(suspenseful music)
- I'm Coyote Peterson, and I'm about
to pre-handle the most lethal scorpion species
in the United Statues.
Are you ready, here we go, one, two, three.
(exhales) It will definitely get your nerves going.
(dramatic music)
(feet crunching)
There's an old saying that things go bump in the night,
which usually refers to anything mysterious,
and more often than not, frightening.
There it is, the desert millipede.
1,000 legs, awesome.
Now imagine yourself our walking alone in the darkness
of Arizona's Sonoran Desert,
a wild place that comes alive in the dark
with spiders, snakes, and the one creature
that personally makes my skin crawl, the scorpion.
Armed with a set of pinchers and a venom-injecting stinger,
they are about as creepy as nature gets.
I love being out in the desert at night.
The temperatures are so much cooler,
animals are moving all over the place,
but it's a little creepy, mean I can see up ahead
of us here with the flashlight,
but as soon as these lights go off
and the black lights come on, it becomes much more difficult
to see anything other than the scorpions.
Now the black light, is just what you need
for finding scorpions, because the UV
actually causes them to illuminate
a bright yellowish green.
What we wanna do is kinda comb the edges of the wash,
get up into some rock piles and see if we can get our hands
on one of these creepy-crawlies.
But if I told the that these creatures,
which most consider living nightmares,
were actually more afraid of us,
than we should ever be of them.
So tonight I'm going to prove that scorpions
despite being creepy, are not out there to get us.
And in fact, really just want to left alone.
Here we go, right there, wow look how quick that is.
- [Man] That is definitely a stripe-tailed scorpion
- [Coyote] The most common scorpion
in the Sonoran Desert is the stripe-tailed.
- Got it. - Nice.
(breath blowing)
- Oh boy that makes you nervous.
- [Man] Okay curb the light.
- Oh boy, that takes a lot of nerve,
to pick up a scorpion that small.
Now the sting from this specific scorpion,
the stripe-tail, is no more potent
than that of a honey bee, but even still,
his is not something that you should ever
wanna go out and try to pick up
like you just saw me do.
But they are so quick that they run all over the place
and I kinda figured that the only way
that I could 'em up close for the camera,
was to actually pick him up.
Now what's really difficult,
about handling a scorpion this small is when I tailed it,
I had to actually grab the knuckle that's
right where the tail meets the vesicle.
Now the vesicle is what's holding
all of the venom and then of course
they have a stinger right on the end.
I'll see if I can get him to walk up on this rock here.
All right, you gotta a shot? - Uh-hu.
- [Coyote] I'm gonna let go, ready?
- Yep. - One, two, three.
Don't get too close, but to identify this little arachnid,
just look for a series of dark strips on the tail.
My favorite part of any scorpion encounter
is always the release, and with one species down,
our search continued into the night.
- [Man] Giant desert hairy right here.
Oh look at the size of that one.
Wow, that is a big scorpion.
- [Coyote] I'm just gonna tail him.
These ones are a lot easier to tail than little ones.
Got him. - Awesome.
(exclaims excitedly)
- Now this is the largest species of scorpion
that we have in the United States
and here in the Sonoran Desert.
That is the giant desert hairy scorpion,
and he also has his dinner in his mouth.
Look at that he's eating a moth.
Now the way to easily tell the giant desert hairy
apart from the other scorpions here in the Sonoran Desert
aside from how large they are,
is they have all of these little hairs,
see those little hairs on the vesicle around the stinger?
Hence why they call them hairy.
Now scorpions like all arachnids,
have eight legs and these ones up front here,
the pedipalps, with the pinchers on the end,
that's actually just a modified set of legs
that helps them hunt.
Now scorpions are perfectly designed for this environment
but they do have quite a few predators.
Rodents will eat them, lizards will eat them,
so a scorpion of this size is much easier
for a predator to pick off
than some of the smaller species.
Right, let's get this guy back on his log
so he can finish his moth dinner.
Of the nearly 1500 scorpion species in the world,
only around 25 have a sting that is potentially
dangerous to humans, and in the United States
the only one that packs such a punch
is the bark scorpion.
