Job Discussion Forums

[yankeechemist]

I am curious. I have a fear of scorpions. Have you seen them (INSIDE). Anyone reading this ever been nailed by one?

[OleLarssen]

I was surprised to find out when I moved into my apartment that it came furnished both with a fire extinguisher and a small flame thrower. I quickly realized that the flame thrower is indispensable in the mornings. All the scorpions come in during the night and sleep in various nooks and crannies, and they can be very grumpy in the morning waking up. So to clear the way to the bathroom and out the front door (and often to the front gate), liberal use of the flame thrower is often required.

Bring heavy boots.

[John Hall]

Very funny, Ole!

In reality, I have not yet seen a single scorpion in my 6+ years in Costa Rica.

[dan_lawrence]

Nice to hear about the non-sighting of scorpians in CR John since I'm planning to retire there soon. . I've been stung on 2 different occasions here in Florida. The first time being stung in the middle of the night, I googled scorpians and found out that the variety that got me only had a 5% death rate!

[rpbagwell]

I hate to be the bearer of "unpleasant" news, but we had a run-in with a scorpion (in our room) at the Hotel California in Manual Antonio. As I understand it, they are not very common and are mostly limited to the coastal areas. We have traveled most areas of the country and this is the only time we have seen a scorpion.

Just wanted to give you honest feedback since I fear scorpions as much as anyone. I wish I had a video of my running/screaming episode when we found that one in our room! We reported it to the front desk and they seemed very amused that we were so freaked-out about it.

[still trying]

I lived in various parts of CR for six years and both my hubby and I got bitten. I learned a little trick some years back for bee stings and we tried it with the scorpion bites. It seems to work on them too. When you get stung, get either an onion or a lime/lemon, cut it in half and rub it on the site of the sting. After rubbing for about two minutes, you will see bits of the stinger and poison on the onion. Keep rubbing for about ten minutes total. You will probably still swell up a bit and get redness but it will be worse without the onion.

They really didn't hurt that much but you have to know which scopions to prepare for. Some are much more poisonous.

Hope this helps.

[John Hall]

Since writing that last message, I have remembered that I encountered a scorpion a few months ago. I was looking for an old piece of wood that would be good for growing orchids on, and an old fencepost that I picked up had a scorpion crawl out of a crack in it. I did not panic as the scorpion was not close enough to my hand to be a threat.

When I lived in Japan, I learned not to panic when near poisonous insects. In Japan, I used to live on the edge of town, near a bamboo grove. In May, the whole neighborhood used to crawl with huge poisonous centipedes, with a sting or bite as dangerous as that of a scorpion. When I asked neighbors what they did about them, they would tell me that they would "not notice them." At first, the idea of not noticing a blind, six-inch-long centipede with groping antennae and rear legs filled with red venom as it crawled along my leg was not a concept that I could grasp. However, I began to realize that these centipedes would not sting or bite you if you did not panic. Just let them crawl off you, or gently flick them off with your hand and you would be fine.

Of course, scorpions can see you, and those centipedes couldn't, but still I learned a valuable lesson from my experience in Japan: don't panic, and you will probably be just fine.