wrote:
:: On 26 Jul 2004 07:33:54 GMT, (Nick Maclaren)
:: wrote:
::
:: In fact there are http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/eflavuk/mast.html
::
Now, if you hadn't placed me in your killfile, you'd have known that I
posted this link 10 hours previously!

"Ben" wrote in message
...
Jeannie wrote:
"Ben" wrote in message
...

Pulling down some old fence panels to replace them today, I disturbed a
large number of insects with crab-like pincers on their rear end. They
looked like scorpions, but I wasn't aware we had any in the UK. What
could they have been?


I really am surprised that I'd never seen one before. Perhaps its down
to different conditions from region to region - based on experience in
other parts of the country I was expecting hoards of woodlice to come
scurrying out, yet there were none.

Earwigs are very common in my area (south west) you only have to go into the
garden and find some leaves/branches to find them hidding underneath.

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!

Ben

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.

wrote:
:: On 26 Jul 2004 07:33:54 GMT, (Nick Maclaren)
:: wrote:
::
:: In fact there are http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/eflavuk/mast.html
::
Now, if you hadn't placed me in your killfile, you'd have known that I
posted this link 10 hours previously!

In article ,
writes:
| On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 13:03:07 GMT, "Yakman" wrote:
|
| There have been scorpions living in Sheerness, Isle of Sheppey for some 200
| years. These live in walls in the old dock yard.
|
| http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print...102285,00.html
|
| almost anything is possible nowadays. My wife saw a small lizard in
| our Dutch garden last week.

That isn't surprising at all. Lacerta vivipara is common a LONG
way north of the Netherlands - I think that I saw one at 800 metres
near Inverness last week, though I didn't know they lived that high
there. And, with you, it could have been other lizards as well.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in news:ce2c52$b4u$1
@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk:

There aren't any wild scorpions in the UK, though they might JUST
have established themselves in a few places (almost certainly in
buildings only). The furthest north they get naturally is southern
Europe. They have a sting (NOT pincers) as a tail, that curls up
over their back. Other than that, yes, they look a bit like
miniature lobsters.

Doing rather well in Kent, apparently:

http://arachnophiliac.co.uk/burrow/n...e_beasties.htm

I understand Pseudoscorpions are quite widely distributed in the UK,
though I've never seen one myself.

http://www.uksafari.com/pseudoscorpions.htm


Victoria

In article ,
writes:
|
| | almost anything is possible nowadays. My wife saw a small lizard in
| | our Dutch garden last week.
|
| That isn't surprising at all. Lacerta vivipara is common a LONG
| way north of the Netherlands
|
| So are arctic foxes,but that doesn't mean that they are two a penny in
| Zuid Holland.

Perhaps I should have spelled it out. Those lizards are widespread
over all of Europe, from the south to the latitude of Scotland and
perhaps higher. That range included the Netherlands, the last I
heard.

| - I think that I saw one at 800 metres
| near Inverness last week, though I didn't know they lived that high
| there. And, with you, it could have been other lizards as well.
|
| My wife saw this one at one metre. It can't be that common in our
| garden otherwise we would have noticed it before and almost certainly
| one of the cats would have caught one by now.

Common doesn't mean they occur every few feet. And how do you know
that the cats haven't caught a few, but not shown you them?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:52:15 +0100, Victoria Clare wrote:

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in news:ce2c52$b4u$1
@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk:

There aren't any wild scorpions in the UK, though they might JUST
have established themselves in a few places (almost certainly in
buildings only). The furthest north they get naturally is southern
Europe. They have a sting (NOT pincers) as a tail, that curls up
over their back. Other than that, yes, they look a bit like
miniature lobsters.

Doing rather well in Kent, apparently:

http://arachnophiliac.co.uk/burrow/n...e_beasties.htm

I understand Pseudoscorpions are quite widely distributed in the UK,
though I've never seen one myself.

http://www.uksafari.com/pseudoscorpions.htm

Pseudoscorpions are tiny. Quite common in the leaf litter in beech woods,
they are harmless to humans (they only pose a threat to springtails etc).
And they have no sting, of course.

The best was to find some is to grab a good couple of handfulls of leaf
litter - not the very top inch, but below that down to a couple of inches,
and place it in a large funnel or tin can, with a coarse wire mesh a the
bottom to stop the leaves falling out and to let the creatures fall
through. Place a jamjar underneath and a strong light above (they'll crawl
downwards away from the heat and fall into the jar.)

Hopefully, you'll get loads of springtails and a couple of psuedoscorps as
well. Plus loads of other creepy-crawlies :-)

--
Tim C.

"Jeannie" wrote in message
...
"Ben" wrote in message
...
Pulling down some old fence panels to replace them today, I
disturbed a
large number of insects with crab-like pincers on their rear end.
They
looked like scorpions, but I wasn't aware we had any in the UK.
What
could they have been?

