having an alligator would just be wrong I figured I would do some research. I was looking at reptiles but I just don't have the time for them. So I went to a pet store and low and behold the first thing I saw was the Imperators. They looked so cute and differant that I wanted one. I researched online to see how hard it would be for me to take care of one. It turned out it the little imp would be the perfect pet for me so I picked him up along with lots of stuff and setup his home.

 

[~Abyss~]

Well when i was four my Grandmother used to catch C.suffusus in a jar and just leave them there to die. They are feared and are like roaches over there in DGO. Mexico. I used to spend time watching them feed on beatles i would drop in there and i guess you could say i was my first brood of scorpions since i was feeding them. When i got older i bought what i tought to be an emperor just to own a scorpion. It wasnt untill i joined AB that i started to really learn on how to take proper care and there i expanded my hobby. My goal is to own a few C.suffus in memory of my Grandmother. Hopefully i go to Mexico soon.

 

[emmille]

I caught an I.maculatus while working on my project. Give birth. Babies died. Give birth again. Babies eaten by ants. Died. Went to the city. Found H.spinifer for sale. Bought 4. Give birth. Now happy...

(do i make sense?)