In article ,
Rodger Whitlock wrote:

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.

I have heard that, as with snakes, you should equate the maximally
lethal USA variety with a poisonous but not lethal African, Indian,
tropical Far Eastern or Australian one :-)

Don't have 'em here. Yet.

I doubt that you will. Notice that all of the colonies in the UK
live in buildings, which makes them dubiously 'wild'. What is the
term for something that naturalises itself only in human constructions?
It isn't wild, feral, domestic, parasitic, commensual, symbiotic or
any of the other terms I know ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

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.

I've seen the reproductive forms on the wing by the millions at
the mouth of the Columbia River, where the climate is
considerably wetter than it is here; perhaps all the old pilings
in the river have something to do with it. An amazing sight, the
air filled with glitter from their wings in the late afternoon
when the sun is low. And in the little city of Astoria, termites
crawling everywhere. An amazing sight.


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

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 ,
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.

In article ,
Rodger Whitlock wrote:

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.

I have heard that, as with snakes, you should equate the maximally
lethal USA variety with a poisonous but not lethal African, Indian,
tropical Far Eastern or Australian one :-)

Don't have 'em here. Yet.

I doubt that you will. Notice that all of the colonies in the UK
live in buildings, which makes them dubiously 'wild'. What is the
term for something that naturalises itself only in human constructions?
It isn't wild, feral, domestic, parasitic, commensual, symbiotic or
any of the other terms I know ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 26/7/04 21:02, in article ,
" wrote:

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:32:17 +0200, Tim Challenger
wrote:

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:26:57 +0200, wrote:

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:08:35 +0200, Tim Challenger
wrote:

I'd be surprised if even the cats could actually catch a whole one.
Possibly the twiching tail.

Little green frogs from the neighbour's pond spend whole days being
caught by the cats and returned by us to the pond. So far the only
dead frog was discovered on the pillow next to my wife's head one
morning. The cats must have seen the Godfather.

Lizards are significantly more agile than frogs.

and a lot rarer, I've lived here for 38 years and never seen one, not
even in the local dunes. I have seen a rare three legged tortoise in
our garden. I saw lizards in Hampshire when I was a kid.
If I visit Rome or Greece I see one within an hour of arriving. In
French Guyana I had one in my hotel room.

Lizards live in stone walls in Jersey and I've often seen them basking in
the sun in the Mont Orgueil area. Now what I *really, really* want are
Geckoes....... ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 18:49:44 GMT, lid
(Rodger Whitlock) wrote:

~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.
~
I've only ever seen a real scorpion on a road trip round California I
made a decade ago. It looked like 5" of black shiny plastic and was
sitting on the shoulder of a surfer named Dennis. We thought it *was*
plastic until it wandered across his back.
It was his pet... and I didn't want to know where he put it when he
was surfing...


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!

On 26 Jul 2004 19:57:14 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:

What is the
term for something that naturalises itself only in human constructions?
It isn't wild, feral, domestic, parasitic, commensual, symbiotic or
any of the other terms I know ....

an immigrant?
--
Martin

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 18:49:44 GMT, lid
(Rodger Whitlock) wrote:

~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.
~
I've only ever seen a real scorpion on a road trip round California I
made a decade ago. It looked like 5" of black shiny plastic and was
sitting on the shoulder of a surfer named Dennis. We thought it *was*
plastic until it wandered across his back.
It was his pet... and I didn't want to know where he put it when he
was surfing...


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!

"Phil L" wrote in message
...
Matthew Durkin wrote:
:: 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.

As a keeper of reptiles, I know a little bit about this...The
wriggling of
the shodden tail is to fool predators, they will often shed it when
being
pursued, giving the predator a moving object to attack while they
make their
escape.

:: They apparently grow a new tail. Quite amazing.
::
:: I live just north of london. never seen a scorpion, lizard or
:: snake in the UK. Probably for the better... :O)

Parts of Wales have a good pupulation of snakes, I saw one there as
a child,
about 4 foot long and a sandy beige colour, this is the only wild
snake I've
ever seen in the UK...they are, like my own snakes, very shy of
people and
just want to hide all the time.

The wilder parts of the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall abounds in
adders.

Franz

Tim Challenger wrote in news:NB8Nc.48135$KU.38352
@animal.nntpserver.com:

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:26:57 +0200, wrote:

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:08:35 +0200, Tim Challenger
wrote:

I'd be surprised if even the cats could actually catch a whole one.
Possibly the twiching tail.

Little green frogs from the neighbour's pond spend whole days being
caught by the cats and returned by us to the pond.

Lizards are significantly more agile than frogs.

.... when it's warm. I once found three apparently dead lizards on the path
standing like statues one frosty morning. To my surprise, when I picked
one up, it jerked like a mechanical toy.

As I wasn't sure if this was postmortem action or life, I brought them
inside and warmed them up in an old fishtank by the window. Once they were
back in action, and the afternoon had warmed the paving stones, I let them
out on the path and they vanished like lightening.

If a cat had got hold of them when they were paralysed, they'd have been
munched.

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

On 26/7/04 22:35, in article
51, "Victoria Clare"
wrote:

Tim Challenger wrote in news:NB8Nc.48135$KU.38352
@animal.nntpserver.com:

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:26:57 +0200, wrote:

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 16:08:35 +0200, Tim Challenger
wrote:

I'd be surprised if even the cats could actually catch a whole one.
Possibly the twiching tail.

Little green frogs from the neighbour's pond spend whole days being
caught by the cats and returned by us to the pond.

Lizards are significantly more agile than frogs.

... when it's warm. I once found three apparently dead lizards on the path
standing like statues one frosty morning. To my surprise, when I picked
one up, it jerked like a mechanical toy.

As I wasn't sure if this was postmortem action or life, I brought them
inside and warmed them up in an old fishtank by the window. Once they were
back in action, and the afternoon had warmed the paving stones, I let them
out on the path and they vanished like lightening.

If a cat had got hold of them when they were paralysed, they'd have been
munched.


Just a thought *and* a question. WOULD a cat have got them? IOW, were they
playing dead to keep predators away? Maybe and perhaps?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

On 26 Jul 2004 19:57:14 GMT, Nick Maclaren wrote:

...What is the
term for something that naturalises itself only in human constructions?
It isn't wild, feral, domestic, parasitic, commensual, symbiotic or
any of the other terms I know ....

"Obligate commensal" is about as close as you are going to get.


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

"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
.207...
(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

There is also a beetle called the Devils Coachman (?) or something like
that which is sometimes mistaken for a scorpian ( it carries a curled tail
arched over its back). I am surprised no one has mentioned it in all of
this.

"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
.207...
(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

There is also a beetle called the Devils Coachman (?) or something like
that which is sometimes mistaken for a scorpian ( it carries a curled tail
arched over its back). I am surprised no one has mentioned it in all of
this.