Got nailed by a scorpion today

Post by **primaltheory** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:45 am

Hey, Isn't it all relative? We're a pretty fucking weird country compared to everybody else!

Post by **HM-PuFFNSTuFF** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:46 am

coincidentally, i'm a scorpio and today I nailed...

oh well nevermind

Post by **primaltheory** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:59 am

LoL! I though't I'd use that joke but I thought it'd be lame...

Post by **Scourge** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:59 am

I've been stung by scorpions numerous times. TBH, I'd rather get stung by them than yellow jackets. They don't even really bother me anymore.

edit: But none of them were that big. Mostly around 2 or 3 inches.

Post by **7zark7** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 2:00 am

dang... glad youre still alive jules.

If they have to cut off your foot...I'd be happy to donate one of mine.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 2:17 am

we get a good bit of Scorpions down here, although the ones i've seen are fairly small. this one girl i know, her apartment was infested with them. she was seeing a minimum of 4 an evening scootin' around. turns out the section of the complex she lived was entirely infested.

she moved.

when i lived in San Antonio, i was putting on my shoes out in the garage when i felt something with my big right toe. i shook the shoe thinking it was a rock or something and out came one of those bastards. i tossed my shoe out of the garage instantly.

Post by **Scourge** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 2:32 am

I think the ones around here are more irritating than dangerous.

edit: These are the ones that freak me out.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 2:39 am

Yeah good rule of thumb I heard was the smaller they are the more likely they are to kill you! I guess the small ones tend to be more poisonous

Post by **DRuM** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:30 am

scourge34 wrote:I think the ones around here are more irritating than dangerous.

edit: These are the ones that freak me out.

Here's an ugly image. Imagine going to bed one night, then a few minutes later you feel a few things crawling over you, you get out of bed, turn the lights on, pull the duvet/blanket off and find the bed swarming with dozens of those black scorpions. Isn't that the nost horrific thought? I know, I have the most horrific thoughts.

Post by **werldhed** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:39 am

Kracus wrote:Yeah good rule of thumb I heard was the smaller they are the more likely they are to kill you! I guess the small ones tend to be more poisonous

I don't know anything about scorpions, but this makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. A more lethal species would be able to forego the "size matters" rule.

Conversely, a less lethal species may evolve to be larger as a form of defense and power. I don't know if it's true, but it's possible.

When I was in Costa Rica, I didn't see any scorpions, but I almost was caught Frodo-style by a couple of these fuckers (they're as big as your hand, and the webs were spread across trails and were as big as a person :icon28: ):
[lvlshot]http://www.travelhead.com/trip/journal/caribco/spider.jpg[/lvlshot]

edit: hmm...i guess he didn't want me linking the photo. Oh well...here's another one...

Post by **Scourge** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:42 am

DRuM wrote:
scourge34 wrote:I think the ones around here are more irritating than dangerous.

edit: These are the ones that freak me out.

Here's an ugly image. Imagine going to bed one night, then a few minutes later you feel a few things crawling over you, you get out of bed, turn the lights on, pull the duvet/blanket off and find the bed swarming with dozens of those black scorpions. Isn't that the nost horrific thought? I know, I have the most horrific thoughts.

Well I hope shit kills scorpions, because they would be covered in it.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 5:43 am

dude, you got nailed by a scorpion? was she hawt?

all joking aside, glad to hear ya made it man.

Post by **[xeno]Julios** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:04 am

I read that the larger the pincers, the less venomous they tend to be. The mid-east actually has some of the more venomous scorpions around. There are a couple species in the world that can cause moderate risk of death, and many scorpions can cause death in kids or old people. From what I understand there are close to a hundred of compounds in scorpion venom, and we still haven't understood all of them. The one that stung me didn't cause any allergic reaction or neuromuscular damage, but was highly potent in its pain-generation.

In general, scorpions aren't lethal, unlike some spiders, snakes, and jellyfish.

I've been reading accounts of scorpion stings - some pet owners intentionally sting themselves to see what it's like - many of the descriptions don't match mine (i.e. intense burning for 20 minutes then goes away, or warm fuzzy numb feeling for a couple hours).

This was the most intense agony i'd ever felt in a localized spot - i believe the nerve endings in question were maxed out (it was type A fibre pain, not type C - so it wasn't a dull slow nauseating throb but rather a sharp intense pain).

It actually felt like somoene was constantly sawing off my foot - and it was that notion that was more discomforting than the actual pain. I actually was able to deal with the pain during a few moments when i just let myself ride the pain waves having faith that my foot was in no actual danger.

10 hours later, after the local anaesthetic had worn off, I also discovered what seemed to be an "acupunctural" insight. I found that if i dug my nails into the regions nearby the sting, the sensation of the nails completely drowned out the pain signals, even when the nail digging wasn't hard enough to cause pain.

Post by **obsidian** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:15 am

I don't like scorpions becasue they have far more appendages than any creature should have. Pretty creepy how they have 8 legs, 2 pincers, and a tail. Plus, they remind me of facehuggers.

Post by **werldhed** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:33 am

[xeno]Julios wrote:It actually felt like somoene was constantly sawing off my foot - and it was that notion that was more discomforting than the actual pain. I actually was able to deal with the pain during a few moments when i just let myself ride the pain waves having faith that my foot was in no actual danger.

I'm exactly the same with most pain. I can tolerate the physical hurt easily; but the notion that my body is being damaged is what typically causes me to flinch, fret, or panic. That in turn amplifies the pain, I think.

Post by **[xeno]Julios** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:47 am

primaltheory wrote:dayumn...What about bullet ants? I got stung by 3 of those at once in costa rica...

yikes:

Paraponera (F. Smith, 1858) is a genus of ponerine ants (in)famous for its sole species, the so-called "bullet ant", P. clavata, named on account of its most powerful and potent sting, the sensation of which has often been likened with that of being shot with a bullet by those who have had the misfortune to be at its receiving end. The pain caused by this insect's sting is the highest among all insect bites and is ranked as the most painful according to Schmidt Sting Pain Index. The Ponerinae is a primitive subfamily and their stings are morphologically similar to those of some solitary wasps - the ancestors of ants - and hence are often most severe, being intended as multi-purpose defensive tools rather than the more specialized weapons of more advanced ants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraponera

Schmidt Sting Pain Index or The Justin O. Schmidt Pain Index was created by Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist. Having been stung by almost everything, Schmidt created (on his own time) an index to compare the overall pain of insect stings on a four-point scale.
1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine WC Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of Hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath (if you get stung by one you might as well lie down and scream).
4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_Sting_Pain_Index

Would be cool to see a similar scale for arachnids.

Post by **menkent** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 7:16 am

i'd never heard anything about bullet ants being "deadly" though. hell, on some discovery channel show a guy had one sting him on purpose just to see what it was like. (he was intensely sad afterwards and suggested that viewers not try for themselves)

Post by **Chupacabra** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:25 am

intensely "sad"? regretful or something?

Post by **Ryoki** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:25 am

Kracus wrote:Yeah good rule of thumb I heard was the smaller they are the more likely they are to kill you! I guess the small ones tend to be more poisonous

I thought it was 'the smaller the claws the deadlier the poison'...

Post by **dmmh** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:29 am

I had a scorpion in my underwear once. In this basket I kept all my underwear in at the time.
I saw it just in time, almost had it on, few centimeters away from the family jewels :S

Post by **4days** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 9:14 am

menkent wrote:i'd never heard anything about bullet ants being "deadly" though. hell, on some discovery channel show a guy had one sting him on purpose just to see what it was like. (he was intensely sad afterwards and suggested that viewers not try for themselves)

they're classed as deadly largely because of where they live. if you get bitten by a bullet ant and there's nobody there to carry you out of the jungle, you'll fall down where you stand - then be bitten by more bullet ants (apparently a few bites or a bite in the wrong place can kill you), or you'll get attacked/eaten by other stuff wandering around the forest floor.

thought those orb weaving spiders were sort of cute, apart from the huge webs.

Post by **Freakaloin** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:40 pm

pussy alert? i been stung on numerous occasions...its to the point where i don't even mention it to my wife...no biggie...feels like fire being burned into ur skin but u get over it quick...

Post by **[xeno]Julios** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 3:15 pm

Freakaloin wrote:pussy alert? i been stung on numerous occasions...its to the point where i don't even mention it to my wife...no biggie...feels like fire being burned into ur skin but u get over it quick...

i can pretty much guarantee that if you got stung by the same species that got me, you wouldn't be saying that

Post by **Freakaloin** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 3:19 pm

whatever scorpians they have in central texas...some ppl act like bitches when it cums to stings...i would say it wuz about 5 times worse then a yellow jacket sting...

Post by **Freakaloin** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 3:21 pm

oh and btw...its worse when ur just laying in ur bed then one stings ur torso...or u put a pair of shoes on and bam...or one falls off the veiling and stings u on ur shoulder...pussy alert???...