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MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Nov 24, 2018

Scorpions Bunk Rumors

  • If you are allergic to bee stings talk to your doctor before departing to Mexico
  • You don't hear about tourists dying from a scorpion sting because they don't
  • Children weighing under 30 lbs need additional precaution*
  • Scorpions can vary the quantity and the formula of venom*
  • A wasp or hornet sting is generally more intense than a scorpion sting
  • It takes a full 25 minutes after being stung before effects (other than pain) start to appear
  • There are dozens of scorpion types in Mexico


Frankly tangling with a nest of Africanized bees is like a million times more dangerous than getting stung by a scorpion.

There are credible reports of scorpions in incredibly remote villages and ranchos in the states of Durango and Chihuahua having Darwin grade species of scorpion that kill more children but you would need a helicopter or a burro to get to one.

A big fallacy is that getting a doctor to administer an anti-alacran shot will reduce pain.

It

Will

Not

For folks who yell loud enough, a doctor can administer LIDOCAINE pinpricks around the site of the sting. Be prepared to pay as much as a thousand pesos for the service. The lidocaine IM is about 500 pesos and the immense amount of paperwork causes doctors to charge a substantial fee. To top it off, the numbing effect lasts less than an hour. An IMSS hospital will flatly refuse to administer lidocaine.

Too many folks have gotten into accidents trying to rush an infant or toddler to a hospital. Roughly it takes a half hour before the onset of symptoms and even then the symptoms grow progressively worse. Hurry but don't kill everyone doing it.

I have been stung by Arizona bark scorpions and I have serious heart rhythm issues. The first was a minor warning "tink" as I bent down in the bathroom to pick up a roll of TP. A year later I stepped fully on a scorpion at the entrance of the bathroom. No "tink" this time --- I was a full on 4 stings in a little more than a second. The creature was obviously irate at having 200 lbs squash it.

Did my sensitive heartbeat do anything out of the ordinary? Nope. How bad did four jabs hurt remember this is concerning an Arizona Bark Scorpion. I won't lie. Four jabs hurt like hell for about ten seconds. Then the pain rapidly faded. I was asleep less than a half hour afterward. Yes I had minor after effects like I have had minor after effects from all the scorpion stings I have ever had. And the after effects were all equal in intensity from the poor squashed one to the "Tink". I actually shook my hand and slapped my leg to cause the electric jolt (minor) sensation. To me it was fun.

There is no insecticide that will kill a scorpion rapidly so don't poison yourself. In my electrical work, I use a vile solvent called Tricloroethylene. Cockroaches, spiders, centipedes...the solvent kills instantaneously. I have saturated scorpions with it and then watched them drag themselves a dozen feet. Tough buggers.

RV's are by design scorpion resistant. Tight, well sealed off the ground. Scorpions are clumsy and cannot possibly climb a water hose or dump tube. They may fall on a roof from an overhanging palm and then what? No holes to get inside.

Camp bathrooms and palm frond huts are two places to find alacranes.

But if you want to scare yourself pick another subject line.

The Halloween movies are said to be scary.
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Nov 27, 2018
    The IMSS doctors I talked with*, said 10% is the choice of private physicians and with eight to ten subcutaneous injections around the site being norm. Sub milliliter jabs. They also told me pain treatment for alacranes was elective therefore not in their formulary. They use lidocaine on stuff that needs to be stitched.

    *Ensenada, Morelia, Seguro Publico La Mira.

    You might find a dentist that would administer plain Novocaine without Epinephrine.

    I used to purchase 100ml spray bottles of Lidocaine for about eighteen dollars. Then drug addicts moved in... Best sunburn and roadrash spray I ever used.
  • qtla9111's avatar
    qtla9111
    Nomad
    Nov 26, 2018
    MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
    • If you are allergic to bee stings talk to your doctor before departing to Mexico
    • You don't hear about tourists dying from a scorpion sting because they don't
    • Children weighing under 30 lbs need additional precaution*
    • Scorpions can vary the quantity and the formula of venom*
    • A wasp or hornet sting is generally more intense than a scorpion sting
    • It takes a full 25 minutes after being stung before effects (other than pain) start to appear
    • There are dozens of scorpion types in Mexico


    Frankly tangling with a nest of Africanized bees is like a million times more dangerous than getting stung by a scorpion.

    There are credible reports of scorpions in incredibly remote villages and ranchos in the states of Durango and Chihuahua having Darwin grade species of scorpion that kill more children but you would need a helicopter or a burro to get to one.

