How to remove cactus spines (scorpion, schools, live in)

[wase4711]

If you live in Arizona, its going to happen to you sooner or later..Good article to keep handy, just in case..


https://getpocket.com/explore/item/h...in-your-throat

[veritased]

Yes all of a sudden tweezers have become very useful in AZ:
Purpose 1: pick up scorpions for various purposes. I have gotten good at picking up by their tails.
Purpose 2: pick out cactus barbs.

[wase4711]

are you still seeing lots of scorps? I haven't seen one in quite a while..

[veritased]

Me too, I thought they went sleepy for the winter season, however, just this week, found several younger ones, including one tiny bark scorpion in the corner of my yard, some momma dropped her batch off nearby. I just came in from spraying the area. And I saw some down below in the open space below our backyard. Tomorrow I gonna head down there and spray that area too. I wish I knew what their effective night predator was and grew and trained them myself

I wonder what Arizonans did before UV flash lights came along, before good weatherstripping came along.

Must have been crazy here.

[locolobo13]

Comb, tweezers and tape. The comb to pull/push the burrs out. Usually use the leatherman pliers to get any larger spines left. Those really small spines will mostly stick to the tape. Tape isn't perfect but gets most of them out. As the article said most of the smaller stuff will work it's way out of the body eventually.

[wase4711]

Originally Posted by veritased

Me too, I thought they went sleepy for the winter season, however, just this week, found several younger ones, including one tiny bark scorpion in the corner of my yard, some momma dropped her batch off nearby. I just came in from spraying the area. And I saw some down below in the open space below our backyard. Tomorrow I gonna head down there and spray that area too. I wish I knew what their effective night predator was and grew and trained them myself

I wonder what Arizonans did before UV flash lights came along, before good weatherstripping came along.

Must have been crazy here.

I haven't been blacklighting for awhile now, since I don't see any in my traps or otherwise; tomorrow I have my last pest control service until February, hopefully..I can usually skip dec/January, but, if it continues to stay summer like here all winter, then things might be different...last year there was quite a few cold mornings/days, but, no sign of that so far this year..

[veritased]

I had a couple mornings in the 50s the other week. My first fall/winter here, so just learning the environment and how the bugs work.
I hate seeing babies, because that means a mother is in the area producing, and there might be another ten roaming around.

When do you observe that they go underground for winter... at what temp?

p.s. I am really impressed how tough these things are to kill by pressure. I can step on them on gravel, and 8 times out of 10 they crawl away. I can press on them with my tweezers and they move around unless I push to pierce their exoskeleton. They are tough little critters. The one sensitive spot seems to be on their back... if you touch their pincers that's not gonna upset them. Or even touch their tail. But if you touch their back, that's when that stinger starts flailing away.

[wase4711]

yeah, we had a couple mornings in the 50's here too; last year, in dec/jan, we had a few mornings in the 27-32 degree range, but the year before that, there weren't any..
I doubt there is any temp in which they totally go underground out here, since the ground never really "freezes", nor do many cold spells last for more than a day or 2, and even then its still 50-60 during the day.

yes, stepping on them in gravel won't kill them, doing it on solid ground might,or whacking them with a hammer, but, for me, the only way to be sure they are dead is to either put them in the deep freeze over night after catching them, or, my preferred way is to spray them with Brake Kleen, which is a sure fire way to kill the bastards almost instantly..

[KurtAZ]

Originally Posted by wase4711

yeah, we had a couple mornings in the 50's here too; last year, in dec/jan, we had a few mornings in the 27-32 degree range, but the year before that, there weren't any..
I doubt there is any temp in which they totally go underground out here, since the ground never really "freezes", nor do many cold spells last for more than a day or 2, and even then its still 50-60 during the day.

yes, stepping on them in gravel won't kill them, doing it on solid ground might,or whacking them with a hammer, but, for me, the only way to be sure they are dead is to either put them in the deep freeze over night after catching them, or, my preferred way is to spray them with Brake Kleen, which is a sure fire way to kill the bastards almost instantly..

Fun thing to try...since there are various schools of thought here...but freezing a scorpion has varying effects on them. We have frozen them before, just to have them start moving around after thawing out. I think it has to be really cold in order to kill the scorpion and your typical consumer freezer just doesn't get cold enough. We did freeze a couple in water and that seemed to do it...but I think that was more due to the fact that the freezing ice cracked their exoskeleton.

Vacuum sealing was interesting as well

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by wase4711

yes, stepping on them in gravel won't kill them, doing it on solid ground might,or whacking them with a hammer, but, for me, the only way to be sure they are dead is to either put them in the deep freeze over night after catching them, or, my preferred way is to spray them with Brake Kleen, which is a sure fire way to kill the bastards almost instantly..

Most insect sprays will kill them if they get a direct hit. Once I ran across a YouTube video where a guy demonstrated using roach spray on a scorpion, with Bohemian Rhapsody playing in the background! I did try the roach spray one time when I was out of the Terro Scorpion spray, and it worked fine.

This time of year they are looking for warmer places to hang out, including inside your house. In October I mostly stop black lighting the yard, and just look on the house, especially right under the roofline where I do see them on occasion.