Linda almost stepped on just about the largest scorpion we've seen on Bonaire tonight, and before flushing it down the toilet (we use long nose pliers to pick them up) she wisely asked me if I might want to play with it first. I wondered if she was try to make me hurt myself or something, and seeing the puzzled look on my face, she added "with your new camera". The light dawned, and my face shone with glee. Below are the results. Used was my new Sony F707 (same one the photo of our new Prikichi (Lorikeet) "Spirit Shoo Shoo" was taken), in macro mode. Note the size of the scorpion relative to a BIC pen cap - with the tail fully extended it would be about 30-40% longer than the entire pen cap.

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..and I am housesitting where these creatures lurk......



Jake..this dude is UGLY...

Now the birdie I cannot wait to meet..this nasty fellow can stay in the septic..

Annie

Oh, and for those wondering:

- It took me 40 shots with a Luxo lamp as my lighting source to finally get a decent face close-up (I could not get the stinger completely in focus). Doesn't help having a model which is camera shy :-)

- The scorpion is resting in a specimen jar, suspending in rubbing alcohol now.

Jake

Annie,

We'll show you where we keep the pliers :-)

Safe travels tomorrow!

Jake

Jake, u r getting WAYYY to excited about this..LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL..I love the scale using the pen cap...OH MY GOSH..ROFL...

HAAAAAAAAA

Yech...don't care for those nasty little creatures. Used to shake out our shoes while living in Fort Lauderdale just to be certain none of his relatives were inside the shoes just awaiting a confrontation. We did find some that way, too....not a pleasant thought. Ours were larger, but I understand the smaller they are the worse their venom can be....don't want to find out, however. Yech. Carole

Great shots, tho, Jake! You have a new toy to play with now, eh?! Good for you!

Oh, no - I don't think those were good shots at all - I've got the shivers and hebie-jebies now for sure! You sicko - you are supposed to take shots of nice, fluffy dogs, cute kids, and purdy fish. It matters not that the color is perfect, the specimen was shown to scale, and the features are crisp. How am I ever gonna sleep tonight??

(Just kiddin', ya know.) What I really want to know is, does that critter have two sets of eyes? Very interesting, in a creepy-crawly kind of way.

Wow!
Coincedense? I found one too today.. also bigger than the others I found. He was in a dogbowl which was in the kitchen cabinet of my parents place. Guess it snuck in there and could not get out. Still alive.. these guys are tough. I put it in a cup and placed it in the freezer. I have a friend in Germany who collects insects so I save them for her.. getting quite the collection from baby to biggy.
I've been stung twice by scorpion aswell as bees and our local Maribomba (big wasp) Those hurt but the pain of the scorpion sting was unreal.. never had anything that painfull!!! Worst of the pain lasted about 5 minutes.. pretty intense.
Few weeks ago I was setting up my dive gear and I noticed one crawling around in my BCD. Tried shake him out but he disappeared between the cloth and the hard-back. Figured I'd be fine in thick rubber suit so he went diving LoL
Here's a pic of the one I found today..

BTW Jake... cool pix!!!

People, please NEVER EVER mention scorpions or bugs to Maggie. She has a phobia thanks to her neurotic (but wonderful) Grammy who practically carries Raid wherever she goes (Lysol too)..

Speaking of which, GO SEE "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" in cinemas now. The Dad uses Windex to treat EVERY ailment..one of the funniest flicks in a long time. My all time fav lately tho is Monsoon Wedding. Cape Cod has the Cape Cinema which features way cool artsy fartsy films...

YIKES

Annie

Annie, if it makes you feel any better, when we house-sat for Jake & Linda a year and a half or so ago (for 2.5 weeks), we never once saw one of these little buggers. And yes, I was looking!

Mosquitoes, yes. Palmetto bugs, yes (bleagh! two of the d*%n things mating in the kitchen one night!). But never a scorpion...

Faith

I didn't know there were scorpions there... EEEEEE

Great shots of an UGLY critter. I've never seen one, as I live in Michigan. But we saw a MONSTER cockroach on our 2nd floor condo last time we were in Bonaire. Makes me shiver to think of it!

The quickest first aid treatment I have used for scorpion bites is an ice pack. In Japan (I think that's were Ripleys showed it from) they eat them live, head first. I believe they (the insects) have been dosed with ether first).