Right here. - Hah.
- [Coyote] Look at that, there's a bark scorpion
right on the underside of this branch.
- [Man] Are you sure that's a bark?
- I'm a 100% positive
that's a bark scorpion, they have a very long tail,
and extra long, skinny pinchers.
You don't need a robust set of pinchers
when you have a venom that's so toxic
all it takes is one sting and that prey is instantly doomed.
Now the other way that I can easily tell
this is a bark scorpion is that this is the only
species that likes to climb,
and they actually practice what is called
negative geotaxis which is hanging upside down.
And this scorpion as you can see
is just perfectly balancing there which means
they can move on the top of this branch
to the bottom on this branch regardless
and catch its food.
So if a moth comes in close, boom,
he's gonna snatch out with those pinchers
and flick the lethal sting, and then he has his dinner.
All right, now scorpions are something that
you would never, ever, ever, ever want to handle,
but what I'm gonna do now is gently get this guy
onto my hand to prove that scorpions
aren't out there just to sting you.
If I handle this scorpion gently,
I'm pretty confident that it's not gonna sting.
But if I am tagged, this is going to be extremely painful.
I'm Coyote Peterson, and I'm about to pre-handle
the most lethal species of scorpion in the United States.
Are you ready?
Here we go, one,
two, three.
There we go, that is the most venomous species
of scorpion in the United States,
and he's on my hand.
All right, this makes me a little bit nervous
s0 I'm going to see if I can get him
to just sit still.
Phew, that definitely gets your nerves going.
Now, as long as I handle this creature gently
and don't apply any pressure,
I believe that I will be just fine.
Scorpions sting people when they feel threatened,
so let's say this species specifically,
they love to hang upside down underneath things.
It can be a piece of wood, it could be your lawn chair.
You come outside and just grab onto that
and you squeeze down on the scorpion,
if it feel pressured, like it's going to get squashed,
it's going to sting as a defense.
As you can see right now, he doesn't have his tail
or his stinger in a defensive position.
He's just curious, he's looking around.
He says this is not a tree, this is different.
And for me this is also different,
and extremely nerve-wracking,
but the reason that I'm doing this
is to prove that these scorpions
aren't just out there to sting you.
- [Man] How bad would it be if this scorpion
were to sting you?
- Okay there he goes, he's stopped.
If this scorpion were to sting me right now
I would be in incredible pain for the next 48 hours.
I don't know how my body would react to the venom.
I could go into anaphylactic shock.
Not likely, but at the very least
extreme pain for 48 hours depending how far
the venom spread into my arm.
I could lose use of my arm for a couple a days.
(exhales) My tongue could swell up.
I could foam at the mouth, cramps in the stomach,
all sorts of bad stuff that you don't want
to have to deal with.
What I just wanna do right now
is stay as still as possible.
The scorpion has found a spot where he feels comfortable,
I feel comfortable, and as you can see
he doesn't feel agitated.
I'm being as gentle as I can with him
and I must tell you right now
this is never, ever, anything I recommend
someone go out and try and do.
This is the most venomous species of scorpion
in the United States and he's getting a little
too close the edge of my sleeve.
Come buddy, come back up this way.
All right, at this point I think he's getting
a little agitated, so what I wanna do
is get him back up into the tree
so he can continue hunting.
This has been one extreme experience
with the most venomous species of scorpion
in the United States.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
Arizonians hunt is the only scorpion anti-venom
program in North America, and they only administer treatment
to around 100 people a year.
What's even more incredible, is that no scorpion
related deaths have been reported in Arizona
for than 40 years.
So the next time you see a scorpion,
remember, these arachnids are more afraid of us
that we should ever be of them.
As long as you give a scorpion space, and respect
there's virtually no chance it's going to sting you.
If you thought that was one wild adventure,
check out the time I was intentionally stung
by a scorpion, and don't forget,
subscribe, to join me and the crew on this season
of Breaking Trail.
(Coyote calling)