Number 9 Gareth Pike In May of 2007, Gareth Pike was stung by a
scorpion while staying at a Thai jungle village.
About two years prior, he’d sold his business in Wales and moved to the south of Thailand,
where he married a local woman.
One morning, as he was getting dressed, Pike was stung in the thumb by a scorpion.
He was treated at a local hospital but his condition gradually worsened.
Tissue around the sting became necrotic and the 56-year-old fell ill, losing about half
of his body weight.
Pike’s family had him transferred to Wales for treatment.
The man died of health complications within a few weeks of returning to the UK.
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Number 8 Scorpion in Tangerines Bag A 7-year-old girl from Blackburn, England
opened a bag of store-bought tangerines only to find a deathstalker scorpion.
The venomous arachnid crawled out of the netting, much to the little girl’s terror.
Her screams alerted her mother.
Even though she was shocked upon seeing the scorpion, the woman knew she couldn’t risk
having the creature loose in the house.
She used a kitchen knife and managed to trap the scorpion in a plastic lunch box.
Until the following morning, the arachnid was left in the garden, still sealed in the
container.
The woman then took the bag of tangerines and the box containing the scorpion back to
the supermarket.
Management apologized profusely and the supermarket started a coordinated investigation with its
Spanish fruit suppliers.
What Is It?
Scorpions are arachnids with an evolutionary history that goes back about 435 million years
ago.
Some of the prehistoric cousins of modern scorpions were truly enormous.
Jaekelopterus, for example, a creature known as the sea scorpion, could grow to be over
8ft in length.
That’s on par with the height of Robert Wadlow, the tallest human in recorded history.
Scorpions have elongated bodies, eight legs and two pincers.
Each of the pincers has a moveable claw, called tarsus, and a fixed claw, called manus.
The stinger, or aculeus, is at the end of a segmented, forward arching tail.
Most scorpion species are small but some are true titans of their kind.
The largest is the giant forest scorpion, which can grow to be 9 inches long and 2 ounces
heavy.
To put that into perspective, it’s as long as the hands of NBA superstar LeBron James.
Fortunately, it evolved to kill prey by crushing with its pincers so the venom isn’t typically
lethal to humans.
Among the many fascinating aspects about scorpions is also that they glow a vibrant blue-green
under UV lights, which is due to fluorescent chemicals in their cuticle.
Number 7 Kita Fitton As care worker Kita Fitton was preparing lunches
for the residents of the Kent retirement home she worked at, she was stung by a black-edged
scorpion.
The creature’s a native of Costa Rica and had travelled to England as a stowaway in
a bag of Tesco bananas.
Fitton noticed the creature’s stinger, still lodged in her finger, after a sharp pain had
shot up her arm.
The woman described the sensation as being 40 times more painful than a bee sting.
After stinging the 20-year-old, the arachnid scuttled across the floor.
Fortunately, one of the woman’s colleagues managed to trap it under her shoe.
Soon enough, Fitton’s arm went numb and her heart rate started to soar.
She recovered after being taken to the hospital, but had no sensation in her finger for days.
The situation could’ve turned deadly if the scorpion would’ve managed to escape
and sting the home’s residents, who were more vulnerable to its venom.
Number 6 Richard Bell In April of 2017, Richard Bell and his wife,
Linda, were on a connecting flight from Houston to Calgary after having spent a holiday in
Mexico.
While they were having an in-flight meal, a scorpion fell from an overhead compartment
directly into Richard’s plate.
Although surprised by the stowaway, the man wasn’t afraid.
He thought it resembled a “little lobster” and decided to pick it up.
That’s when the honey-colored scorpion stung him.
The man described the pain as similar to that of a wasp sting.
Another passenger stomped the arachnid as it was trying to make a getaway.
The man received treatment on board but the sting wasn’t considered life-threatening.
Where Is It Located?
Except for Antarctica and New Zealand, scorpions can be found on all major land masses.
Through human trade and commerce, they’ve been introduced to places where they don’t
occur naturally, such as Japan, Great Britain or various island in Oceania.
Depending on the species, they can dwell on the ground, in rock crevices, sand as well
as in trees.
They prefer temperatures in the range of 68 to 99 degrees Fahrenheit but may survive desert
heat as well as temperatures below freezing.
Scorpions occur in basically every terrestrial habitat, from mountain tops to intertidal
zones.
Number 5 Jayes Family Unbeknownst to Theresa Jayes, she brought
back a scorpion to her home in England following a holiday to Andalusia, Spain.
The arachnid was discovered hiding in the woman’s suitcase about a month after she’d
gotten back.
Her 18-year-old daughter, Hollie, and one of her friends found the scorpion.
They both screamed and slammed the suitcase shut after which they threw it in the bathroom.
Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Theresa Jayes would subsequently discover that the creature was a deathstalker, a dangerous
scorpion for which there’s no antivenom in England.
