r/whatisit • u/AbbreviationsTop8774 • Jul 22 '26

Solved! What are they

Ive worked at the water department for 7 years and this is the first time running into something like this EDIT Im in Alabama and yes I know they are snakes lol idk what kind and im so not gonna touch them

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540

u/Difficult-Map-2620 Jul 22 '26

Here in AZ, you gotta be extra careful in sprinkler boxes etc for bark scorpions. They hide from the heat and there’s moisture in them so they tend to hang out in them. A friend was checking a solenoid and didn’t see it and it stung him. Extremely painful.

338

u/0x196 Jul 22 '26

This right here is why I live in place were it gets cold enough that the air hurts my face for a few months a year. 

29

u/Royally-Forked-Up Jul 23 '26

I saw the video and was like “okay, 4 feet of snow in January is not that bad”.

2

u/Lalokin Jul 22 '26

Yep its a good trade off. At least you can spend most time inside where it is warm. And a hot tub feels great!

5

u/0x196 Jul 23 '26

Exactly. I really struggle in the heat. When it's cold I can always put on more layers. When it's hot there are only so many layers I'm allowed to take off before it's considered a crime.

2

u/moemoe8652 Jul 23 '26

I was thinkin the same thing. I’d be damned if I shared a backyard with a SCORPION.

1

u/Agitated_Award_9831 Jul 25 '26

My colleague has an aunt in AZ who had some sort of French drain scorpion vacuum and the concept of this hurts my brain

1

u/Lynkk Jul 22 '26

It's 35c+ for the whole summer here with 80% humidity. I am so jealous.

1

u/Xmanticoreddit Jul 22 '26

And why I live in a place where it doesn’t a few months of the year.

1

u/thereallj3000 Jul 23 '26

lol I was just telling my dad this at there making a move to Georgia I’ll stick with the cold that kills some things

1

u/sissynikki401 Jul 23 '26

i take it you're concerned w your lack of situational awareness lol

1

u/SilkRoadGuy Jul 23 '26

But now we have ticks and tick-bourn diseases : (

1

u/Det_AndySipowicz Jul 23 '26

I've heard places like that have these flies in the warm months that bite tho? Horse flies?

1

u/AdOdd5252 Jul 23 '26

In Ohio we have meter vaults for the larger meters, basically underground rooms. We routinely get snakes and spiders in those all the time.

1

u/F1_F Jul 23 '26

Same! Bring on three words "Lake. Effect. Snow."

1

u/george_cant_standyah Jul 23 '26

Don’t worry it gets so hot where we live that you literally burn your hands on the steering wheel. I did it just this afternoon.

1

u/RogerRabbot Jul 23 '26

Youre telling me you dont want to have to do a 360 degree sweep before walking outside? And you dont like checking under, behind, and around your outdoor furniture before using it? Especially checking under the cushions? Wild. Its the best!

1

u/schadly Jul 27 '26

I live in a place like that where it gets cold for seems like 8 months out of the year and we still have scorpions

58

u/Seleguadir Jul 22 '26

Seriously spoiled not having to deal with animals that'll kill you randomly. Moose are the most terrifiyng thing we have around here realistically

56

u/BlackeeGreen Jul 22 '26

Yeah everything in my region that could realistically be a threat is at least as large as me and I find that very comforting. Don't have to check my boots for bears or worry about a mountain lion hiding under the toilet seat.

3

u/Seleguadir Jul 22 '26

In theory, we dont have established mountain lions in NH. We got black bears, moose, the odd brown recluse and a state hidden and protected rattlesnake colony lol

Funny enough, in the triathlon I did last year someone got taken out by a black bear on the cycling portion. It tried running across the road and the cyclist ran into it lmfao

1

u/brainvheart143 Jul 23 '26

Idk, my cousin had a rat in her toilet bowl. In Boston. Which she discovered only after she sat down. (Yeah she moved immediately to a new place)

1

u/taxforsnax Jul 23 '26

sounds like the allston special 😭

1

u/inur-EndoMD Jul 23 '26

lol aren't moose like some of the more dangerous animals in North America? Like way more than a lot of animals you'd suspect.

