Scorpions sent in mail to harm us, need help to identify type of scorpion

dship3

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
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3
Hi, I have two Scorpions here and I am trying to identify them. My sister received an envelope in the mail filled with plastic Halloween spider rings and happy Halloween tissue paper, and all of a sudden a scorpion was crawling on my sister's arm. We found two in the envelope. Someone is trying to clearly harm or scare us. We are trying to figure out if they could cause harm if one was to sting a person. We just want to know if the person that sent this to us is trying to really hurt us. Attached are some pictures of them. Thanks so much!
 

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DrJ

Arachnobaron
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Jan 11, 2008
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Seeing as you live in CA, they are likely native and pose little, if any, threat.

Sorry, I'm bad at identifying...:(
 

H. laoticus

Arachnoprince
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If those are Centruroides sculpturatus then that was a really sick prank of them. That person may or may not know what this scorpion is capable of, but these little guys can definitely hurt. Hopefully they didn't send out more of these surprises...especially to kids. I am just flabbergasted right now. It'd be good to notify your neighbors about this in the case that they do receive a mystery package.
 
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GPulchra

Arachnoknight
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Jul 21, 2010
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279
This is very sick and disgusting! Was there a return address? How could they do something so horrid, whoever they are?
 

RyoKenzaki

Arachnoknight
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One of the most venomous scorp in arizonia if my ID is right...
The person who sent u this is definitely sick and u should take legal action on him seriously

Anw i would be damm happy to receive them LOL!!!!
 

barabootom

Arachnolord
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What kind of crazy person would do this? Do you know who it is? This is extremely irresponsible. If I received a package like that I'd be furious.
 

gromgrom

Arachnoprince
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One of the most venomous scorp in arizonia if my ID is right...
The person who sent u this is definitely sick and u should take legal action on him seriously

Anw i would be damm happy to receive them LOL!!!!
if someone did this to another actual experienced scorpion keeper, the keeper would find it hilarious. i would.

considered the venom level of these, I'm very sorry for you OP. That was not funny at all.
 

AzJohn

Arachnoking
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That species is Centruroides sculpturatus. They are capable of a bad sting. A healthy adult shouldn't have any problems other than a good deal of discomfort. The species does have deaths attributed to it, but with modern medicine the chances of death or very bad reaction are very slim. The last death was around 50 years ago. Many people are stung by this species every year with 99% (an educated guess) having no more than a painful experience.

The species has a reputation that is much worse than it is. I would assume that the person sending the scorpion meant to harm you and choose to send the nastiest thing they could find. If they were uneducated they would propably use this species, based on it's reputation. If they new enough to know that the species sting isn't likley to result in any real damage, then they are still trying to scare you. Centruroides sculpturatus are very common and be found all over the southwestern US, including in peoples homes.

John
 

AzJohn

Arachnoking
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Just a side note. As a hobbiest, the idea of "Deadly scorpions in the mail" headlines, isn't what I want to see. This whole thing is really bad.

John
 

Envyizm

Arachnoknight
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Just a side note. As a hobbiest, the idea of "Deadly scorpions in the mail" headlines, isn't what I want to see. This whole thing is really bad.

John
I second that. I'm excited at the thought of someone sending me "deadly" scorpions on the mail. I'm sure whoever it was most likely wasn't meaning anyone harm considering it was your little sister who received the package. Its probably a peer of hers either sending or putting the scorpions on the package to give her a scare.
 

fangsalot

Arachnobaron
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on one side,i wouldnt want this on the news due to bad publicity about inverts,especially because of the exaggerations there going to come up with.but on the other hand i think its a good idea to let your local news station know so others would be more carefull about suspicious packages.
 

Toirtis

Arachnobaron
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May 14, 2010
Messages
316
The potential publicity is bad, but this is a serious issue...someone out there is either playing without a full deck, or is just vicious...the next target of their 'delivery' could fare much worse. The police need to be notified ASAP.
 

Vespula

Arachnodemon
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Jul 27, 2010
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706
If this was a prank, this was a sick one. I'd be scared to go to the mail box. At least it wasn't that deadly, but dangerous, none the less.
 

AzJohn

Arachnoking
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on one side,i wouldnt want this on the news due to bad publicity about inverts,especially because of the exaggerations there going to come up with.but on the other hand i think its a good idea to let your local news station know so others would be more carefull about suspicious packages.
I don't think it was a hobbiest that did this. If I wanted to scare some one I'd use an emp or some othre huge but harmless scorpion. If I was out to hurt someone, C scult wouldn't be the first species that comes to mind. I think it's a case of some one, mostly ignorant of scorpions, with cruel intentions. I'm not telling the the OP not to report anything to the police or what ever. In fact if this happened to me, I would. I was just, well, disapointed with what might end up happening. Enough "jokes" like this could result in some rather unfortunate things for the exotic pet hobby, even if it wasn't a hobbiest that did it. I also don't think an instance like this would be wide spread. That would take a lot of time or money to collect a lot of scorpions. Maybe I'm rellying to much on my experience as an educator. This looks a lot like bullying or intimidation to me, maybe revenge against some imagined slight, who knows.
 

John Bokma

Arachnobaron
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Yup, I certainly would report this, even if it were totally harmless scorpions.
 

dship3

Arachnopeon
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Oct 16, 2010
Messages
3
This envelope was specifically sent to my dad to harm him, but my sister is the one who opened it. We are 99% sure it is a lady he recently fired, and she happens to live in Arizona. He called all of his colleagues and warned them not to open any envelopes without a return address. The cops couldn’t do anything, they just joked around the whole time and then killed the scorpions because they said they are a danger. Really sad they are just innocent creatures. They collected the envelope as evidence and can’t do anything else because it is the job of the postal police. We have to call the postal police on Monday. Hopefully they will actually do something about this whole situation. I think if she was trying to scare us, then she would send a package with 10 scorpions. There were only two and they were so well hidden in all of the tissue paper that she was planning on someone un-wrapping the tissue paper and then being stung by the scorpion. So I believe she was really trying to hurt my dad. We are scared she is going to do something else. She is really crazy and we could see her doing anything to harm us. Also we would never contact the media about this because we don’t want people to see this and think it’s a good idea or prank.
 

dship3

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
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Also thanks everyone for your responses and info. We really had no idea what to do since we don't know anything about scorpions and you guys have really helped and informed us. So thank you! I just wish this had ended differently for the scorpions, I am still really mad about the cops killing them. They were doing so much better after I gave them some water and I was planning on handing them over to someone who has experience with scorpions and that could take care of them.
 

Aztek

Arachnoprince
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You think by any chance the scorpions could have gotten in unnoticed on their own accord?
 

khil

Arachnobaron
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Oct 5, 2010
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315
Maybe I should get ppl to hate me so they send me free scorpions LOL
but seriously man find out who, get the fbi on that.
 
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