She’d been very close to it numerous times while unpacking her bag and was definitely
lucky not to have been stung.
Number 4 Woman finds Scorpion in her pants A woman on a United Airlines flight from San
Francisco to Atlanta was severely distraught upon discovering that a scorpion had crawled
up her pant leg.
While the plane was in midair, the woman started to experience a stinging sensation on her
leg.
As she got up from her seat and headed towards the restroom, the pain intensified.
The live scorpion then fell out her pant leg.
Before it could escape, the arachnid was trapped by a flight attendant.
The crew was quick to offer their support to the woman who had been stung multiple times.
They coordinated with a medical expert on the ground who guided them through the process
of caring for the victim.
She was transferred to a local hospital after landing.
It’s still unclear how the arachnid had found its way aboard the plane.
How Will It Kill You?
While the pincers may look menacing enough, the most dangerous part of the scorpion’s
body is its tail which ends in a stinger.
Through it, the arachnid delivers its venom meant to kill or paralyze its prey.
Only about 25 species of scorpions have venom strong enough to kill a human being.
Deathstalker, fat-tailed and bark scorpions rank at the top when it comes to venom toxicity.
The pain associated with the sting of some species has been compared to being shocked
with electrical current or struck by a bolt of lightning.
The fast-acting venom is a dangerous combination of neurotoxin, cardiotoxins, enzyme inhibitors
and other dangerous substances.
Human envenomation is known as scorpionism.
Symptoms range from strange, such as uncontrollable, prolonged erections to life-threatening.
Severe scorpionism health complications include respiratory distress syndrome, cardiac dysfunction,
paralysis or multiple organ failure leading to death.
Number 3 Unnamed Indian Woman In October of 2017, the sting of an Indian
red scorpion claimed the life of a 54-year-old woman.
Known by its scientific name as Hottentotta tamulus, it’s one of the deadliest scorpions
on the Indian subcontinent.
The victim, a resident of Warangal, was stung shortly after waking up.
She was rushed to the hospital where doctors struggled to keep her alive as the venom took
hold of her body.
Several hours after treatment had begun, she suffered a severe stroke.
The right side of her body became paralyzed and she struggled to speak.
The woman then went into cardiac arrest.
Doctors were able to revive her but, unfortunately, the venom’s grip proved too strong.
She went into a coma and died the following day.
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How to Survive?
If you’re travelling through an area that’s known to be abundant in scorpions, there are
a few preventive measures to take.
These include wearing long sleeves and trousers as well as shaking out towels, bedding, shoes
and clothes before using them.
Victims may suffer severe allergic reactions and go into anaphylactic shock.
If you’re allergic to bites and stings, carrying an epinephrine auto-injector can
make the difference between life and death.
While all scorpions are venomous, only a few can kill humans.
Treatment varies depending on the victim’s symptoms and most healthy adults won’t need
professional medical assistance.
Mild cases of envenomation can be treated by cleaning the sting site with soap and water,
applying a cold compress and taking non-prescription pain killers.
Stings from a select few scorpion species should be treated as a medical emergency.
Victims may require the administration of antivenom, vasodilators for blood flow as
well as potent opioids.
Number 2 Christian Costanzo In a dark ironic twist, a man who occasionally
dressed up as Spiderman had his apartment invaded by roughly 30 scorpions.
Arizona man Christian Costanzo would put on the superhero suit to entertain sick children
at the hospital.
Shortly after moving to a new apartment, he began having arachnid problems.
He’d started seeing scorpions around his home and told his landlord about it.
The man reportedly laughed it off claiming “Oh well…it’s Arizona!”
The building’s management sent exterminators to deal with the pests, but it didn’t help.
At one point, Costanzo’s girlfriend was stung.
She didn’t suffer any adverse reactions but the incident fueled Costanzo to hunt down
the arachnids himself.
He posted a picture of his capture online and it went viral, with thousands of shares.
The image showed a glass bowl covering dozens of scorpions.
Number 1 Adam Young Adam Young is another scorpion sting victim
to be attacked on a plane.
It happened on a flight from Colombia to Mexico.
Shortly after departure, Young was trying to take a nap but felt something crawling
underneath his shirt.
He was travelling with a friend who thought he was being pranked as Young started to panic
in his seat.
He realized the situation was very real upon seeing the arachnid on the plane’s floor.
The creature was subsequently killed by flight attendants but, by that point, it had already
stung Young three times.
As the venom spread through his system, Young thought he was going to die.
He felt like the blood in his veins was boiling.
Aside from excruciating pain he also experienced nausea, numbness in his arm and hallucinations.
A doctor on a board insisted that the plane land as soon as possible.
In less than half an hour, the plane returned to Bogota where doctors were waiting for Young
on the tarmac.
He was given antivenom injections and, although still in pain, boarded the Mexico-bound plane
once more.
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