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Barb.b
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| Posted: Nov 07 2011 at 10:26pm | IP Logged
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Help! I love Texas really - lived here for 18 years but tonight I found a snake INSIDE my house (about 1 foot long - but it doesn't matter if it is a copperhead or cotton mouth!) it is just me, my 8 year old and my 14 year old - so I get the shovel and chop its head off (this is called kill first - clean it up later!) then several hours later - I turn on the light in the kitchen and there is a 3 inch scorpion! This is the 2nd time I have seen one since living here - and on the same night as a snake!!! I am going to call my pest control company tomorrow about the scorpion! Any ideas or experiences with either!!!!?
Oh - I really can't sleep! My 2 worst creepy fears in one night!!
Barb
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Nov 07 2011 at 10:35pm | IP Logged
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  I'm a native Texan but that doesn't mean I love snakes or spiders! Sorry I can't help. The snake probably was just a small garden snake, ya think? Being only 1'. Was it thin?
The spider...yeh, I'd def. be calling poison control. Do you live near woods, a lake, on a farm?
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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Barb.b
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| Posted: Nov 07 2011 at 10:37pm | IP Logged
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Oh - I don't know if this is the right place to post my above post. Anyway - if anyone has any suggestions let me know! I haven't read anything at all reassuring on the internet! Except one article said - go around with a small black light (or whatever those lights are called) at night and kill any you see - oh really!
Barb
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Barb.b
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| Posted: Nov 07 2011 at 10:38pm | IP Logged
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Kathryn, not a spider - I get those too but am used to them I guess - this was a SCORPION! I just hate those things!
Barb
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Nov 07 2011 at 11:03pm | IP Logged
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Oops...guess I just consider them all creepy crawlies that give me the eebie jeebies! 
I had a friend that had one in her daughter's 2nd story bedroom a few weeks back and the pest control person assumed it crawled up the outside where there was a bunch of ivy and into the open window. Was it close to a window or door where it could have come from outside? I guess you did kill it? I know pest control treated and said they'd have noooo more problems. 
I'm sorry I don't have any read advice or experience...just empathy.
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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ShannonJ
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| Posted: Nov 07 2011 at 11:05pm | IP Logged
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Actually I'm kind of a snake lover, but scorpions are another thing! We had oodles of scorpions in Florida. I remember shaking the bedcovers each night for some months. They were fairly small, usually no more than 2 inches, and after killing the first several I got my wits about me enough to identify that they weren't poisonous. Not much help though!!!
We learned that they can enter through the wiring system in your home. We did hire a pest control service, but the exoskeleton is strong and sprays are unlikely to kill them unless it has been damaged. Although you may see them just crawling around they love dark and moist places. Make sure there isn't any laundry on the floor. bedclothes don't touch the floor, and cracks by the doors and windows are sealed. My daughter was stung twice when going to pick up clothes off of her floor.
Eventually our problem dissipated, but seemed to return seasonally. If we would go out after dark sometimes we could see them on the side of the house. Babies are carried by the mother on her back (by the hundreds!!!), but they are easy to kill when they are small. Adults cannot be smashed and they usually need to be severed in two.
If you want to go scorpion hunting at night there are a couple of methods I used. First a good blacklight to make it easy to find them. Also if you lay out burlap sacks on the ground outside you can often find that several have made their way underneath and you can dispose of a few that way.
They love to eat crickets. So if you have a lot that is likely their food source. They like rotting decaying wood so move wood piles and bark mulch away from the house.
I do hope you don't have major issues like we did, but that is what we learned the first year. Funny thing is that houses on the other side of the neighborhood never had a problem. We speculated it was because we were backed up to a pine forest.
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~Shannon
Mom of dd 12, ds 9, & dd 5
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Nov 08 2011 at 6:26am | IP Logged
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Be sure to shake out shoes each morning before putting them on.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Barb.b
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| Posted: Nov 08 2011 at 7:29am | IP Logged
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EWWWWWW! I know, I know. But I stomp on them first!
Barb
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: snakes and scorpions
