Greg In The Desert

My indoor cat Saturn has apparently made friends with a outdoor cat. On more than one occasion I have walked up to the back door to find my cat staring at the back door while a black cat is walking off. It usually spots me before I spot it and starts walking away.

I never hear my cat making any indication that she dislikes the black cat and as far as I can tell, they just sit there staring at each other through the glass. Mostly I only notice the quiet since Saturn has stopped running around and spazing out.

Last week I drove up into the driveway and saw the black cat sitting on the front porch, with my cat watching out the front window. The black cat wouldn’t allow me to approach it and ran off. Where the black cat was setting was a large dead rat, with it’s guts pulled out.

I’ve read that a cat will leave a dead animal for its owner as a sign that the owner doesn’t know how to hunt, the cat is trying to show them how it’s done. In this case, Perhaps the black cat was trying to show Saturn how to hunt since she cannot go outside. Or the black cat is trying to impress Saturn with it’s hunting skills.

I have no problem with Saturn learning to become a better hunter through this method. Especially if it reduces the rat population in the neighborhood. Saturn has done a great job at eliminating the crickets, scorpions and other bugs from the house. However unless I get any varmints in the house, Saturn will have to be happy with hunting twist ties and pieces of plastic from the trash.

I thought I would try to turn a negative into a positive with my scorpions situation by capturing them and keeping in them in a glassed habitat in the house. Perhaps there’s money to be made selling scorpions.

The first thing I did was to clean out a 10 gallon aquarium that was being unused.

I then added cactus from the back yard.

I then added some sandy soil (commonly referred to as dirt), also from the back yard.

I then added a pile of rocks, from the front yard this time.

I then added the scorpion (Vaejovis flavus). This one came from inside the house.

The first scorpion died after keeping it in the tank for about a month. This was despite providing it several crickets that it quickly ate.

Since Saturn the cat came along, I rarely get a scorpion before she kills them. Plus she is has eliminated the scorpion food supply in the house so I don’t know that I will get much more of them. The tank currently sits empty.

A high school teacher in my hometown of Chandler, Arizona claims to have found a scorpion in his bag when he bought an egg McMuffin from McDonalds. The story on Channel 15’s website describes the scorpion as a baby and more venoumus than an adult.

It wasn’t just any scorpion — it was a baby scorpion, which is even more venomous than it’s adult counterpart.

Both of these statements are false. The scorpion appears to be a Vaejovis spinigerus, that looks like the same kind of scorpion I find in New Mexico. This is probably an adult as they don’t get much bigger than this. Had Channel 15 bothered to just use google, they would have found the ASU’s “Ask A Biologist” website where Christopher Putnam states

Other people say the sting of a baby scorpion is more dangerous than the sting of an adult, but again, this is false. The venom in a scorpion’s stinger is the same all through a scorpion’s life.

I suppose it is possible for the scorpion to find it’s way into the bag. I would hope it didn’t get into the bag at the restaurant but maybe in at the manufacturer or during transport. I wasn’t able to find where the bags are made. Scorpions are found in Chandler, but since the city has become more developed they are not nearly as common as they used to be. I find the whole story suspicious.

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Another potential use for the scorpions I keep finding in my house.

Amber InsectNside (Amber Brittle), is a ribbon style toffee flavored candy with a real Edible Scorpion inside. Looks like fossilized amber. Net wt .75oz.

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In early May I spotted the first scorpion of the year in the house. In the last few years I have been living here, this is the earliest I have seen on in the house. In previous years I didn’t start to see them until July.

I was sure they were coming in from the garage so I put diatomaceous earth throughout the garage and around the entrances to the house. Diatomaceous earth works good on insects because it’s very itchy to insects and it will suck the moisture out of their bodies. In the case of scorpions I’ve read that they will just avoid it.

Tonight I came home and found Saturn playing with something. The good news is Saturn found a scorpion the bad news is the scorpion made it past my defenses. That means that it either went around the diatomaceous earth or it came in another way.

I will start going around the perimeter of the house sealing up cracks. I’m not sure what else to do.

Since I have had problems with scorpions, I keep finding in my house in the last few years, I’ve been trying to think of something to do with them. Instead of just releasing them back outside maybe I could sell them on the internet or something.

Or how about turn them into Vodka.

Scorpion Vodka is made with farm raised buthus martensii scopions, made in china of course.

According to their website:

Alcohol infused with a scorpion is said to possess many excellent health properties when drunk, such as helping to increase libido, lowering blood pressure & helps remove toxins in the bloodstream.

If scorpion vodka doesn’t do it for you, they have other stuff such as edible worms or crocodile curry.

Pretty sure this is a tarantula I found walking up my drive way tonight. It’s small, about this size of a wolf spider.

This is the first tarantula I’ve seen, although I’ve had plenty of Scorpions. I welcome them onto my property and even into my house.

I tried to run back outside to capture it but I couldn’t find it.

The New Mexico Scorpions start playing October 19th. The real live scorpions have started invading my house on August 12th.

Last year I saw my very first scorpion, in my house, on July 31st. I then found a total on 7 of them over the next two month. I then took some steps to find major pathways that could give these guys a way in. Apparently I didn’t get them all.

I know the crickets were coming in around the rear sliding door and the garage is insect central. Lets see how the next two months go.