    A big fallacy is that getting a doctor to administer an anti-alacran shot will reduce pain.

    It

    Will

    Not

    For folks who yell loud enough, a doctor can administer LIDOCAINE pinpricks around the site of the sting. Be prepared to pay as much as a thousand pesos for the service. The lidocaine IM is about 500 pesos and the immense amount of paperwork causes doctors to charge a substantial fee. To top it off, the numbing effect lasts less than an hour. An IMSS hospital will flatly refuse to administer lidocaine.

    Too many folks have gotten into accidents trying to rush an infant or toddler to a hospital. Roughly it takes a half hour before the onset of symptoms and even then the symptoms grow progressively worse. Hurry but don't kill everyone doing it.

    I have been stung by Arizona bark scorpions and I have serious heart rhythm issues. The first was a minor warning "tink" as I bent down in the bathroom to pick up a roll of TP. A year later I stepped fully on a scorpion at the entrance of the bathroom. No "tink" this time --- I was a full on 4 stings in a little more than a second. The creature was obviously irate at having 200 lbs squash it.

    Did my sensitive heartbeat do anything out of the ordinary? Nope. How bad did four jabs hurt remember this is concerning an Arizona Bark Scorpion. I won't lie. Four jabs hurt like hell for about ten seconds. Then the pain rapidly faded. I was asleep less than a half hour afterward. Yes I had minor after effects like I have had minor after effects from all the scorpion stings I have ever had. And the after effects were all equal in intensity from the poor squashed one to the "Tink". I actually shook my hand and slapped my leg to cause the electric jolt (minor) sensation. To me it was fun.

    There is no insecticide that will kill a scorpion rapidly so don't poison yourself. In my electrical work, I use a vile solvent called Tricloroethylene. Cockroaches, spiders, centipedes...the solvent kills instantaneously. I have saturated scorpions with it and then watched them drag themselves a dozen feet. Tough buggers.

    RV's are by design scorpion resistant. Tight, well sealed off the ground. Scorpions are clumsy and cannot possibly climb a water hose or dump tube. They may fall on a roof from an overhanging palm and then what? No holes to get inside.

    Camp bathrooms and palm frond huts are two places to find alacranes.

    But if you want to scare yourself pick another subject line.

    The Halloween movies are said to be scary.


    Lidocaine is available at IMSS, 2% injectable.
  • Talleyho69's avatar
    Talleyho69
    Moderator
    Nov 26, 2018
    I bumped a wasp nest a couple of weeks ago. I got one really good sting, and two not so bad. He got one not so bad. It went away and didn't take that long until the OMG sting went away.

    Our house is sealed we think, but we have concerns about the dogs or cat being stung and what we need to do, if anything, about it. Neighbors up the hill found one in their dog's toy box. That's the kind of thing we worry about.

    The gardener found our first scorpion last week. It was on the ground/garage level under the rug we rest our paddle boards on when we rinse them. We don't have areas that aren't landscaped well, so we are hoping we don't get scorpions. We have tarantulas, fabulous lizards, pygmy skunks, blue land crabs and iguanas, but so far no visible scorpions. May it stay that way!
  • navegator's avatar
    navegator
    Explorer
    Nov 26, 2018
    For all of you scardy cats travelling to Mexico, you are more likely to get stung by a bee than a scorpion or a snake, I have only been stung by one bee that crawled into my work glove when I took it off to sign for a delivery and to think that I took care of five bee hives in Sweden at school and was never stung nor did I wear any mask or gloves, bees eventually recogniced me and would actually come and say hello.

    The Africanized bees are the ones to be carefull with, if a bee flies directlly to your face and veers off at the last moment and does this repeatedlly and a couple more start doing this turn arround and walk away, you are now entering the limits of the bees protective zone, should you continue you will provoke a responce, this is for all the Africanized bees and they are in the USA, I do not know if they have reached the Canadian border or not.

    navegator
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Nov 26, 2018
    In the original casita I kept track. Eighteen in four years. Then I sealed it tight. Five in the outdoor bano. The stupid things loved to show up at 10:00PM. Do they have wristwatch alarms? Now I clean them out by switching off the regular lights then blasting them with a custom made 50 watt 365 nm 36 volt chip. They glow bright green. A 50 watt LED chip emits as much power as a 500 watt regular lamp. I place it outside at night and can see scorps 50' distant. Stupid chickens could feast but they will not move out of the hutch after sundown.

