The Scorpion King

No, not me but an expert on scorpions (and all arachnids) calleds Jonathan Leeming.  And ex-Brit (and like me an ex-IT contractor) Jonathan has now become a respected scorpion expert and travels around camps in Southern Africa teaching guides and tourists alike about scorpions and spiders.  He has been with us for the past 2 days and I can safely say that I know more about scorpions now that I thought I would ever know.

Yesterday we had a lecture with Jonathan followed by him showing us a couple of scorpions that he brought to show us.  One was a very venomous beast that we didn't handle, but the other was the worlds largest and also the world's least venomous so we got to hold this one.  Given the pain Rachel went through last week when she was stung by a scorpion I never had myself down for holding one a week later.  This scorpion though, a rock scorpion, was mean looking but very mild mannered.  She just sits in your hand and relaxes - if she starts to move you just push her pincers together, fold her tail up and place your free hand on top off her (this makes her feel like she has a rock on top of her).

In the afternoon we went up on one of the ridges searching for scorpions and found a male of this same species - he was a bit larger but equally as chilled.  We also found a scorpion of the same species that stung Rachel and Jonathan said that the sting off this was a '3' (out of 5) so confirmed how painful it is - not that anyone needed to convince Rachel, she knew already! It was a very hot day up on the escarpment so on the way back down we headed to a waterfall and took a dip in the cooling water - this helped the sun burn a bit.

We set some scorpions pit-fall traps near school too in the hope of catching a different type of scorpion.  These are burrowing scorpions and have a bee-sting type sting but are again effectively harmless.  Jonathan normally asks for a volunteer to get stung by one of these for the class and all the matcho-types have of course volunteered - but not me, as I don't see the point.

Today (2nd Feb) we set out early to see what the traps had caught, and we were in luck as we had a good sized scorpion.  Like the rock scorpion yesterday this chap was very relaxed and whilst he can sting he chooses not too except as a last resort.  We all held this chap too and had some nice photos taken (I will post them once we get decent internet access).

Back at school after the lecture from Jonathan he asked for a volunteer to be stung and got 9 (6 from our course, a trainer and 2 from another course).  Despite seeing a video showing someone else get stung with pretty much no pain or reaction people still wanted the macho story to tell.  This probably would not have been a problem for me, but seeing how relaxed this scorpion was and how much he had to be prodded and pocked and generally pissed off before he would commit a sting really wound me up.

From an education point it was very interesting to see that the scorpion only stings as a last resort (in Rachel's case, she lay on it and the scorpion was stinging for its life).  Its first instinct was to run away - then it was held in place by someone whilst the volunteer to be stung squashed its pincers with their arm.  Even then the scorpion tried to get away and sent warning 'stings' (like dry shots with the blunt of the stung and not the actual sting).  Only after all else failed did the scorpion send out a stung. 

And the reaction from the first person?  Hardly felt anything (which is to be expected from the scorpion they were using).  But still 8 more people lined up (some more than once).  The poor scorpion by the end was so exhausted that it couldn't lift its sting.  I hate seeing any animal treated this way; maybe I'm weird but I don't agree with this (1 or 2 people as education, but not the circus it turned into).  Sometimes us humans need to respect animals more!

I did learn a lot about scorpions though so appreciate Jonathan's time.  No longer will I look at a scorpion again and think it could kill me - only a very few have the potential to kill, and only then for the old, young or weak.  Most people will have very little reaction to a sting, except the pain that Rachel felt.