Unwelcome Guest

Great pics and a great story, europium. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you, really enjoyed that little lesson. The pictures were great.

Geetings, europium,

Wow! CR4 has suddenly become scientific! (Joke.) Thanks for the dissertation and great photos. What did you use for the UV source?

Regards,

Europium?

No, but I can saddle and ride em!

Sorry I couldn't resist that!

Last week I saw an article in which the unfertilized embryo of a cat, was injected with the cells from a jellyfish that make it glow. When the cat was born, and bathed in UV, sure enough that critter glowed in the dark.

I'm not sure what it proves but someone obviously had money to burn, probably Uncle Same!

Nice post. Thanks for the effort. I have those nasty bugs on my property in Mexico and the rule is, never put on your shoes without making sure they empty!

L. J.

Yessir, Iropium.

LOL

I noticed that he had very considerately fallen into the disposal side of the sink. That is about as good as it gets at cleanup time!

Yeah, they don't like disposals. A few weeks ago one of 'em complained that it makes him dizzy...

You can't please everyone, and if you end up displeasing one of these nasty little boogers, well......

My suggestion is that if you MUST displease one, you displease him to death!

I lived in Odessa while working in the oil field around there. Coming from the East Coast my first incounter was having one come wondering across the den floor while watching TV one night.

Learned to keep my shoes on and shake out everything.

http://www.bugspray.com/article/scorpions.html

I live in Minnesota where it gets quite cold and I'm sure others wonder why with all the places on earth I would choose to live here (land of Al Franken, Jesse Ventura and assorted other political goofballs)...we don't have scorpions, black widow spiders and coral snakes. My advice...move. Good Luck.

"...we don't have scorpions, black widow spiders and coral snakes."

But you do have some great fishing and great writers (Robert Bly)

L.J.

Someone from Minnesota once told me that it gets so cold there that the flashers only describe themselves.

I love living in Texas, but I wouldn't mind giving New Zealand a shot, tho. Fabulous country.

Actually, it got so cold one winter that the words froze as soon as they left your mouth, and fell on the floor, and you had to sweep them up towards the fireplace to hear what was being said.

And when you broke wind, it froze and rolled down your leg like a walnut.They were used for kindling, but you had to be careful not to put too many in at once or you could blow out the chimney.

WE used to have fart fights.Put a fuse in em and light em and throw em at each other . Not quite an M80, but close.

You had to watch out for doze lumpy ones, cuz de had a lot of "crapnel"

Yea, dem wuz de days ov innocent chile hood.Jus good cleen fun.Kids now daze don no how to play.

Missin Minnesota

Lawdy, chile'! Y'all soun' like yo Missin' 'Sippi, not 'Sota!

I have only encountered a live scorpion once. That was in the bathroom sink in a "bando" in Ruaha National (Animal) Park in Tanzania. I killed it (smashed it) with an ash tray. Subsequently, I asked one of the folks that lived in the area and they said the sting was exceptionally painful but only would last about 45 minutes. Was that your experience? I would assume such a sting could be fatal if one has an allergic reaction as some do with bees and wasps.

You can credit the great folks at our local ER for the fact that I'm posting this right now.

Great presentation, thank you! Even the least dangerous of scorpions, the Vinegaroon, has a painful sting. Are you certain you had a coral snake? There are at least three color mimics that are harmless, and I don't recall the coral's range extending into central TX (although it could). The coral's color pattern is alternating wide black and red bands separated by narrow yellow stripes, and is distinctive of only the coral.

It was a coral snake, most indeedy. Here in Texas you learn who's who and what to look for at a very tender age. One of those survival skills that comes with the territory.

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/naturalworld/bughouse/scorpionsoup.aspx

I don't think I'd risk it.

I'll bet THAT'S got a whang to it! So they taste like wood, do they? Pine doesn't taste like oak...

In Texas, the species of snake you mentioned is almost certainly a King snake...a Coral snake mimicker (Batesian mimickry).

The species on my patio was a coral snake. Quite.

Those two snakes shown in your pic are as different as day is from night and there's no mistaking which is which. Not only are the markings very different, but for comparably-sized snakes the heads differ greatly in size between the two species. A coral snake's head is much smaller. There was no confusing it with a king snake, which we also have here and which is beneficial.

No disagreement or argument intended behind post or pix:

The pics were merely for exhibit (not proof) purposes; although people tend to think of snakes by their 'folio' pics, they actually display (phenotypically) in wide varieties—same as people—of intra- as well as inter-species appearances.... (Said a nuther way ... my way of apprising that that king snake's photo which most closely mimics the Texas varieties of coral snake could not in short order be found on the Web.)

