I’ve been meaning to write a post about some of the things that surprised us, (and some of things that didn’t) when we moved to Paige, Texas from Seattle, Washington. While I’m still working on typing up that post (someday, I promise), I do want to share my latest experience with – you guessed it – scorpions. It would be naive to have thought living in the woods didn’t equate to more creepy crawlies than those we lived with in suburban Seattle. BUT I was surprised with just how many scorpions we’d have to contend with. I mean, they are everywhere! On the very first night we stayed here two of the darn things came crawling out of the sink overflow drain! Up until last week I was able to avoid them. Last week I got to learn what it feels like to be stung by a scorpion.

An Unexpected Visitor

I was peacefully sleeping in bed. And like most nights, I had an extra throw blanket on my side. Todd runs “hot” so I usually need something for a little extra warmth. Around 4am I rolled over onto my side in my sleep. I grabbed the blankets to pull up as I turned over. About the exact some time that my brain recognized that my hand was touching something other than a soft blanket (perhaps a dry oak leaf?) WHAM! The little jerk stung me on my left hand, right in the crease of the first finger joint on my pointer finger.

I started howling and flung the blankets toward the wall. Todd jerked up and flipped on the lights “what the?!?”. I shouted for him to grab the vacuum and started hunting for the culprit. Sure enough, I found him trying to hide in the dog bed. Zoe, a mere 6″ away snuggled in not realizing the eminent danger. Then the scorpion started to move – towards the dog. “Hurry!” I shouted. Todd arrived with the vacuum and I quickly sucked up the little monster just as it touched the first strands of hair on Zoe’s back.

The Hangover

No, I’m not talking about an actual hangover or the comedy classic, I’m talking about what it felt like after being stung by a scorpion! After the initial adrenaline rush, my attention returned to my throbbing hand. At this time my arm started to hurt too. But then I felt flushed, hot and nauseous. My head started to spin. I folded over on the floor for a few minutes and asked for some water.

All of a sudden I felt like I had the worst hangover I’ve ever had (ahem, not that I would know what that feels like). I broke out into a cold sweat. Todd brought me a poultice of ground oatmeal, baking soda and essential oils we’ve been using to treat his fire ant stings. That seemed to help. And after about an hour I crawled back into bed, still feeling very much ill, but eager for sleep.

The Aftermath

The next day I wasn’t too worse for ware. But my finger was quite sore. As the day progressed it became more numb. I also discovered that the sting site was very sensitive to hot water. well, at least I have an excuse for not doing the dishes – this time! That night I spent about a half hour carefully searching the bedroom for any little co-conspirators that may be hiding around. One thing I learned a long time ago is that a black light will make scorpions shine bright green. Something in their exoskeleton glows like neon sign. Useful when scorpion hunting! I didn’t turn up anything in the bedroom, but did find the tiniest of tiny babies under the sink. Gotcha!

I’m still perplexed at how the scorpion found it’s way up into the bed. In fact, we purposely have a steel frame bed to make it difficult for them to crawl up. Todd’s theory is that it fell from the ceiling (ewwww). We’ve found a few there in the bathroom. All the more reason to move forward with our plan to tear out the ceiling and lift it up to the crest line like the rest of the cabin has (I despise drywall, so always eager to say goodbye to it when I can).

Perhaps that most annoying thing though, is not the sting itself, but talking to so man life-long Texans that have never, ever been stung. What the?!?! It just doesn’t seem fair. I’m only 4 months in to living in Texas full time and I’ve already been stung by a scorpion, seen 2 copperheads, 1 timber rattler, found a coral snake in the garden and a had to deal with a rat snake in the chicken coop.

It brings a whole new light to the term “don’t tread on me”.