Turning a scorpion problem into a scorpion blessing...

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 It's hard for me to give hard facts here as so much I have heard or read about black scorpions is hearsay, myth or tradition. So, here is simply our story.

I had heard various things from people local to this area of Guatemala; from 'their stings are no worse than a bee', to how dangerous the stings are, to the notion that their stings prevent 'seven different types of cancer'.

From my first sighting, against my normal animal loving tendencies (including unwittingly moving dangerous snakes to 'safe places' so that they live another day!), I would kill each scorpion I saw on sight; just to be on the safe side. I was always told that the stings affect the old and the young more so, therefore I became worried for my young daughter when I started seeing a multitude of black scorpions in our house. The more I killed, the more came.

Then one night, in our little wooden house, without power; lit only by candle-light, as I was searching for something in a dark corner, I was stung.

At first, it was as if a pin had stabbed into my thumb. Seconds later, as pain cursed through my hand, I realised what had just happened.  After a few minutes of hopping round, screaming in pain, I lay on my bed to wait for the sensation to pass. I had not expected it to hurt so much. However, soon things progressed further; I felt pain shoot through my elbow, then my shoulder. My hand became numb. The hand that had not been stung went numb. The tip of my tongue, followed by my lips also became numb. I became extremely thirsty but when I stood up for a drink, my legs were dead-weights.

Luckily, I was not worried, I felt extremely calm. I actually felt as if I had taken some kind of mind altering  substance; and have since read in various websites, forums and articles that people in places such as India do actually pay for the service of being stung by a scorpion for this high! It lasted through the night with my legs still feeling too heavy to walk the next morning.

After informing a few people of my experience, a local friend told me that black scorpions are actually edible enjoyable and that eating them does offer some form of vaccination against future bites. So, the next one I saw, I caught, instead of killing it, removed the tail and cooked it. I was proud of my 8 year old who even took a bite (telling me it tasted like shrimp).

After telling a Trinidadian friend of this, he advised me to place the next one in a bottle of alcohol - so I'm building up quite a collection of scorpion infused rum (watch this space to see its effect in a few months).

So, although scorpions are still far from desired in our household, there is at least a little joy from finding and catching the arachnid creatures and frying them, or placing them in a small bottle of Guatemalan rum.

The problem is, scorpions love to lurk! They make themselves very flat and hide in all the nooks and crannies of the house. Often you have no idea where the scorpions are hiding; until you see the tips of a tail or pinchers poking out.

Therefore, we have an interesting library of adrenaline fuelled, fearsome scorpion chase tales around our quiet little house - some in the early hours of the morning after detecting their familiar scratching sound; almost always too close to the bed and always by dim candlelight in our little house!