Anyhow, I would never argue a point (what you saw but I did not) which is inarguable; however, it is noteworthy (just for fun, mind you) that in Texas, the nation's most urbanized state, the statistically significant chance that any (lifelong) Texas resident will see a coral snake in the wild in a lifetime is…zero...or there'bouts! So your experience places you in very rare company indeed, especially so for a relative latecomer (i.e., a "true Texan") in that state. Another…"factuality" (how's that for a Texas coinage?) that always places such claims in doubt (as I'm sure you'll agree) is that typically (which is to say, except for vocational/"avocational" snake handlers and specialists), the panic reaction (in older children and adults) that accompanies actual snake encounters will cast a cloud over "details" reported later about the encounter. It's one thing to talk of snakes; quite another to run into one…and in a place like Texas where talk is cheap and abundant, that (uncertainty born of fear) accounts for great numbers of snakes being senselessly as well as needlessly slaughtered.

The characterization of one (non-venomous, i.e., non-threatening to people) snake species as beneficial, in that it implies "anti-beneficial" as regards other species is not inarguable. That king snakes (for their own benefit) prey on rattlesnakes might prove beneficial to rattle snake prey…which, in due course might be detrimental to people and their property as incidental "victims" (say) of rodents; but since rattlers never prey on people, in fact will avoid them, to say that king snakes are beneficial in that sense requires a tortured (a very natural) kind of logic. Similarly, given the near-non-existent chance of encountering a coral snake (within snake's length distance), and disregardomg whatever predatory virtues if might have (or not have), where is the sense in killing one before it gets a chance to escape never to be seen or encountered again?

It brings to mind the time a young rattler slithered into our front yard on late summer afternoon. It did take some doing to not imagine that it would one day maliciously make me regret my choice…to treat it no differently than other snakes sharing our land; but that is what we did, taking steps only to removed it to a spot where a new pet, a curious young cat, would be (hopefully) less likely to encounter it.

Funny thing about corals…they are so reclusive, and so infrequently encountered, that very little is known about them, and relatively few pictures of them in the wild. This became especially evident when viewing snake pics on the Web. Whereas the king snake is fairly well represented as to species and varieties, the coral snake is virtually unrepresented: I even observed where a picture of one coral snake (species) has been lifted and re-used in articles pertaining to entirely different coral snake species!

Concluding, since posting earlier I was able to find and put together a little exhibit of the king snake that is the well known (Texas) coral snake mimicker: the Scarlet King snake….much closer similarity than the king posted earlier. Even then, things are not always clear cut, except to the excited mind and stick or ax holding hand. Here's another little exhibit to have some fun with.

Next time I'll take a pic before I roast the bugger's ass beyond all recognition.

My wife and her family are Texas natives who have encountered coral snakes on a number of occasions. A girl I worked with -- also a Texas native -- found one in her living room as she was having her morning coffee. She whacked off its head, skinned it, and pegged the skin to her office wall for all to admire. It was up there for six months and it was indeed a coral-snake hide. The best part of it was that Linda is an amateur herpetologist specializing in native Texas species. If anyone knows Texas snakes, she does.

I live north of Austin, my wife is from Temple, and my colleague lives in Buda, just south of Austin. All of us have encountered coral snakes here, more than once. Either these chance encounters are all statistical anomalies or the statistics are just plain wrong. Coral snakes are not nearly so rare as one might think. And I have a little girl who plays on that patio daily. The snakes go.

Sorry to be bull-headed about this, but I stand by my story.

europium to CowAnon : "Sorry to be bull-headed..." !! ROFL

I don't know who Wiki (OK,OK, I know it's Wiki) agrees with ;

The picture is Micrurus tener, from Google Images. Wiki, as above, lists a whole stack of 'Coral' snakes.

This thread is giving my index finger RSI !

You caught it! HaHA!

I knew there was something I liked about you.

The one in the four o'clock position looks suspicious to me; I don't see the typical banding I would expect, but the handler obscures much of the body. Here are pictures of a Florida coral snake (viewers left) and an Arizona coral snake (viewers right).

Turns out, there are nine species of coral snake: Micrurus dumerilii, M. frontalis, M. fulvius, M. ibiboca, M. langsdorffi, M. lemniscatus, M. medemi, M. mipartitus, and M. surinamensis.

