The Aerie sits on what pretty much qualifies as open space in suburban San Diego. This means that we get our fair share of wildlife poking around the yard. We hear and have seen coyotes and we get lots of interesting birds, the occasional snake, or lizard and whatnot. There is a “varmint” that appears to be doing some nighttime destruction of some parts of The Beloved’s garden, but we won’t talk about that.
Anyway — yesterday, as we were preparing to head out for some fun, Penny became VERY interested in something near the entrance to our garage. Ambling over, Penny seemed about to go snout-to-stinger with a scorpion!
We quickly ushered Penny away (she was really curious about it) and I got the broom and swept the scorpion to a safe distance. Hopefully, he (she? how could you tell?) is busy eating bugs somewhere else.
I’m not much of an arthropod naturalist (grilled lobster tails baja-style and crabs with Old Bay are about where I stop), but judging from his size (about 3") and appearance I think this intruder was a Striped Tail Scorpion – which apparently is pretty common here in southern California. Its venom is not particularly dangerous.
Not too dramatic of an animal encounter – though I did find myself humming “Rock You Like A Hurricane” for some reason all afternoon…
Stevil 
Now I'm humming it too!
Now I'm humming it too!
Never seen one up close and personal but those things scare the crap out of me.
Never seen one up close and personal but those things scare the crap out of me.
You were kind to sweep it away instead of killing it (Buddhist monks use brooms to rid their places of insects too) :D
Oooh, I'd love to get up close and personal with one of these! Can you imagine the photographs?!! :DI had to find out how to sex them, of course. You just flip them over – the males will have larger pectines.
Apparently scorpions all fluoresce under UV, so if you ever want to do a large area sweep, just douse the lights and walk around with a handheld UV; they'll light right up. (not speaking from experience here; your mileage may vary).
I like this little guy's threat display.
Ooooh…cool wildlife!
Dude! That a scorpion! Yikes1
In the last 10 years I have learned from my *beloved* not to kill black snakes because they rid the world of mice etc. But I'm sorry, if I came across something that looked like that, he/she would quickly be chopped into pieces with my sharp spade shovel.
ohhhhh, shivering…….imagining it crawling up my lawn chair and eventually stinging my butt. ; (