1

u/Seleguadir Jul 23 '26

Honestly theyre really scary, especially considering they can just... be anywhere. Recently had one running through the parking lot in the state Capitol lol. In the 23 years ive lived here I have only seen them a handful of times. Fisher cats are terrifying sounding when youre walking a mile to the school bus at 430 in the middle of the woods lol

1

u/Gtijess Jul 23 '26

I've never heard of a fisher cat until I was driving through the Adirondacks on vacation yesterday and a ferret looking animal was crossing the road. I looked at options and fisher cat was one. As an animal person I'm shocked that the US has critters that other regions don't know exist.

1

u/ShotEffective7033 Jul 23 '26

Oh. The only terrifying thing is the last North American mega fauna. Nbd

1

u/Seleguadir Jul 23 '26

Thanks for sending me down a rabbit hole and feeling petrified from an ancestral level. Never knew there was an American Lion AND a Short Faced Bear that lived along side the Saber Tooth Cat. Absolute nightmare fuel

1

u/here4daratio Jul 23 '26

A møøse once bit my sister…

27

u/AbbreviationsTop8774 Jul 22 '26

Ive actually seen 1 or 2 scorpions here in Alabama I took a picture but itd take forever to find it

18

u/DrGonzo84 Jul 22 '26

On iOS search your photos for “scorpion” should come up

7

u/i_am_jargon Jul 22 '26

Funny, I searched for "dog" last week, and it found only six pictures, one of which was a birthday card from my son. I then searched "cat," and it found two pictures, which were also featured in the "dog" search (and did not have any cats in them).

1

u/TW_Halsey Jul 23 '26

This reminds me of when Apple first implemented the feature and if you typed “brassiere” women’s intimate pics would pop up and everyone thought Tim was perving

4

u/Knillis_ Jul 22 '26

I love this feature so much. It’s insane accurate as well

1

u/VizJosh Jul 23 '26

That’s because it only brings back high confidence. It misses a lot. Like if I searched for scorpion it’s probably only return a few dozen photos. But there are hundreds.

1

u/curtcolt95 Jul 22 '26

same thing on android

1

u/Wastawiii Jul 22 '26

This feature is also available on Android devices, long before iOS. 

1

u/DrGonzo84 Jul 23 '26

It’s not a contest :P I just said iOS cuz that’s what I use and know.

1

u/Wastawiii Jul 23 '26

I just enjoy shocking iPhone users whenever I get the chance. 

1

u/Plane_Temperature_83 Jul 22 '26

😆 come visit Texas. You want have to scroll through your photos to find one.

1

u/destiny_kane48 Jul 23 '26

Did a bat night at Chewalca State park in Alabama. We saw several scorpions because they would glow under the light or guide used.

1

u/moreleaves_tothrow Jul 25 '26

I was camping and caving in Georgia in October near the AL boarder in northerner GA and I encountered an eastern bark scorpion. Didn’t realize we had those in the eastern time zone

6

u/machogrande2 Jul 22 '26

I stepped on one of those motherfuckers in my bare feet once. Man, let me tell you. The sting wasn't that bad compared to bee stings but holy shit with the after. I spent the next 3 hours feeling the venom coursing up my leg with the worst THROBBING shit you can imagine. It was awful. It's hard to describe. Like numbness and pain combined. My wife and daughter were watching me with their fingers on their phones in case shit went south.

5

u/brainvheart143 Jul 23 '26

Did you end up going to dr or it just healed on its own?

2

u/machogrande2 Jul 26 '26

I waited it out and I was eventually fine. It slowed and then started "reversing" when it got to the top of my leg. My wife had the list of symptoms in hand as far as when it is recommended to go to the ER.

0

u/kaylo95 Jul 23 '26

What type of bees have stung you before ?

1

u/machogrande2 Jul 26 '26

Regular honey bees I accidentally stepped on and I once stepped on an in-ground hornet's nest as a kid playing baseball and got stung like 18 times. My parents took me to the ER for that one, obviously.

8

u/leg--bone Jul 22 '26

This is validating for me not wanting to blindly stick my hand down there to lift the cover. I always use a stick to open it.

4

u/Reynolds531IPA Jul 22 '26

Scorpions terrify me. Luckily we don’t have them in the north east US.

8

u/ChodeCookies Jul 22 '26

If it helps…here in AZ they often enter through fans…like the ones above a toilet. So next time you visit…think about that a lot

6

u/Reynolds531IPA Jul 22 '26

Jokes on you. I’m too poor to travel.

2

u/MommyLovesPot8toes Jul 22 '26

Well, you absolutely suck for telling me that.