Thank you for the information. In reference to the pic's, the remarkable thing by my assessment is the consistency of banding—the comparative lack of pattern variablity—among Coral snake species: slight gradations in (base white?) color, yes: but variation of striping, for less if any. This leads me to to sense:

1. That the trait is a very ancient evolutionary acquisition possibly harking back to a common ancestor that inhabited the inland seas (and the snake does seem to have morphology consistent with marine and aquatic snakes) which once inundated the present, sedimentary crust that encompasses present-day coral snake ranges.
2. That with lowering of sea levels, and the formation of geographic and ecological barriers (niches), the present species have (since divergence into present day species) remained isolated...with little or no opportunity for crossbreeding that might have led to greater variability (as is the case with King snakes).

A further question which suggests itself to me is, what the (rather invariate) expression of stripes in the Corals genus might say about snakes in general: in particular, whether or not girdling stripes (be it phenotypically expressed or only vestigial) is (or is not) a (genotypical) trait shared by all snakes(?). Looking at other (mammalian) genera, in particular, cats (where it is said that all cat skin is striped whether visibly so or not)...it's not unreasonable to see an analogy in snakes.

Your guess about the Scarlet King imposter is unexpected, and noteworthy: in that it looks beyond the mere aspect of coloration...something which (as with many species) is a trait fully acquired only after a certain period of aging and differentiation.

Unfortunately....close, but no cigar.

Maybe you'd like to venture a guess at #83? By my count I can definitely say the number of "hits" on the fellow's hand was...at least two.

Sorry...not able to spell check the above: the intruder anomoly that Mark asked to be informed about reappeared when I tried... I'll be sending him a spell check error notice as he requested...

No more guesswork from me, thanks, but here's some coral snake geneology I dug up that confirms your supposition regarding sea snakes:

The cobra family is thought to have evolved from Colubrid snakes and many appear very similar in appearance with long, slender bodies and large scales (plates) on the head. They differ in having more advanced venom delivery systems than the venomous Colubrids. Elapids have fangs that are "effectively tubular" in that the fangs contain grooves that are enclosed by an infolding of the edges. The fangs are in the front of the mouth rather than the rear as is seen in venomous Colubrids. The Elapidae contains some of the world's most dangerous snakes including cobras (Naja), mambas (Dendroaspis) and sea snakes (Hydophinae and Laticaudinae). Elapids are found worldwide and in Ausralia are the predominant family. In North America, three species of elapids are found, two species of coral snakes and one sea snake. The coral snakes are relatively small snakes that spend most of their time underground. Their primary food is other snakes. Despite their small size and small fangs, their venom is extremely toxic.

Now here's a snake hunter that definitely airn't no woos! Wonder how many rocks those blistered-over finger tips must clumb er clawed aloose. Try'n find where the strikes landed.

MMM! Scorpion tail..remove stinger...tastes like shrimp,only milder.

Nothing but a dry-land crawfish.

Add seafood boil to boiling water,drop in scorpion tails,or whole scorpion(minus the stinger of course). Just don't overcook.

Yum Yum!

Al Bayou Sef ( De lonesome-ist Bayou dey iz)

Scorpion tail with stinger: Nothing but a dry-land Cajun crawfish.

Now that's what I call tasty!

You ain't lived till you've had Scorpion Ettoufé and a healthy dollop of gumbo an' dirty rice served up with fried gator, fried catfish and jalapeno hush-puppies! And dip that gator in genuine home-made shrimp cocktail sauce, not that "marinaro" crap they serve at Pappadeaux.

Damn, son!

Cool pictures! I've only seen a couple of them in my whole life, but that one looks rather small. With that many per acre, I'd move before morning.

"With that many per acre, I'd move before morning."

Oh no you wouldn't. They're most active at night...

...while * yoooou're * sleeeeeeeee * piiiiinnnnng.......

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA....

Don't move to Gabon ;

This site has a cool photo collection ; http://www.ub.ntnu.no/scorpion-files/gallery.htm

Okay, Kris. Tell me how you got that pic of my ex-wife. I thought I burned it.

ROFL ! The sting from one of them is without doubt the most painful. There are few known remedies.

If yer ever drivin' thru central Texis and needta use a rest stop er restroom in a state park, yer likely da step up...an' see 'em there, waiting fer yuh! Yikes!

Try not ta sit downer they jis mite hop a ride own yer pants legs.

Gives a whole new meaning to "BAILIFF!!! Whack his pee-pee!"

More like: Bailiff, we needa get that swellin' down. Dismiss the jury; bring eem in chambers.

Nice bark scorpion, in Ariz. they like to eat crickets. If it is the same there get rid of the crickets and the bark scorpions will look for food else where. The rest you are on your own.

They have one of the worst stings. They can flatten out and slip into cracks thinner than a dime. The side curl tail give it away.

Brad

"They have one of the worst stings."

