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Hadrurus arizonensis

whoami?

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 27, 2002
Messages
219
Hadrurus arizonensis test.

I've never been envonomated by a scorpion before, so I thought I'd give it a try. Since my P. imperators absolutely will not sting me, I decided to try it out with my desert hairies. I got stung by my 5 inch desert hairy a few days ago, but that was apparently a dry sting, which means I didn't learn anything from it. So I had to see if my 2.5 inch desert hairy would do any better.

So I just got stung by a Hadrurus arizonensis. About 2.5 inches. I know it wasn't a dry sting because I left it's "stinger" in me until I could no longer stand the pain.

At first, the sting was pretty painful. On par with being bitten by an "usambara babboon spider" of similar size.

But unlike a bite from a P. murinus, the pain almost completely disappeared after like 5 minutes.

Interestingly, though, I quickly got a warm, numbing sensation in my entire hand. It was quite unlike anything I've felt before. And it wasn't painful, either. And dare I say it, it actually felt rather pleasant, in a weird sort of way. It was like my knuckles were taking a nice, hot shower.

But this sensation also disappeared about 10 minutes after being stung. It's now been half an hour and I've had no other noticeable effects. And my hand feels just like it did before being stung, after only a half hour.

I'm not sure which venom I got, the more deadly venom, or the more painful venom. But either way, it was an entertaining experience for about 10 minutes.

And I really don't think I need to add this notice, but DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! It's stupid to intentionally let a venomous animal sting you, and I only did it because I'm an idiot ( and to a lesser extent, because I was already pretty confident that H. arizonensis is generally considered a "harmless" species).
 

Critterfarm

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 2, 2004
Messages
274
While trying to take some nice naturalistic photos of my big female 4.5 " H ariz. I was battling with keeping her inside my photo stage. She's pretty fearless and each time she saw me move towards her in an attempt to tail and position her she would raise the claws and throw the tail up and charge. I ended up getting stung twice in the right thumb and once in the meaty part between the thumb and finger. The stings were not in succession, one was on Friday and 2 were on Sunday. The stinger was inserted well enough to lift the scorpion off the ground when I flinched each time. No pinching was attempted. Each time felt like a wasp or fire ant, a burning painful sensation for a minute or two then slight swelling at the site. No lasting or adverse affects at all. It's safe to say, at least in my case, these are harmless albiet fiesty scorpions.
 

Stagger-Lee

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 20, 2004
Messages
170
overview of 4 stings

i think whoami put it nicely ''Interestingly, though, I quickly got a warm, numbing sensation in my entire hand. It was quite unlike anything I've felt before. '' i felt this once out of 4 stings and woudl discribe it as an electrical shock if i touched the area of the sting. initial pain is stabbing intence 4-8 on a scale of 1-10 bumble bee being 5
 

Stagger-Lee

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 20, 2004
Messages
170
7 hrs ago i had a bit of a misshap transferign some adult males ended up almost droppign one and in the proses sof keeping him from fallign took a real good tag to my stomach. the initial pain was a 4 and lasted a good 10 min or so and a red raised area appeared growign to the size of a silver dollar over the first hr then shrinkign down to about a dime size welt that hurts alittlke
where it remains slightly sore. durign the first coupole hrs i experianced some slight muscle spazems in my stomach which may or may not of been related to the sting.
for the next day n a half i experiances occasional muscle spazems in my stomach and chest as well as some weird feelings and slight pain, basically i felt icky nd the welt had gone down some but i light bruise about 2" across bullseyed out from the welt. on the 3erd night i started gettign alot of muscle cramps in my legs/calves and finally ended up takeign some quinine sulfate aroudn dawn to stop it so i coudl get rest after that other than feelign a little run down ive been fine
 
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James H

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 30, 2004
Messages
120
I was out flipping boards one afternoon looking for banded geckos and I founda 3.5-4 inch Desert Hairy. I had collected them many times and had several at my house so I proceded to pick it up by the tail and I started walking back to my truck where I had some deli cups to place critters in when it curled back up and got a hold of my thumb with its pincers and was able to twist just enough to get the tip of its stinger into my thumb. At first it just burned a bit and then it started to feel like I had hit my thumb with a hammer. It lasted about 20 minutes at the most and then the pair went away. The only lasting effect was a tingling feeling at the site and an itching feeling for a couple of hours. Not something that I would like to go through again but not anything that I would be worried about have happen again.
 