Nice shot Jake but that is one ugly sucker that I don't want to meet!
When I have a bee sting, I use a paste made up of a little water and bakingsoda. It is suppose to reove the stinger and it really helps with the pain. Would it work on a scorpion sting?

YUCKAH !!!!!!!!!!

I stepped on one of these while staying in the old Bonaire Beach bungalows. I walked barefoot to the next bungalow in early evening and got stung on the way over on the bottom of my foot. The foot immediately got a big bump on it and we put antihistamine cream on it and it went down in a very short time. Never saw another one. I am not a bug person so those pictures really make me shiver but sure are interesting to see.

Great shots Jake. I am impressed with the camera and the operator also of course!

As far as getting stung by the things, Lee was stung just under her boob while putting on her swimsuit two years ago. She said the pain was intense - worse than a bee sting and longer lasting (wish we had known about the icepack). As a result we now make sure we do as we were told when we first went to Bonaire - that is: Check all clothing, shoes, and wetsuits carefully before puting them on. We knew what to do but after years of not finding any we got lax.

Great pictures, Jake!

Is that a digital camera, or a film camera?

I had one that large on my patio last week-the largest I've seen in my 12 years here. Made very loud snapping/popping/crunching sound when danced upon by my big foot (in a hardsole shoe!). Just glad I found it first before the cats or dogs got too curious and got zapped on the nose.

Renee - digital - 5 megapixel. Fun camera to play with. Still trying to figure it all out though.

Ruth - we usually go barefoot around the house, hence the pliers combined with the special knowledge that scorpions have a higher specific gravity than water and therefore sink (into our toilet bowl usually :-) )

Jake

Jake,,,,can I see the picture of the Lorakeet...we have a rainbow Lory

Oh Jake what a horrible creature that is. I feel sick now!!!

Annie cc. Keep your shoes on, and carry a big hammer at all times. Annie B.

Meryl - check over in the bird cage thread here in Everything Else Bonaire. There's a picture there.

Annette - just about any critter will be ugly if you "attack" it with a macro lens. There was a Nova or National Geo TV special some years back showing all the mites and other critters every human has inhabiting their skin, hair, etc. And human pores are pretty gross at 100x magnification too :-)

Jake

Heh, like the Rose Is Rose comic strip, where Rose has this "thing" about dust mites, and keeps imagining them as these 3 foot tall horrors...

Faith

Annie,

Spray-on bandage does a really good job slowing down the palmetto bugs (hair spray would work as well). The bugs run a few more steps, then the spray sets up.

Wonder if hairspray would work on the scorpions?

Dan

Yech...I don't even want to get THAT close! LOL. Sounds pretty neat, tho. Carole

I just want to go on record to say that the photos are great and the creature is not yucky when you separate fear from it. It is a thing of beauty when you see it through the eyes of art.

Big smile! -becky

The art aspect is fine, I just don't like to find the critters in my shoes when I go to put them on...yes, I admit to fear when I don't know they are coming! LOL. Carole

Dan, I laughed out loud when I read your "remedy" for palmetto bugs - just give the 'ol Wiley E. Coyote treatment HAH! Just a few more steps and they set up. What a riot! :-)

Grossology 101...

For years as a biology teacher I taught students to look at stuff from their bodies under high magnification, like...bits of nail, plaque, blood,
hair, skin, and eyelashes. Eyelashes are great because if you plunk them out just right (fresh ones) the root and growth sheath come with it. Plus the hair has an interesting growing tip.

Normal folks have all kinds of organisms living on and in them, but most (as in us) eyelashes have microscopic nematode worms living in the pores. I think that is why your eyelids itch from time to time...like now. Well sure enough, one year a student looking at her magnified eyelash called me over to ask what that was crawling on her eyelash. Yup, a nematode.

Well, sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs....


Bud
Flying Fish

I am forewarned, it is obviously the year of Giant Scorpions in Bonaire.We saw one two years ago at Bruce Bowkers, I kilt it after trying to get a picture ( nice shots, Jake!)
I am also trying to get the image of laquered palmettos in flagrante out of my mind.

We have a couple of books, the Secret house and The Secret Garden, which look at the world on an unseen or microscopic basis. I bought The Secret House from a streetseller on the upper west side, he sold it to happily, telling me " that is the MOST DISGUSTING book I have EVER read!"