SCORPIONS

Like many other members, I have my preferences: no poisons in the house. Therefore, I do not 'spray for bugs," and have an occasional scorpion--4 since moving into this house. Now, if my kitties were to decide these guys were playmates, I suspect that trouble could occur. So, what do other SW cat owners do about our scorpion visitors?
Susan

Yikes, you know I really am unsure. I have never lived anywhere scorpions are prevalant. I will try and do some research for you though.

Thanks for your earlier reply. I guess no one has any experience--does that mean no cats have gotten stung?
Well, I recently read in the new _Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook_ that one can treat scorpion bites like bee stings with bicarbonate of soda. Here's hoping...
Susan

Yeah, I don't think that it's not that cats havnt been bitten. I havnt found anything that indicates a real serious threat. I dont know why, I know they can be very harmful!! I hope the cats just figure it out and stay away.

Well, I've only had one scorpion so far this year. It was on the shower floor, right near the cat's litter box--and very dead. The remaining cat (Obie recently died) is fine. Hmmmmmmm. Just another wee beastie for playing with, I guess.

Susan

YIKES one would be enough for me. I still wish I knew if they did a bunch of harm to cats. I guess I should look into that one further.

Been there, done that. We've have them here but luckily they have not gotten passed the pool. One of my dogs started to play with one but I got to her (the dog) first. Some are dangerous but I'd rather see one of them than a Brown Recluse which is very dangerous. I'll ask my vet about any experiences that he has seen. I'll let you know.

Frannie

Well, the info I read on several websites is that it depends on the type of scorpion and how much venom they inject into the human or animal. There is only one deadly species in AZ that they specify. They say that cats usually get stung less because they tend to toss them around and kill them before they get a chance. The signs would be the same as a human, vomiting,lathargy,diahreah,fever and swelling. If they show any signs, get them to the vet. I hope that helps a little.

Hi. I don't know if it helps but I thought I'd share this experience. My mother-in-law lives in Arizona and as you may know, there is quite a bit of scorpions, spiders and snakes out there. She has four dogs and two cats. When my husband and I were visiting, one dog and one cat were swollen from scorpion stings. The dog had it pretty bad, his whole white furry face was swollen and still he wagged his tail! He reminded us of a seal. The cat two was stung on his face and the poison produced a tight knot there that oozed, poor thing. Other than the constant irritation, they recovered okay after a few weeks (had to control the scratching and fussing and such). I would suggest, of course, taking the animal to the vet if ever stung.

I am from Arizona and now live in Alabama. I never had a major problem with scorpions until I lived here in Alabama. I have decided to have my house sprayed with an "animal friendly" insecticide. I lost a cat due to a scorpion sting. It was horrible! He ended up with kidney failure. The smaller they are the more deadly the bite. There are different breeds of scorpions, but I would not take a chance in trying to figure out if deadly or not. Yet, there are ways to tell. Any other questions feel free to e-mail me.
Barbara
P.S. Yes, I have been bitten a couple of times.

Where in Alabama do you live? I too am from Alabama and have seen a few scorpions myself. I have had one on my kitchen counter before. My biggest fear is the Black Widows around here. My husband caught one (much to my dismay as I stood screaming in the kitchen) that was the largest we have ever seen - we tried to get a local University biology department to take it. I do have our home sprayed every month, I just make sure the pets aren't around when the "bug man" comes. I have been bitten too many times by spiders not to. However, we just found a wolf spider in our bedroom last night. I wonder if all this rain has brought them our this summer.

Hi Anita - I live in Tuscaloosa, Al. We have at one time had hundreds of scorpions. We had a infestation of them. They were breeding all over in our house! Just to be safe for awhile a friend of ours took our new kitten until we had this problem under control. We do still however, have our house sprayed once a month. Seeing our last cat go through what he did was reson enough for us to start using an insecticide. We don't have black widows here, but in Arizona we had them like crazy. They love dark cramped spaces. We just tried to always clean everything and move stuff around. You also want to clean up any dead bugs or insects right away. These tend to be a little snack for spiders(if still fresh) and scorpions. The females are the ones that are dangerous. The red spot on their stomach is very easy to spot. Unfortunatley, females are more common since they mate and then eat the male. I agree with the rain situation. We tend to see more spiders when we have all this rain. One other thing that we use is hot pepper. This is cheap and won't harm animals. We spray this around our whole house. This helps with spiders, scorpions and snakes. They all have soft, permiable bottoms and it burns them so they tend to go the other way.

Thanks for the information about the hot pepper. I knew it kept neighborhood dogs from coming on our patio (we also have a beagle/dachshund mix dog as well as two cats)but never thought it could keep away other "pests".
I have family in Tuscaloosa so it is also great to know so I can tell them. They have 2 small children as well as pets.
Thank you again.

I live in South Central Texas, where there are a great many scorpions. I have found my cats batting them around and stepped in to squish the insect. The cats seem to know that the tails are dangerous and have managed to keep away from the stinger. However, my vet said that scorpion stings can kill kittens or even cats, although he also said they are seldom stung. Just one more thing to worry about!