From the 1940s through the 1960s Bark Scorpions were responsible for around a thousand deaths a year. (I don't have more recent statistics.)

Their diminutive size makes little difference in the danger they pose to humans. A Bark Scorpion's venom is a toxic mix of amino acids, enzymes and proteins that results in an effective neurotoxin with systemic effects - it shuts down the entire nervous system - and quickly. In fatal cases the sting from a Bark Scorpion causes paralysis, anaphylaxic shock, coma, cardiac arrest, then death. Gram for gram a Bark Scorpion's venom is about a thousand times as toxic as a rattlesnake's.

About 5 years ago in Florence Ariz. I'd guess at one in the morning, a group of us guys getting off of work were walking around a corner and there was a big desert toad 5 to 6 inches across. Biggest I'd ever seen. Just then I was shoved to the side and didn't know if it was time to fight or stop one when a guy that we've never seen eye to eye pointed at the ground.

I wish I would have had a five gallon bucket because I would have made one monster of a paper weight. A scorpion as big as my boot in front of me and I almost stepped on it. He just ignored us (about 20 men) like we did not exist. I walk beside it and put my boot about a foot away for comparison. Almost as long, I'd have a to estimate 10 inches (ok I got short feet). The scary part was that was with his tail up. I've watched shows on scorpions that say they don't get that big but that is total BS.

About two years later we were in Tucson and found his arch enemy, a 14 inch Centipede. I've never seen a show on how big they get yet but that was larger than I had ever imagined and no I didn't stick my tennis shoe down to measure it, I'd be nervous he could even bite though my boot.

I've learned not to take the entomologist at absolute gospel. I'd still like that paperweight. The one that scared me was a tarantula wasp. 4 inches of dark neon blue. Flitters around the floor checking out everything.

Brad

Good Lord! You need to carry a camera with you at all times!

We lived in Albuquerque in my junior year at high school. I walked home from school in the afternoons, across this big, empty patch of desert between the school and my neighborhood.

As I was walking along I saw what I thought was a snake dart out from under one sagebrush and race to another. The odd thing was that it move in a straight line, not side to side like snake.

I got a closer look and it wasn't a snake. It was a centipede about 12" long! I'd never seen one that large. Its caramel-colored head was the size of my thumbnail. The body was a sickly whitish-beige. The idea of something like that racing up my pants leg gave me the creeps. Still does.

I raced home and found a wide-mouth gallon pickle jar in dad's shop. Raced back and caught the centipede. Then I found another one, measuring maybe 5 inches in length. I put it in the same jar and big one shredded it to bits immediately. The thing didn't have a chance.

While in the Air Force I was stationed at Edwards AFB in the Mojave Desert. Not far was a place we'd like to hike called Little-Rock Reservoir. One spring we were hiking around the place and walked under a large tree covered in blossoms. The air was fragrant and it smelled wonderful. As we started to pass under the tree we heard these odd 'rattling' sounds. Not like the sound of a rattlesnake, but different. It came from above, from the tree.

When we looked up we saw hundreds of huge wasp-like insects foraging on the flowers. The rattling sound came from their beating wings as they flew from blossom to blossom. The wasps had blued-steel-colored bodies and bright orange wings. None were smaller than three inches long. The ones in the lower branches had become aware of us and were poised to attack.

We backed out very, very slowly. Some of the wasps left the tree and buzzed us, but none attacked directly. We were incredibly fortunate.

That would have been another for the cameras,

In the deep woods of the northwest there is a black and white striped wasp about 4 inches long. They seem to be attracted to campfires. My Dad calls them fire wasps because they are also attracted to forest fires. They have that fast helicopter sound when flying. What got me about them is that 3/8 inch stinger in the back.

Now I own a digital camera and a camcorder. They go with me when I travel.

Locally we have lots of "endangered species", Pygmy rabbits, burrowing Owls, a 3 foot earth worm, of course like the spotted owl there is lots of them. I have a hard time believing they are endangered, many more and they would be a pest.

I almost sprayed some of the worm holes, but talked with my cousin first out of curiosity. They leave a 2 inch tall cone with a hole the size of my little finger (my fingers are medium). Looks like little volcanoes. wonder if I could start a worm farm with those?

Brad

"They leave a 2 inch tall cone with a hole the size of my little finger (my fingers are medium). Looks like little volcanoes.

wonder if I could start a worm farm with those?"

--

I wouldn't. Stay away from those big ones and just focus on rearing night crawlers. Why? An ancient, highly-advanced-but-now-extinct-wannabe-worm-farming civilization tried that once (love those hyphens!) and now Io is completely barren. See for yourself: