Papirex
May 26, 2005, 1:09 PM
Post #11 of 25
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My primary scorpion eradicator is a flyswatter, if they are on a wall, or somewhere where stomping is not an easy option. Only after they have been mushed (mushified?), do I pick them up with a paper napkin, or towel in the hope that it will provide some protection in case one of them still has enough life left in it to make one last strike with its tail. I tried Raid, but it seems to just make them move a lot, I’ve never seen one die from Raid yet. Maybe I never waited long enough.
That reminds me, anyone that is moving to Mexico from The US, be sure to bring 3 or 4 American sized flyswatters. All the ones we have found that are made in Mexico have a handle that is about 6 inches shorter than we are used to up north. They really screw up my depth perception, after a lifetime of using the ones with longer handles. We had a friend bring us 4 American swatters a few years ago. My wife hates the Mexican sized swatters too.
We used to have an organic alacran detector. He was a Cocker Spaniel named Taku. Maybe he smelled them or something, but he found them all the time. He would give a very distinct high-pitched bark whenever he saw one. When we would run over to him, he would be standing over it, with his front legs spread apart giving the alacran hell in his last moments.
Talk about gutsy (or stupid), one time when Taku was still a young pup, I heard his alacran bark, he was outside on the terraza. I ran downstairs to kill it, as I passed a window, I saw Taku pick it up in his mouth, he promptly dropped it. As I ran past another window in the living room, I looked out and saw him pick it up and drop it again.
As I ran though the kitchen to the door leading out to the terraza, I was wondering if there was any veterinarian that could save a dog that had been stung inside his mouth by an alacran. Fortunately, Taku had not tried to pick it up again. He was in his usual position, standing over the alacran, giving it dog hell. The alacran was small, maybe ¾ of an inch long, maybe it couldn’t move its tail for a strike when it was in Taku’s mouth. I credit dumb luck.
Alacrans are easy to kill, I have learned to be careful in the garden, and I never reach in to a dark place without shining a flashlight in to see if there is one in that place. We found one in a closet once, and we have some shelves on the back patio that we use for overflow pantry storage for canned goods. We are always particularly careful when getting anything off of one of the shelves out there, because they are outside.
Alacrans are not the only dangerous bug in Mexico. You must be particularly careful around policemen. For some mysterious reason it is illegal to hit one with a flyswatter.
Rex
"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo
(This post was edited by RexC on May 26, 2005, 1:31 PM)
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