Scorpion on the Line

January 8, 2017December 12, 2019 Expatorama

This is a passenger announcement. Regular blog services are running late. Normal service has been severely disrupted by The Christmas Holidays…and a scorpion on the line.

Regular service will resume shortly.

2016 Top Blog Post Roundup

In the meantime, just in case you missed them the first time around, the most popular 5 posts on Expatorama in 2016 were:

The scorpion has now thankfully left the building and I’m busy working on some brand new posts for 2017.

So, the scorpion. We bought a desk for the play room and I decided first that we should have a thorough cull. We tidied, cleaned and de-cluttered every inch of the room. When moving a storage unit my daughter discovered the scorpion and jumped on the couch screaming hysterically.

Although it was dead, my son on the other hand was all too keen to prod it with a pencil or maybe even pick it up.

I found a piece of card to scoop it up with and was carefully doing so, when the jolly thing ‘woke up’ and scuttled under the skirting board. Once we had cleaned the room, I sprayed around the skirting boards and a day or two later an army of ants marched out of the skirting board with the prize of a dead scorpion which is when the photo was taken. Then it was finally disposed of.

Thankfully, this has been our only and hopefully last scorpion encounter. After much googling, I think this was a pretty harmless one, but I’m still very relieved nobody was stung.

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From dodging stray bullets in Lagos, to dodging stray cats in Istanbul, we are now getting cosy in Jozi. Far flung travels and further fetched tales of expat life. View all posts by Expatorama

5 thoughts on “Scorpion on the Line”

2summers says:

January 9, 2017 at 9:02 am

Sh*t!!!! We had one of these in our house this past year too. Fortunately (for me) I was out of the country and Ray was left to deal with it alone. The thought of it still sends shivers down my spine.

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1. Expatorama says:
  
  January 9, 2017 at 11:10 am
  
  I thought it was dead and as one child was trying to touch it (for the love of Christmas- NO) and the other was screeching hysterically from the safety of the sofa I tried to calmly scoop it up with a bit of paper. However, it had only been PLAYING dead and scuttled off under the skirting board – that was a ‘fun’ moment. It has now gone and – silver lining – I’m hoping this incident will encourage both children to be a little tidier.
  
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  1. Expatorama says:
    
    January 9, 2017 at 11:14 am
    
    …and yes, “SH*T” was pretty much my reaction.
    
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  2. 2summers says:
    
    January 9, 2017 at 11:25 am
    
    Omg omg omg. I’m glad you didn’t pick it up with paper. They’re not all poisonous but I know that some of them can land you in the hospital with their stings.
    
    Ray managed to trap ours under a glass, then took it outside and dropped a rock on it. If it had been me, I’m pretty sure I would have hit our security system panic button 🙂
    
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  3. Expatorama says:
    
    January 9, 2017 at 11:34 am
    
    I know, I’ve clearly been here too long if I’m seemingly so calm upon discovering a scorpion in the house, but I just wanted it gone, before non-hysterical child actually managed to pick it up, which was looking increasingly likely. I had already tapped it with a cardboard box and it didn’t move, so I thought I was fine to remove it with paper but once I realised it was still alive I cracked open the DOOM – worked a treat – a party of ants retrieved it from its lair and all’s well that ends well. Phew.
    
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