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Sylvia Crossland, Broker Steve Crossland, MPM (512) 301-5811 |
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Scorpions in Austin Hill Country
May 16, 2008
I was stung by a scorpion in my sleep the other night. This was the 5th or 6th time since 1999 I have been stung in my sleep by a scorpion crawling in the sheets. There are many upsides and positive aspects to living in Austin, but the scorpions might be viewed as a negative by most people.
Scorpions seem to like me for some reasons, as I’ve been stung 5 or 6 times now, all while sleeping. Sylvia has been stung 2 or 3 times. Our kids have never been stung by a scorpion but my youngest daughter did get stung by a centipede when she was 6 years old, which was a harrowing, nightmarish scene that night. The centipede, which I captured with kitchen tongs, was 8″ long and about 1.5″ thick - the biggest I’d ever seen. It struggled so violently to escape the tongs that I freaked out and flushed it down the commode. Normally I would have released it far from the house.
This is par for the course living in a rural “country” neighborhood as we do in Oak Hill. We have a large wooded acreage lot that backs up to undeveloped land, so we see a lot of wildlife around the house including deer, squirrels, birds, snakes, spiders, scorpions, etc. We constantly find scorpions in the house and toss them outside, especially in the summer.
So, what is it like being stung by a scorpion? In a word, painful. It’s a sharp, piercing burning sting, similar to a wasp or yellow jacket sting, but worse. Imagine a sharp hot needle being poked into your skin and left there as the searing pain slowly spreads outward.
The good news is that the pain does usually goes away within 20 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, for me at least, it hurts more than a severe burn. I have a friend who claims to have gone into sweats and hallucinations after being stung multiple times while pulling on a pair of jeans with that had a scorpion inside the pant leg. Your pain and reaction may vary.
So what does a groggy Realtor, writhing in pain, say to the scorpion who stung him at 4AM?
I cornered him near the pillow, with a drinking glass and piece of cardboard in hand, and whispered. “Hey there little fella. Don’t worry. I don’t take it personally. Come on, let’s get you outside where you belong”. I scooped him into the glass, walked him to the furthest rear part of the property and tossed him out into the woods.
My friends say “why don’t you squash the darned thing?”
We don’t kill scorpions, or any other creatures that invade our home. We take them back outside, including the momma scorpion who was once walking through our kitchen with a gazillion little babies on her back. That’s a real creepy sight.
Personally, I think it’s bad luck to kill a scorpion. I wouldn’t feel right doing so, and I encourage others to respect all creatures. We built our house in their spot, so we can be flexible about such intrusions. We don’t treat our house with pesticides, so it’s just something we accept, that the critters are going to get inside now and then.
But why the scorpions like to get into beds, and sting me in particular, is a mystery to me. Maybe it’s because I roll over more often during the night while Sylvia and the kids remain more stationary. It’s always while rolling over I get stung, as the scorpion’s defense mechanism against being crushed must kick in. Otherwise I don’t think they really mean to seek out and sting humans.
Other places they like to nestle is in piles of laundry, behind boxes in the garage, wood piles and rock piles outside. Anywhere dark and out of the way, though it’s interesting that they do occasionally walk right across the living room or kitchen floor in broad daylight.
So, if you’re moving to Austin and want a nice place outside the city limits, on an acre or two in the country, you must accept that unless you want to nuke your home AND YARD with pesticides and poisons, you are going to have occasional encounters with scorpions, spiders and snakes. Interestingly, we have no ant problems, probably because the spiders and scorpions prey upon them, so there is an upside after all.
More on Scorpions at Wikipedia.
Comments
10 Responses to “Scorpions in Austin Hill Country”
Seeing as how you’ve been stung 6 times, I think either killing a scorpion might be good luck, or they have learned they can sting you with impunity. Insects reproduce exponentially and you need not worry about terminating a few (or a lot). I would also be willing to wager that there are more scorpions on your property now then before you built the house.
