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.
