Since moving to a wooded area in middle Georgia we’ve been dealing with a very frustrating pest – scorpions. In 2008 we found and killed over 20 around the house. Last year the number was down to around 12. This year we though things were going well since we’d only seen/killed 6 or 7. Our population control efforts were working!
Today while relieving myself in the wee hours of the morning (pun intended), I spotted a scorpion hanging above me with 6 babies on its back. That doubles our count and puts us up to 14 on the annual count. So much for the decreasing population.
One thing that we learned this year is that these wood scorpions don’t pack too much of a sting. I grew up in West Africa with the terrifying emperor scorpions – those suckers looked like lobsters. The region also had some smaller species that had incredibly strong venom – a sting from one of those would pack a whoppin’ 24 hours of excruciating pain.
How did we learn that our Georgia scorpions aren’t so bad? No, not from UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences article on ”The Scorpion Myth” (I didn’t trust that).
One got in our bed and stung Heidi while we were sleeping. It pricked her on the knuckle and it was painful but she says it was no worse than a wasp sting. Nonetheless, I don’t want to see any more hanging over me in the bathroom.