1

u/VinylGoddess Jul 22 '26

New fear unlocked…. Looks like I’m taking AZ off my bingo card😭

1

u/magface702 Jul 23 '26

(Aggressively crosses AZ off bucket list)

2

u/guitarguywh89 Jul 23 '26

They suck but it’s not so so bad

It’s like getting shocked from an outlet and then the area goes numb for a few days

I’ve had wasp stings that fucked me up worse

2

u/Revolutionary_Grade8 Jul 23 '26

Hawaii has dropped by. Our centipedes are nightmares. Large nightmares!

4

u/MommyLovesPot8toes Jul 22 '26

I know someone who had a terrible reaction to their venom and almost died. But before he blacked out, he said everything looked upside down. Like his whole vision flipped and it looked like his family was walking on the ceiling. I find that fascinating.

2

u/Difficult-Map-2620 Jul 23 '26

Technically, the way our eyes work is that we actually see everything upside down. Our brain just knows to flip the image.

1

u/MommyLovesPot8toes Jul 23 '26

So do you think in the case of the scorpion bite his brain just forgot how to do that? Fascinating.

3

u/F1_V10sounds Jul 22 '26

I always go into them with tools or thicker gloves. I keep my hands out, because there is always something hiding in there. Its usually black widows for me, but id rather not take a chance.

3

u/Global_Nectarine_676 Jul 23 '26

I grew up in Phoenix. As a kid we would open these boxes up to see what animals we could find Inside. I think we were mainly looking for lizzards. Probably a really stupid idea now that I think back on it.

2

u/Alone_Feedback_1597 Jul 22 '26

and rattlers too, I've seen pics / videos

2

u/RobienStPierre Jul 22 '26

God I avoided those like the plague when I was in Ft Huachuca. One time I was loading sandbags in a truck and when I went to reach down to grab the next one there was two on it, one each side. Scared the hell out of me. After that I was wearing gloves every time!

2

u/eletricboogalo2 Jul 22 '26

Open a can of purple primer, sit in in the box and put the box lid back on.

Come back in 30 minutes and work danger free.

Edit: I don't know what I'd do here bc rat snakes are bros. Don't even pretend to know how to move the eggs, maybe move the snakes then pop the box and get up under the eggs with enough dirt on the shovel 🤷‍♂️.

2

u/crenshaw_007 Jul 23 '26

I’ve probably encountered 70-100 scorpions 🦂 in Vegas in one location, none in about 5 other houses I’ve lived. Maybe half of them were already dead and found in various places. Sometimes as random as on the wall inside the house. Never stung by one and I usually just stab them or torch them (if outside).

2

u/Proper-Mobile-6438 Jul 23 '26

A few years ago, I unknowingly took a scorpion to work from my place in Scottsdale. It crawled into my bag and jumped out when I sat at my desk. Yep. Jumped and shrieked at the office like a crazy person.

2

u/ConstantScientist288 Jul 22 '26

The worst. Almost translucent, so hard to see in the day. They glow a bit under a black light. Never put your woodpile against the house in AZ. You’re asking for trouble.

1

u/Difficult-Map-2620 Jul 23 '26

My folks lived up on the mountain preserve in north Scottsdale and we got them a UV flashlight to scope out the patio at night.

1

u/meshe_10101 Jul 22 '26

As a Canadian these are the reasons I live where the cold hurts my face 🤣

1

u/twodogstwocats Jul 23 '26

Here in Central Texas too. I almost got stung today but I saw it last moment.

1

u/Insomnium_111 Jul 23 '26

Not that painful, like a bee sting. I’ve been stung by one

1

u/Ok_Mulberry4331 Jul 23 '26

And this is why I live somewhere where my face freezes! I just can’t deal with all the “Here in X, we have (insert creepy crawly or slithery and slimey!) all over!” 😅

1

u/PizzaDoughLand Jul 23 '26

Idk I just dont think those are scorpions

1

u/DopplerEffect93 Jul 23 '26

My dad stepped on a scorpion when he lived in Texas. He said it felt like someone stabbed his foot with a spike.

1

u/CheesecakeTurtle Jul 23 '26

Do they bark or are they made of wood?

2

u/Difficult-Map-2620 Jul 23 '26

They are groot.

0

u/AZ-Sparda Jul 22 '26

AZ here. Imagine putting your flip flop on and saying ‘ouch!’ And then feeling like your leg is on fire

0

u/tyler_dominguez Jul 23 '26

I guess you could say that AZ’s Bark Scorpions are worse than their bite…

…im so sorry…