Scorpions

            Have you ever been stung by a scorpion? If you have, you probably hate the little things. Yet while hating them you probably don’t know what ticked it off. It was probably you; the reason being is that they only sting something if they feel threatened by it. Scorpions are misunderstood creatures with an interesting life, are cool to have as pets, and have some other fascinating aspects.

Life

            Scorpions are very interesting from birth to death. When they are born the mother carries them on her back until they’re old enough to live on their own. When they’re younger, scorpions must eat more often then adult scorpions. This is because adult scorpions can slow down their metabolism to one third the actual rate. This allows the scorpion to eat as little as one insect a year.

            The scorpion’s diet consists of all types of insects, spiders, centipedes, and other scorpions. Exotic scorpions may eat beetles, tree lizards, mice, and snakes. When hunting for their prey most scorpions wait until an animal it can eat comes by then they ambush it. When getting ready to ambush, scorpions can deploy sensitive detectors that pick up vibrations in the ground.

            Scorpions are spread about everywhere in the world because of their amazing ability to adapt. They live in places as hot as deserts to places like the Himalayas. It is said this occurred because they hitched rides on ancient travelers and traders. This is why scorpions are so far spread in habitat.

Care

     Scorpions are very interesting pets to have but before buying one you may want to know what species of scorpion it is to make sure it’s not dangerous. When building the habitat for your scorpion, the cage needs to be set at 20 – 30 degrees C (68-86 degrees F) for desert scorpions and 25-30C (77-86F) for tropical scorpions.  The cage does not need to be large unless you decide to own a community. But be prepared to lose some...because they eat each other.

     If you buy a desert scorpion you want to make sure the bedding in it’s cage is very fine aquarium sand or gravel because the simulates the dessert. Tropical scorpion need loose plotting soil as this imitates the forest floor. After choosing the bedding for the habitat you should put in some hollowed logs or stones that have no change of tooling over. This gives the scorpion good hiding places and it also creates a sense of safety.

     Scorpions can be troublesome to handle because they love to hide. They will dig holes in their bedding or hide in any items that have cracks in them.  Observing scorpions may be tough but use of a black light may make it easier because it simulates the night time sky. UV light will expose the scorpion’s unique talent to glow. The type of light will not hurt the scorpion but is not good for humans as it has reported that it can create a cancer risk.

   You need to feed your scorpion once a week. Four times per week if it’s young. The best time to feed them is at night because scorpions are nocturnal. 

Conclusion

I hope this explains more about scorpions, their life, their care and other fascinating aspects of these interesting animals.

Sources

Harman, Amanda, (2001) Nature’s Children, Scorpions, Danbury, Connecticut, Grolier Educational.

http://www.desertusa.com/oct96/du_scorpian.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0624/_030624_scorpians.html

http://www.thailbugs.com/articles/scorpians_facts.html

http://web.signet.com.sg/~caijw/care/care.htm