Tucson AZ Real Estate

This is Harry. He is a Giant Hairy Scorpion. I thought he would be perfect for introducing you to this post on Tucson Scorpions. We will get back to Harry, but first lets take a look at the little begger that is most commonly seen around your home and yard, the bark scorpion.

There is a Latin name for them but I don’t speak Latin and I’ve never met a scorpion that speaks Latin either. Okay, so you really want to see the Latin for Bark Scorpion. It is Centruroides exilicauda. I prefer Arizonus Stingus Badus. The Bark Scorpion is the only one whose venom is considered to be life threatening. The others just give you a good scare and a nasty sting.

However, if you are stung by a bark scorpion it doesn’t mean your life is threatened. I’ve known several people stung by them and they said it was a most unpleasant sting and burnt like they were on fire but they lived.

As you can see the bark scorpion isn’t very big, they are sandy or hay colored. Their body is little more than the size of a dime. At the other end of the spectrum for Tucson Scorpions we have Harry.

The Giant Hairy scorpion does speak Latin and his name is Hadrurus arizonensis nicknamed Hadrus. My preferred name is Arizonesis Notus Badus.

Giant by Arizona scorpion standards. As you can see he is much large than a dime. Harry is about 4 inches with his pinchers pulled back the way they are in the photo. Giant Hairy Scorpions get to be up to 6 inches in length so either Harry is of moderate size or he expired before being fully grown. They don’t like to be threatened and take the classic movie pose when they are. They strike swiftly and accurately fortunately their sting only produces mild pain and irritation.

Harry is quite the earth mover, they will dig down as much as 8 feet. He is the bulldozer of scorpions. Here he is in full length pose.

From this point of view you can certainly see why they are called hairy.

If you have never been where there are scorpions these pictures probably give you the creeps, unless you are a boy and then you probably think they are really cool. I lived in Tucson 4 years before I saw my first scorpion. Now I don’t think anything of them, they are a pest to respect and remove, once flattened.

If you don’t have scorpions where you live you probably do have wasps, or hornets, bumble bees, or brown recluse spiders, maybe even black widow spiders. You grew up around them and they seem like a normal part of life. I’ve had to deal with my share of wasps and I’ll take a scorpion over a wasp any time.

The Care and Feeding of Your Pet Scorpion

I’m kidding, well almost. Here is the idea, don’t feed them and you won’t see them, at least not as often. Scorpions feed on bugs. They don’t come into the house or garage wanting to sting anyone. They come looking for food. If they don’t find food they leave.

We have the house treated about once a month during the monsoon season and anytime we see bugs in the garage. The spay kills the bugs and any scorpions that enter the house. That’s what happened to Harry and the bark scorpion. I don’t work with live scropions they are too hard to pose.

Scorpions glow in the Dark

This is probably the coolest part about scorpions, if you shine a blacklight on them after dark, they glow. If you are a scorpion trying to hid and go about your business the worst things that can happen is for someone to show up with a blacklight and ruin your whole day.

If you want to read more Latin and see some sketches of scorpions here is what the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum website has to say about scorpions.

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