I Am Convinced...

[Abbey Marie]

I do not envy you that.

We lived in Tucson when Dad was at Davis-Monthan and had to walk about 3/4 mile to school.
Dad told us to stay on the road and out of the brush, snakes... Gila Monsters, tarantulas, and scorpions
in that brush.

One evening when he on duty, Mom was on the couch reading to me with the cat at her side.
The cat leaped off the couch and started batting something on the floor. Mom went and looked
and it was a scorpion near the same color as the linoleum tile floor! She put an ashtray over it
until Dad got home the next morning.

Ashtray is nice. I would have booked a hotel for the night.

[Gunny]

Whiners ...

I'm surrounded by scorpions and rattlesnakes ... and yes, they will come in house.

We call those targets hereabouts

[Gunny]

Ashtray is nice. I would have booked a hotel for the night.

[Elessar]

Ashtray is nice. I would have booked a hotel for the night.

Well, Mom did not drive!

[High_Plains_Drifter]

Fire ants. They are the muslims of the ant world. You can kill them and kill them and kill them and they just pop up some place new next time it rains. Left unchecked they will take over your entire yard. You can burn them, pour gas on them, poison them, douse your entire yard in fact, and they'll be back. Best you can do is keep killing them and containing them.

I was stationed at MacDill AFB in Tampa when we had hurricane Elena. It sat off the coast of Tampa about 90 miles and just swirled for a day and half. We got rain, more rain, and more rain. Lots of Tampa was flooded. We decided to take a walk over along the harbor by where the yachts had been moored, but it was all flooded, and the walkway and the road, so we were a little higher on the bank by some palm trees and one tree, there was a six inch wide, couple inches deep column of fire ants from the water to the top of the tree. Of course us dummies thought it might be cool to knock them off but we nixed that idea fast, because all that would have happened would be a few hundred thousand fire ants float away to somewhere else. You just don't mess with those things. One time over at Clearwater beach a guy pulled a little hoobeycat out of the water with a Corvette and got stuck, so a bunch of people including myself helped push the guy out, and I was standing still for just a couple seconds watching the guy pull away when I started feeling stinging on my leg, and I was standing in a fire ant hole. I took off hopping, brushing off ants and jumped in the water. Those little bastards in a matter of seconds got me a couple dozen times.

Had the campfire cat sitting here this morning staring at my subwoofer. I thought she could hear a little buzz or something on the floor from it. I have it sitting on a big slab of granite. She's a very patient little fart and sat there for about 15 minutes, then moved to the other side. Sure enough here was a big, fat, damn CRICKET. I have no idea how that filthy thing got in the house, but I quickly smashed it.

[High_Plains_Drifter]

I do not envy you that.

We lived in Tucson when Dad was at Davis-Monthan and had to walk about 3/4 mile to school.
Dad told us to stay on the road and out of the brush, snakes... Gila Monsters, tarantulas, and scorpions
in that brush.

One evening when he was on duty, Mom was on the couch reading to me with the cat at her side.
The cat leaped off the couch and started batting something on the floor. Mom went and looked
and it was a scorpion near the same color as the linoleum tile floor! She put an ashtray over it
until Dad got home the next morning.

When I lived in Apache Junction, I was sitting at the dining room table talking with the home owner I was renting a room from when I felt something crawling up my left side. I had no shirt on and instinctively flipped whatever it was off with my left hand. Well it stung me, and when I looked, here it was a Bark Scorpion about 4 inches long. It stung the inside of one of my fingers. The home owner called the paramedics, they came, asked me if I was dizzy, short of breath, hot, nauseous, seeing white spots, blah, blah, blah... no, no, no... so they said well, you must be one of the lucky ones that a scorpion sting doesn't effect.

A cat is also one of the best defenses you can have against scorpions because for some reason, they're immune to the scorpions sting. If your house is prone to the occasional scorpion, then you need a cat. I caught the scorpion that stung me and put it in a jar and froze it. That killed it of course. Had to show it to my folks.

[SassyLady]

Yes, I've been stung by a scorpion on little toe. First thing is to stomp the hell out the damn thing, then wash with soapy water, take a benadryl, acetaminophen and ice it. The numb/stinging feeling would crawl up leg to almost knee for about three days with varying lengths of time between. We have house spayed once a month inside and still get the occasional scorpion and centipede.

I've also disposed of over 7 rattlesnakes (three in one week that were just outside front door and one just outside my bedroom slider). All were in our supposedly snake proof yard.

No fire ants since childhood in Texas panhandle.

Oh, and we also had bobcat in back yard this year. Living on the edge of the Saguaro National Park is quite the adventure.

Mostly, I love watching our resident roadrunner chase lizards out by the pool.

[High_Plains_Drifter]

Yes, I've been stung by a scorpion on little toe. First thing is to stomp the hell out the damn thing, then wash with soapy water, take a benadryl, acetaminophen and ice it. The numb/stinging feeling would crawl up leg to almost knee for about three days with varying lengths of time between. We have house spayed once a month inside and still get the occasional scorpion and centipede.

I've also disposed of over 7 rattlesnakes (three in one week that were just outside front door and one just outside my bedroom slider). All were in our supposedly snake proof yard.

No fire ants since childhood in Texas panhandle.

Oh, and we also had bobcat in back yard this year. Living on the edge of the Saguaro National Park is quite the adventure.

Mostly, I love watching our resident roadrunner chase lizards out by the pool.

Good Lord, Sassy... I couldn't live there. I can walk around anywhere at my place on the half acre that's grass in my bare feet. Worst thing I'd step on would be a fallen twig. There's a rare snake around but usually non venomous. There's plenty of Eastern Diamondback Rattlers around but usually up in the hills. The most common wild life around here is deer and coyotes.

[SassyLady]

Good Lord, Sassy... I couldn't live there. I can walk around anywhere at my place on the half acre that's grass in my bare feet. Worst thing I'd step on would be a fallen twig. There's a rare snake around but usually non venomous. There's plenty of Eastern Diamondback Rattlers around but usually up in the hills. The most common wild life around here is deer and coyotes.

Yep ... I hear ya! My property in California was same. Only had to worry about stepping on goat heads in back pasture.

[Abbey Marie]

Yep ... I hear ya! My property in California was same. Only had to worry about stepping on goat heads in back pasture.

Wth? Satanists?

[High_Plains_Drifter]

Wth? Satanists?

Probably a goat killed by coyotes. Coyotes are one of the few predator animals that will kill for no other reason than to kill.

Could be a cougar though too. They kill to eat.

[Abbey Marie]

Probably a goat killed by coyotes. Coyotes are one of the few predator animals that will kill for no other reason than to kill.

Could be a cougar though too. They kill to eat.

I hope that’s it.

[SassyLady]

Goat heads are stickers.

[Abbey Marie]

Sassy, that’s a relief!

[SassyLady]

Found this 4" monster outside my bedroom slider yesterday. Dead from spray but tail still dangerous.