In article ,
"Ben Blackmore" writes:
|
| On the subject of scorpions they are in the UK, and becoming more common,
| there was something on the news a few weeks back about the change in the
| weather and warmer climates meaning they are thriving in colonies in the
| south east. They are not your usual 6" long black scorpion with deadly
| poison, more 1cm with a sting like that of a bee!

I know of little evidence for the first. While there may be more
than the one colony reported, they are NOT favoured by the weather
changes, as most of them are dry climate creatures (from choice),
and "warmer and wetter" is not good news. That is why they (and
termites) tend to not establish in the UK except in the occasional
building. I am not even sure if there IS more than the one colony;
it is possible that other claims are merely journalistic fantasy.

Secondly, most tropical scorpions are NOT 6" long, and the larger
ones tend to be LESS poisonous, if anything. The key is to look
at the relative sizes of pincers and sting - if the former are
larger, the poison is likely to be weak.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.