Wow! I'm a Scorpion Grandpa

[MuadDib]

My boys found a scorpion in southern Utah last spring and from my research online it appears to be a desert hairy. It had not shown itself for many many days and I started to get worried. When I found her she had 20-25 babies on top of her back. It was one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen.

I am a total newbie and am not really ready for this. :8o

I read that I will need to separate them. But when? (a couple have already separated from the mom and I'm worried about them)

What do I feed them during this time? Pinheads? Or do I feed the mom the normal small crickets and then she will take care of the little guys?

Anything else I should be doing?

Also, I am wondering what to do with all the scopions if/when they mature. I don't have 20-25 scorpion-loving friends. I am thinking I'll release them back to the wild in southern Utah. How long before they are ready to go to the wild? I am also willing to ship to anyone interested on this board (but would need some help in figuring out how to do this).

I would show pics but she has burrowed back down and I don't want to disturb her further.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Dessicaria]

Congrats on your new grand-scorps!

I haven't personally raised the babies of a desert species before, so what info I have comes from reading, but I understand the babies of desert hairies can be somewhat delicate. They may have problems in the molt if they don't have a humid enough micro-climate where they can climb free of their old exoskeleton. So the first thing you might want to do, is create a slightly damp corner of the enclosure. You can try misting just a small patch of sand, and putting a hide container over it ... something like a small upside-down flowerpot saucer with a doorway cut out.

The babies will usually leave the mother after their first molt. Once you see them leaving of their own accord, you should probably take her out - unless she's feeding them. Again, I haven't had babies from this species, so I don't know whether they do that, but the large rainforest species do it. So keep watch on their interactions and judge by that. Of course if you find babies mysteriously disappearing, take mom out!

Once the babies have molted, are no longer hanging around mom, and are eating on their own, they are fine to be released.

For food, unless mom is feeding them, do add a few pinhead crickets or flightless Drosophila to the enclosure for the babies to hunt - but as long as they're still riding on mom, they're not hunting yet. Again, keep watch on their activities and judge by that. You may also want to separate them into smaller groups as they get bigger, because the stronger babies may eat the others if they are in too close quarters.

Good luck, and enjoy!

 

[MuadDib]

Thanks for the tips, Dessicaria! I will definitely try out your advice.

 

[AzJohn]

Congradulations, I'm guessing you have H spadix. I'm looking forward to the time when I can actually get up to the Az, Utah, Nevada border and collect my own. Hadrurus have a reputation of being difficult to raise from baby to adult. If you can get them to molt and leave there mother I'd seperate them into different containers and give them lots of room to dig. They'll be pretty big babies. They can probably eat prey items allmost there own size.

If you are looking to get rid of them I'm sure people hear would be interested in getting a few.


John

 

[MuadDib]

H spadix? Very possible. Seems like its back isn't quite dark enough, but maybe. Are there any other distinctions that can help me tell the two species apart?

OK, so I need to separate them after the first molting. About when will this happen? Looks like about 2 weeks from some quick internet searches.