Sunday, January 06, 2013

Close Encounters of the Scorpion Kind

I had my first encounter with a scorpion today--a dead one (or so I thought at the time!). A guest here at CH found one in his bathroom and drowned it in roach spray. Once he told us about the creature we all had to traipse in to see it. He then scooped it up onto a napkin and left it to dry, after which he brought it out to the courtyard for us to see in a "drier" form. It really looked like a scorpion then. I ran to get my camera and took some shots with my hand next to it to show scale. It was pretty small, as you can see from this photo:
Well, as our guest told me at dinner tonight, it turns out that the little guy wasn't quite dead! I'm glad my guardian angel was looking out for me!

On a more pleasant note, Beau joined me on the roof for some sun worship this afternoon:
And the bee-eaters were out in force:
And one of them was actually eating a bee:

2 comments:

  1. While all scorpions are capable of penetrating human skin and causing a sharp sting, with redness and pain following, only 25 of the 1400 or so known species have venom that is toxic to humans.

    Next encounter, cover him with a jar, slide a piece of paper under to contain him, and release him in a sufficiently distant spot outside.

    The bug spray used was almost certainly more dangerous to humans than the critter.

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  2. Love the photo of the bee eater eating! And of Beau, of course!

    ReplyDelete

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Salaam aleikum!
Marie