Tornado? Is it something to worry about in Sarasota? (Tampa: home, scorpions)

[Cardiff by the Sea]

It was lady with a fan who brought it up. I don't understand the connection between tornadoes, water spouts, and scorpions.

Her post was right after one about a water spout scooping up pelicans. Call me hysterical, but I am picturing low grade tornadoes full of scorpions. Seems far fetched, but then so do love bugs. After looking a pictures from the Alabama tornado showing houses peppered with shredded leaves almost imbedded in the paint, why not scorpions?

I am sure everyone is tired of my CA stories, but weird and different things happen with different geography. No rain here to speak of. When it does rain, it causes flash floods. One flash flood swept a bunch of rattlesnakes down from the mountains to the beach. The beach had to be closed for rattlesnakes. I kid you not.

So my question is do weird things happen with scorpions in tornadoes? Is there a scorpion phenomena no one has explained?

[beninfl]

From a Florida University:

"University of Florida Entomologist Lyle Buss deals daily with Florida’s scorpions and has much expertise in the pest. He claims Florida has only 3 inhabited species of scorpions. The first and largest of the 3 scorpion species is called the “slender brown scorpion” , (Centruroides gracilis). One of the most commonly encounter scorpion Florida is also the smallest, this scorpion is the “Hentz Striped Scorpion”, (C. hentzi). This being the most seen and controlled species, it is found all over Florida except the southern Keys. The third Florida Scorpion is the “Guiana Striped scorpion” (C. guianensis), which is strictly found in Southern Florida including Monroe, Miami-Dade, and Collier counties."

Uncommon to see them, but they do exist, and none of them can seriously harm you.

[coastal chic]

I think Lady w/ a fan was joking and was insinuating that the odds of dealing with a tornado here is as likely as running into a scorpion. That's the way I took it, anyway. Never in 40 years in SW FL have I ever seen a scorpion or a tornado, aside from the water spout I posted about earlier.

People coming from other places seem to think we're wading through alligators, roaches, tornadoes, hurricanes, scammers, drug dealers, and scorpions? Clearly this isn't the case or we wouldn't be here!

Real issues in Florida are Love bugs, red ants, insurance, finding a parking space at the beach, and the occasional hurricane (2x in 40 years).

But, yes, strange things can happen!

[Cardiff by the Sea]

Originally Posted by coastal chic

I think Lady w/ a fan was joking and was insinuating that the odds of dealing with a tornado here is as likely as running into a scorpion. That's the way I took it, anyway. Never in 40 years in SW FL have I ever seen a scorpion or a tornado, aside from the water spout I posted about earlier.

People coming from other places seem to think we're wading through alligators, roaches, tornadoes, hurricanes, scammers, drug dealers, and scorpions? Clearly this isn't the case or we wouldn't be here!

Real issues in Florida are Love bugs, red ants, insurance, finding a parking space at the beach, and the occasional hurricane (2x in 40 years).

But, yes, strange things can happen!

I don't know. In my 8 week-long trips, I have definitely encountered roaches and scammers. Lots of the later. Had a waitress offer to get us drugs. I have encountered snakes on two occasions in southside village. Have experience a tropical storm. Looks like I have missed the gators and scorpions.

[bbronston]

What? You've never heard of the infamous Scorpionados that we get in the summer? Must've been an oversight.

When we built a home in Braden Woods, we had Scorpions and "housekeeper spiders" fairly regularly. I think eventually the build up of pest control spray around the house finally killed them off.

[PixiStix]

Originally Posted by beninfl

From a Florida University:

"University of Florida Entomologist Lyle Buss deals daily with Florida’s scorpions and has much expertise in the pest. He claims Florida has only 3 inhabited species of scorpions. The first and largest of the 3 scorpion species is called the “slender brown scorpion” , (Centruroides gracilis). One of the most commonly encounter scorpion Florida is also the smallest, this scorpion is the “Hentz Striped Scorpion”, (C. hentzi). This being the most seen and controlled species, it is found all over Florida except the southern Keys. The third Florida Scorpion is the “Guiana Striped scorpion” (C. guianensis), which is strictly found in Southern Florida including Monroe, Miami-Dade, and Collier counties."

Uncommon to see them, but they do exist, and none of them can seriously harm you.

We had the slender brown scorpion AKA the Florida Bark Scorpion. No they cant kill you but their sting can cause temporary paralysis in small animals & can make kids sick. I would of course, have a 3 & 7 year old & a 10lb. Shih Tzu at the time. We eventually found the source & eradicated them but it took months of trial & error to find where they were coming from. We had to walk around the house in shoes all the time because whenever you'd walk into a closet or dark room & turn on the light, we'd often find one just curled up on the floor.

One morning, I flipped on the kitchen light & there was one in the middle of the floor. My little dog saw it before me & ran up to investigate. It struck at his face before I could get him away. Luckily it only got the fur & not his nose.

We also had a beach umbrella that I kept by the house & one day I took the kids to the beach & when I opened the umbrella, a scorpion fell out of it which whizzed by my 3 year old head & landed by his foot. You can imagine the screams (from all of us!)

Anyway, sorry this is off topic- back to tornados!

[Cardiff by the Sea]

Originally Posted by bbronston

What? You've never heard of the infamous Scorpionados that we get in the summer? Must've been an oversight.

baahaaa

[kimmerthy]

Originally Posted by beninfl

I was actually kidding about the Scorpions. :-)

lol well thank goodness!! I was worried, really

[jmqueen]

Originally Posted by PixiStix

We had the slender brown scorpion AKA the Florida Bark Scorpion. No they cant kill you but their sting can cause temporary paralysis in small animals & can make kids sick. I would of course, have a 3 & 7 year old & a 10lb. Shih Tzu at the time. We eventually found the source & eradicated them but it took months of trial & error to find where they were coming from. We had to walk around the house in shoes all the time because whenever you'd walk into a closet or dark room & turn on the light, we'd often find one just curled up on the floor.

One morning, I flipped on the kitchen light & there was one in the middle of the floor. My little dog saw it before me & ran up to investigate. It struck at his face before I could get him away. Luckily it only got the fur & not his nose.

We also had a beach umbrella that I kept by the house & one day I took the kids to the beach & when I opened the umbrella, a scorpion fell out of it which whizzed by my 3 year old head & landed by his foot. You can imagine the screams (from all of us!)

Anyway, sorry this is off topic- back to tornados!

I think my heart just stopped beating for a second.

[Ladywithafan]

Tornados ~ not so much ~ but then again, the weather is totally unpredictable ~

I did not know that there were scorpions in Florida until I walked into an easement on Longboat Key at work one day to rescue some baby possums to take to the Pelican Man. After coming out of the wooded area, my maintenance man asked me why I didn't put on the big white boots to go into the wooded easement next to our property; I asked why & he said because there's scorpions, snakes & spiders in there along with the motherless possums. One of our owners went into that area & came out with a black scorpion in a glass jar. It was about six inches long. I had no idea there were scorpions here as opposed to Arizona/out west.

On Tampa bay we used to see water spouts all the time...