I once found one of these creatures in my bath and hysterically rang
my mum
AND my dad and made them come to my house as I too thought I had
discovered
a scorpion. Much laughing at my expense ensued when they realised
that it
was in fact an earwig. I am blushing with the embarrassment of it
all just
typing this message.

When we went on mountaineering trips in South Africa, it was de rigeur
to shake out our boots every morning in order to expel any possible
scorpions which might have made themselves at home overnight.

Franz

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:06:04 +0000 (UTC), Franz Heymann wrote:

"Jeannie" wrote in message
...
"Ben" wrote in message
...
Pulling down some old fence panels to replace them today, I
disturbed a
large number of insects with crab-like pincers on their rear end.
They
looked like scorpions, but I wasn't aware we had any in the UK.
What
could they have been?

I once found one of these creatures in my bath and hysterically rang
my mum
AND my dad and made them come to my house as I too thought I had
discovered
a scorpion. Much laughing at my expense ensued when they realised
that it
was in fact an earwig. I am blushing with the embarrassment of it
all just
typing this message.

When we went on mountaineering trips in South Africa, it was de rigeur
to shake out our boots every morning in order to expel any possible
scorpions which might have made themselves at home overnight.

Franz

You don't have to go to Africa, I've seen them around the Italian lakes,
Tuscany and northern Croatia, even occasionally southern Austria apparently
(although I haven't seen any myself there). Normally between the bedclothes
or behind a cupboard.

--
Tim C.

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:12:03 +0200, Tim Challenger
wrote:

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 14:06:04 +0000 (UTC), Franz Heymann wrote:

When we went on mountaineering trips in South Africa, it was de rigeur
to shake out our boots every morning in order to expel any possible
scorpions which might have made themselves at home overnight.

Franz

You don't have to go to Africa,

Franz didn't have to go to Africa either :-)


--
Martin

"Nick Maclaren" wrote after
"Phil L" writes:
| Ben wrote:
| :: Pulling down some old fence panels to replace them today, I
| :: disturbed a large number of insects with crab-like pincers on
| :: their rear end. They looked like scorpions, but I wasn't aware we
| :: had any in the UK. What could they have been?
|
| Scorpions! - we do have them in the UK but they are rare...BTW, if the
| pincers were at their back end, it's unlikely they were scorpions -
| scorpions look a bit like lobsters, with their pincers at the front, on
| their 'arms' ...earwigs have pincers on their rear end?

Earwigs, almost certainly. Complete harmless, and not even much
of a nuisance in the garden.

There aren't any wild scorpions in the UK, though they might JUST
have established themselves in a few places (almost certainly in
buildings only). The furthest north they get naturally is southern
Europe. They have a sting (NOT pincers) as a tail, that curls up
over their back. Other than that, yes, they look a bit like
miniature lobsters.

There are some alive and well and living in parts of the London Underground,
been there for a long time.
Luckily they aren't the really nasty ones.

--
Regards
Bob
in Runnymede, 17miles west of London, UK

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 12:38:00 +0100, Ben Blackmore wrote:

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!

Scorpions are quite common in the American Southwest (Utah,
Arizona, etc) where the general rule is the smaller the scorpion,
the more dangerous it is. Sure, the big ones pack quite a wallop,
but the little ones can kill you.

Don't have 'em here. Yet.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

In article , Matthew Durkin
writes

I wouldn't advise trying to catch one. I cornered one in Greece as a child,
and was somewhat horrified to find it dispensing with its tail (in the grip
of my hand). They wriggle quite a while after the lizard is gone.
They apparently grow a new tail. Quite amazing.

Slow worms (which are lizards rather than worms or snakes) do the same.
The tail wriggles like fury to attract the predator's attention while
the rest of the body makes itself scarce. The regrown tail isn't a
perfect fit - is slightly thinner than the old one.

I live just north of london. never seen a scorpion, lizard or snake in the
UK. Probably for the better... :O)

Slow worms in abundance when I lived in Sevenoaks. Only place I've seen
lizards is Inner Hebrides. Seen many adders- mainly the tail end
departing as fast as poss - but not yet seen a grass snake.



--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article ,
Rodger Whitlock wrote:
On 26 Jul 2004 11:52:04 GMT, Nick Maclaren wrote:

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.

Have you not heard of "dampwood termites"? Down in California,
drywood termites are a serious problem -- it's common to see a
house entirely enveloped in a polyethylene shroud for fumigation.
However, they are uncommon in the damper Pacific Northwest.

Instead we have dampwood termites, which are a major factor is
the natural recycling of fallen trees. They are only a problem in
buildings if there's a leaky pipe or wholly inadequate
ventilation that causes serious moisture buildup. The wood has to
be damp for them to attack it.

No, I hadn't. Thanks for the education :-)

The equivalent here is woodworm, combined with death watch beetle,
wet rot and dry rot - all have the characteristics you mention,
despite two being fungi :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.