    The tropics have many x as many alacranes as does the higher elevations and the bajio. I picked 13 off the wall one night, an exterior wall. About 3-1/2 hours.

    Despite the best efforts of the tile layer, the tiles in front of the door will be laid flat so a felt door sweep rather then a brush door sweep can be used. Big surprise it's one step up from the rock walk way and it isn't concrete. It's white tile and there will be green half tiles around the door and kitchen window. Above the front door it will be almost a foot lateral distance to the porch. A scorpion had better be an olympic grade broad jumper to make it to the screen door. These plans are far from reality. Everyone is grumbling I insist on a 15 degree peaked roof with terracotta tiles. The winter sun will shine on seventy feet of coiled 150 mm black tubing for hot water. Not a lot of capacity but cold water is more than 70 degrees. Mu shoes fit upside down onto black plastic shelving L brackets next to the bed. I designed new nightlights. 4 ten watt 395 nm led chips set ankle high, powered by s motion detector. Swing feet off bed and the lights come on. If there is a critter about I will know it.
  • navegator's avatar
    navegator
    Explorer
    Nov 25, 2018
    For you folks travelling in RV's no scorpion is going to get in your unit unless you transport it with your towel or with a box from the store, be carefull if you use the shower at the camp site, use open shoes to go there, sandals and always shake the clothes before puting them on, for me it is a habit I picked from my father when in "tierra caliente", a critter could have fallen from the ceiling, and it is rare to find them so do not worry to much they do enter dwellings now and then, I have only encountered one inside my shoe a long time ago in the State of Veracruz way in the jungle one morning, shook the shoes and he dropped and skurried away, same as in the USA rare to find them in dwellings.

    navegator
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Nov 25, 2018
    They are a lot clumsier than given discredit for.

    Unwise to sit in a palm frond hut after sundown. They fall from the fronds. Decades ago when I slept inside a frond shelter I would tack cheesecloth or netting below the roof. Then sleep off the floor on a 30" x 8' piece of plywood slid off the bed of my pickup (bloques purchased locally). Shoes and clothes kept off the sand. I even had a stapler gun.
  • navegator's avatar
    navegator
    Explorer
    Nov 25, 2018
    Scorpions do not climb glass, or very polished surfaces, you might be able to rase the cats and doogs bed with a wood frame covered with a glass glued on outer wall, and if the bed extends a little out and also covered with glass no scorpions will get up there, glass walls and a glass over hang, scorpion proof pet bed.

    navegator
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Nov 25, 2018
    Esteemed Moderator...

    Time to get a local referral to a good vet.

    Sting venom vs weight is an issue. So is what a vet can get his hands on. Probably a strong dosed antihistamine. This is no time for amateur hour when it comes to a priceless mascot.

    AMAZON


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    Place it on the floor. If a cat bats it around or a dog sticks his nose up it's....

    Then it's time to worry.

    I finally kept scorpions out of my Michoacan casita by using a door sweep on a screen door and another on the main door. Have someone go around the windows on the outside with a flashlight while you check for light-leaks on the inside.

    Check around water supply inlets and seal with spray insulating foam.

    Orange plastic tubing for electrical is scorpion freeway. I seal up both incoming power, circuit breaker boxes, outlets, switches, and overhead lamps. They have to be sealed absolutely tight. When doing outlets and switches use a spritz of foam (practice first). Let it dry for a few minuted then carve out excess foam that blocks re-installation of switch of receptacle. Silicone can be used but it's a little pricey.

    If you keep the home sealed tight you'll never see another scorpion inside.

    When I got nailed the last couple of times I was living in little more than a shanty. I moved to a better medical hideout, where there are no scorpions.

    At home, I play an ultraviolet light against a white patio wall. When geckos and scorpions show up (always). I pluck the scorpions off with tongs and put them in a jar. Then the next morning it's Feeding Time At The Zoo, with the chickens. Escargot. White truffles, Prime Rib. The hens fight over the arachnids. They peck so fast the bugs do not have a chance. I cover a hundred square feet with straw, then dampen it. The next morning the hens tear into it. At noon they get artificial food. This is the way to get genuine ranch eggs with orange rather than yellow yolks.

    Bet your fanny I use caution where rattlers and fer-de-lances can be present. Thank goodness the latter are a long way off on the Atlantic coast.
  • Talleyho69's avatar
    Talleyho69
    Moderator
    Nov 25, 2018
    The dogs are good about leaving things alone, but the cat is another story. Plus he's more worried about one being under a dog bed and being stepped on, rolled over on, that kind of thing.

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