I don't have scorpions here in Utah, but I do have spiders, which to me, are a real terror. If I see a spider and Jake sees it, I pick him up. Even if the spider can't hurt(I heard most spiders are deadly to humans)Jake, I try to keep him away. I don't want him eating them. I bought some Raid to kill them but I have to put Jake in a closed room while I spray the other rooms. Has any of you cats been bitten by spiders? O, I just saw the post on hot pepper. I will try it. Do you think jake will not get near the peppered spider? Is the hot pepper the same we use to eat? Or were can you get the spray? I will get to work spraying were there are spiders.

There seems to be a lot of panic about spiders -- most of whom are beneficial rather than poisonous -- and other insect problems. Look, scorpions vary a great deal in amount of venom and the body weight (or perhaps the closeness of the sting to a blood vessel) of the victim. Most scorpion bites are less of a problem than bee sting. If you are allergic to bee stings (or your cat is), then you will have more problem than someone else might.

Most spider bites are on the same level, but unlike the scorpion and the tarantula, such insects would rather retreat than attack. A few spider webs up near the ceiling and a few wolf spiders patrolling the floors at night are very beneficial to a house. They eat dust mites, book lice, and a wide variety of insects you don't even know you have. Spinners rarely come down from their webs, and only migrate when they are looking for a mate. Wolfs have territories, but like their dog-like namesakes, and will kill off competitors -- so you are unlikely to be buried in galloping nocturnal hordes on the floor. Cats are also very expert in killing them, which reduces their numbers to one or two, which is about right to keep the dust mites cleaned out of the floorboards or other little cracks and crevices about the house.

If you don't spray everything to death, preying mantises will periodically clean out the spider webs near the ceiling. Black widows have to be rooted out. Do some research on their preferred habitats and then think about your basement, attic, laundry room, the woodshed or garage, etc., and go hunting. They are solitary and secretive, like many truly poisonous things, and you have to be determined to find them.

The only problem with wolf spiders is that they carry their babies on their backs. this means that they will bring them into the house at night in a great mound on their backs while they hunt. If you have the misfortune to get up in the night and frighten one, she will turn to defend her dozens of babies, and the babies will scatter off her to hide until the battle between you is decided. If she cannot continue on her way (in which case, the babies remount her back and are carried back outside by morning), and you manage to kill her (they are rather hard to spray to death and rather large to squash without making you feel very icky), then the babies will remain hidden. Now you have perhaps 60 or 70 tiny little grass-mite sized spiders, and they do bite out of fear and lack of experience. a little like flea bites. Nothing serious, but not pleasant.

so if you see a spider that looks like it has a huge cancerous lump on its back, walk around it. Do not spray or swat at it. Let it go about its business and return to its nest outside. The babies will happily go about their business of eating each other until only a few remain. The remaining ones will try to get away from mama at a certain point in their development, because she will suddenly turn and eat them when they stop looking cute and helpless, and you are down to mama and perhaps one or two survivors, which the cats will reduce further, since they think playing with a wolf spider is the greatest thing invented since the mouse. Natural control -- natural selection.

As to nests of scorpions -- make sure you plaster all cracks and crevices between stone or concrete or tile foundations, floors, etc., since they love to sleep under damp stone. Force plaster between the floor and the skirting boards. Check around your house to be sure you don't have cracks between flagstone patios or porches near or against the house for them to emerge from. If you have stone walls or accent spots in your garden, dig to the base of them a ways and lay down poison, and then cover with dirt again. Your mistake was to build your houses on top of traditional scorpion nesting places (a similar problem with cockroaches and the travel paths of elephants). But since there's not much you can do about that, you can try to insulate your house from intrusion. If you don't give them much safe territory to make their nests, you will minimize the problem. If you can trap a few, take them to someone to identify in terms of venom load and agressiveness. You may find your scoprions are relatively benign.

When we lived in New Mexico, we did a "spring cleaning" by turning all the drawers out and checking for scorpion, tarantulas, and centipedes. In Texas, Spain, Portugal, Greece, and now in Israel, I continue this habit. I also continue the habit of checking my bedding (giving sheets and blankets a sort of flourish to shake up any intruders) and fluffing the pillows. In all these years, I have found a young wolf spider under a pillow or sheet only 3 times, and they are easily dumped onto the floor where they below -- the young ones sometimes get confused about territory until they get some experience, I have never been bitten by a scorpion (although I have seen many), and only twice -- on 2 successive nights -- been bitten on a finger in Spain by what was probably a spider -- painful swelling, but going down within a day or two with a simple tar-based ointment. I am 65 years old, and if all these insects were as pernicious and agressively dangerous as our primal fears would suggest, I should be a mass of bites by now.

Fleas, ticks, and various mites respond well to periodic treatment of my animals and their bedding, and the addition to a little amonia and chlorine to a simple floor shampoo. Only in a really bad year do I spray the house in any consistent manner. I do not clear out webs above 7 feet off the floor except when they become unsightly (and then I am careful not to kill the resident spiders, since they are part of my insect control brigades), and I do not kill a wolf unless she panics and drops her family, in which case I try to get them all. I kill only poisonous things near the house (scorpions, dangerous snakes). And I and my family have survived quite well. A few bites are a small price to pay for leaving nature alone as much as possible.

Just don't panic. Panic leads to over-poisoning, and that's not healthy for your animals OR for you and your children.

Hope this helps a little.