Scorpion Mom

I bought my first Christmas present this week! Am I winning? Anyone else have a Christmas gift ready to wrap? Hmm?

The following story is both gross and depressing. I think you all are the only ones who haven't heard it yet, so I don't want to leave you out! Apologies to my friends who have heard it and are most assuredly rolling their eyes that I'm still thinking about it.

There was a mama scorpion entering my garage last week. She had 7-8 babies on her back. They were tiny white circles, each one with two teensy pincers and a scorpion tail sticking out of it. Are they larvae? I don't even know. Let me Google now, since I've been talking about looking it up for several days.

So. Google (well, actually Arizona State University) says "When they are born, baby scorpions have a very soft outside shell, or exoskeleton. They crawl up onto their mother's back and ride there for 10 to 20 days until their exoskeleton gets stiff and hard. Then they crawl off and begin life on their own."

These babies had a very white, squishy center. They looked a bit like this, except even smaller, and goopier in their abdominal area:

(And whatever you do, don't Google Image Search "scorpion with babies on back," because that stuff will haunt your nightmares.)

Anyhoo... I was going to let her go on her merry way, other than I definitely didn't want them living in my garage, especially in my gardening gloves or some other awesome spot. I decided to hit her with the bug spray. We always use Raid Wasp Spray, but I didn't have any handy. I grabbed roach spray and let her have it.

She walked along normally for a few seconds. Just as I was cursing the roach spray for being the lamest killer of scorpions ever, she started running around, throwing her babies off her back! I was sure she was doing this because she was trying to save them (even though they probably died on contact), and instantly I felt awful! This poor mama scorpion was trying to let her babies have a chance to survive and all I could do was watch and consider what else I could have done to save them.

This is the point in the story where Jeff said, "Are you sure she wasn't just writhing around from the bug spray, randomly tossing the babies off?"

YES. Let's go with that.

But no, I'm pretty sure it was maternal instinct. It kinda rips your heart out, right?

I did notice that the ASU article also mentions that "sometimes when the mother scorpion cannot find enough insects, bugs, or grub worms to eat, she will eat her own babies."

So, there's that. I feel a little better.

Thanks ASU!