We built our house in their spot, so we can be flexible about such intrusions. We don’t treat our house with pesticides, so it’s just something we accept, that the critters are going to get inside now and then.
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After the post about the dog, I wasn’t expecting you to be the kind of person that has the above attitude, but I’m glad to know you are! I think we should all respect the animals and insects around us as most of them were here first. Living in the city, I have only come across one scorpion in my house and he was a tiny little guy.
Living with the occasional snake or scorpion is part of life in the Hill Country, and it’s good to know some people accept it as a way of life! Thanks for blogging about it.
Hi Julia,
Oh gosh, let’s not reopen the loose dog blog! But thanks for your comment.
Steve
Steve
I appreciate your resistance to pesticides. However, as a engineer, I am not going to place myself or my family through suffering of insect bites.
I strongly suggest you hire a TX licensed pest control professional and proceed with the eradication. The toxins carried by insects can and will injure youngsters. You live in Oak Hill and your area, like mine, is growing. This pushes the insects into our homes. My pest control specialist commented that the growth on Slaughter Lane will force insects into established areas of houses and animals.
We are the top of food chain for now. I won’t tolerate the pain or worse, the pain of children suffering.
Call me weak but I think it is important to keep our families safe.
I am a pragmatic consulting engineer and I am tasked with solving problems. Sorry, but smaller painful insects don’t do well in my arena.
We moved out to far South West Austin - almost to Driftwood, 2 years ago and we have had our fair share of scorpion run ins - surprisingly no stings yet even thought our daughter was still crawling then. I called Aztec Organic Pest Service when we first moved out here to see what I could do to remove them from my house and the guy who came out said “lady you live on 5 acres of scorpion habitat you better just get used to it”. I have had lots of advice - put your bed’s legs on bowls of water and never let your blankets touch ground etc. I think just wear shoes and shake out your clothes is probably the best I can do! I am going to start checking my bed though.
I’m not a bug killer either - but I would like to get rid of the dang chiggers!!! Any tips for that?
Justine
Scott said: “I strongly suggest you hire a TX licensed pest control professional and proceed with the eradication. The toxins carried by insects can and will injure youngsters.”
The toxins in the pesticides can and will injure your youngsters as well, and your pets. If you’re going to do pest control, definitely at least go the organic route, not chemical stuff. Use the Chem-Free company or someone similar.
We’ve been thinking of buying some land and building a house in south Austin, but now, after reading this, I’m inclined to stay away from land infested with scorpions and chiggers and snakes.
I live in Pflugerviille and for 10 years now have never seen a scorpion. We have friends who live in DS and they’ve had several encounters with scorpions and rattle snakes. In fact, most stories of encounters with scorpions come from people who live in that part of Austin. Is it worse in Oak Hill/ Dripping Springs/ Driftwood area?
I strongly suggest you get rid of your scorpions as my granddaughter was stung by a bark scorpion when she was four and she died in the helicopter on the way to the hospital. Fortunately the paramedics were able to revive her but her heart had stopped beating and she stopped breathing! Please be very careful as these scorpions are more deadly than you realise.
Responding to Gary who mentioned the bark scorpion. Yes, those are I think the most venomous species in the states. However, to my knowledge they are only in AZ and CA, specifically the Sonoran desert. They are not in Austin. I don’t know of any species in Austin that’s dangerous to humans (in that death could occur) under NORMAL circumstances.
My wife retired and moved to Austin to be with grand children. We lived in Wyoming for 39 1/2 years. Austin is very different than Wyoming, where we enjoyed all the time. We find snakes, scorpions, and long array of other Arthropods. Living here in Austin has been really chalanging. Found skunk trapped by the side of bathtub when house was constructed.
It has been very different experience than Wyoming. My wife does not like it. We really do not like living in Austin area because of these problems. Instead of enjoying life we end up spending lot of time in finding ways to combat these unwanted guests.
Well such is life in Austin.