Gsc

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
538
A few years back I was working in a pet store...I got the place to carry inverts. Science teachers at local schools really love T's, scorps, millipedes, etc because they are low maintenance & hardy classroom pets. We were out of Emperor scorpions and I had just gotten in a few desert hairy scorps in... I had one left... I pulled the tank out to show her that although you shouldn't handle scorpions in the classroom, that desert hairy scorpions are an agressive species (I still feel that behind an emperor scorp, these guys are a great choice for a beginner keeper!...)... I coaxed it to crawl onto my palm...keeping my hand & fingers flat.... nothing threatening... we began to talk about the care & maintenance and I must have gotten carried away.... I guess I kinda cupped my hand or something...alll the sudden I felt a sting, then another, then another.... by this time I had a group of customers gathered around (listening to the info on the scorp and looking at it in my hand)... they all saw it tag me multiple times... I played it cool and SET the scorpion back in its cage...didn't want to freak out and scare them...put the tank back away and finished talking about them.... This whole time my hand was throbbing.... Sufice to say, I didn't sell that scorpion that day....


I've messed with these things so many times... this was just a nervous specimen... the stings were completely my fault...I was being careless and shouldn't have been holding the animal and/or "multitasking" in the first place... My hand throbbed for a few hours but the pain did go away.... I'm a little more respectful of them these days...

Over the years I've been stung by a C. gracillis once and bitten twice by Scolopendra heros sp. centipedes while collecting (that's a whole story by itself...not a pleasent experience...but nothing too horrible).
 

Stephen G. Roy

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jun 2, 2005
Messages
14
After Effects?

I got it between the knockle and first joint of the right hand, and it was much as related above. In the years since, I DO notice a 'tightening' of the joints in cold wet weather.
 

senor ocho

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 4, 2003
Messages
65
OK, this is a dumb one. 7/8/05 5:18 PM
I was transferring animals into new enclosures, employing much more of a cavalier attitude than usual. I was tailing all of my H. arizonensis without incident until the final specimen. I missed, and it grasped me with its palps and stung me once on the fingerprint side of my middle finger of my right hand and then slammed my right index finger, just below and to the left of the nail. She got her entire spine into me up to the telson, and wriggled and shivered as she gave me a healthy dose. She then tried to remove the spine, but was embedded in the finger/ This seemed to piss her off even more, and I suspect she juiced me again until she finally removed said spine. The pain came hot, throbbing and fast. I knew she gave me a heavy dose, and the pain lasted for over an hour and a half in the index finger. The middle finger pain lasted only 20 minutes. At 7:00 PST - 10:00 PST my lips, teeth, and feet became tingly, and the finger was dead numb. The next morning 7/9/05, all was well save for the finger still being stiff. Later that night, I experienced a muscle cramp in my left calf. Early this morning 7/12/05 the cramp returned. As I write this, my left calf is sore and my index finger is still slightly stiff.
What's the funniest part of all is for the 2 days following the stings, the female H. arizonensis had NO desire to sting anything, even prey. It's like she knew she was carrying an empty magazine.
The lesson here is musn't futz.
-chris
www.krazy8sinvertebrates.com
 

BACKWOODS

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 10, 2008
Messages
6
desert hairy

Well I had just got my box from reptist and was checking to see if everyone was ok and a large female bolted out of her deli. And I had just woke up and was only in shorts laying on the bed and she went straight for my shorts and got my right above my waist band it was only painfull for about 30 mins with slight sweling not a big deal realy but caution should be taken with any scorp.
 

Jacobchinarian

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 2, 2010
Messages
255
I got stung by a desert hairy scorpion approximately 2 inches from the base of the tail to the mouth area while I was trying to pack him into a vial for shipment. I was being careless knowing that a sting wouldn't be terrible and I picked him up by the tail with my fingers. He managed to wiggle until his legs could grip my hand and after that I'm not sure what happened but I know he stung my right thumb. Instantly there was pain like a bad bee sting and the same tingly electric feeling everyone talks about. We got him into his container and caped the lid on him. After five minutes at the most the pain went away for the most part but still noticeable. An hour or two later as I write this the area still feels tingly and a little painful but definitely bearable. On a scale from dry to poecilotheria ornata:5
 

los3r

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
Messages
58
Decided to try handling my 2.5 inch scorp. Seemed pretty mellow walking on my hand until it walked over to my thumb and almost gently inserted the stinger. Felt like a bee sting, thumb was throbbing for a little while, then went numb. Numbness went up my arm and to my face. Stayed numb till the next day. Strangest sensation ever.
 

Ripa

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
341
Feisty scorpions indeed. My female (about 4 inches long) decided to make a break for it when I had my back turned trying to fish out a rowdy cricket for her. Needless to say she didn't get very far, however, in the event of detaining and picking her up, she stung me once on my index finger. I won't lie, it felt akin to being stung by a large paper wasp, but otherwise, no ill effects after the pain completely subsided at the 20 minute marker.
 
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