Scorpions have been around for many thousands of years and there are over 2000 species. If the thought of them makes you shiver you are not alone.
Because some species carry a deadly venom many people have conceived a fear of scorpion bites and whether scorpion bite treatment is even possible, given that their poisonous venom can work so quickly.
Most of us are afraid of all scorpions in general with their threatening looking stinger tails.
However, not all scorpions are deadly.
The majority of stings only produce a local reaction similar in effect to a bee sting and in recent years they have also gained some popularity as exotic and interesting pets with the best known variety of choice being the Emperor Scorpion.
These hardy insect cousins of the spider (all known as arachnids) exist in many parts of the world from the hot deserts of Africa to temperate mountain areas and humid forests.
All of them are poisonous to varying degrees.
Their bites can result in quite severe typical reactions or symptoms.
However a scorpion will only attack if threatened. They are usually harmless and timid and not all bites are dangerous.
A hit from a stinger scorpion may may be more due to accident than any intention on the part of the scorpion which usually only uses its sting to immobilize its prey and normally runs away if threatened. However once bitten, this may lead to a fairly severe localised reaction on and around the surface of the skin where the bite took place with intense pain at the site of the bite. Besides local swelling and redness at the site of the scorpion sting there may also be an experience of a sharp prickly kind of pain in the mouth, and the tongue may feel as if it is swollen too.
A more dangerous species such as the ‘deathstalker’ scorpion and the yellow fat-tailed scorpion might inflict a wound that leads to a more serious condition which affects the whole body which may cause drowsiness and result in immediate or delayed collapse. Other extreme reactions from the venom of the scorpion include an attack on the respiratory sytem causing a difficulty in breathing or feeling breathless, loss of vision and blindness.
The body may go into involuntary muscle spasms or cramps and there may be a loss of bowel function and bladder control. The poison may also cause excessive sweating, dribbling from the mouth, heart palpitations and heart failure. Treatment is complicated by the fact that these symptoms happen all at once and so this represents quite a challenge in terms of management of the bite reaction. Some of the body’s main functions and organs can be seriously threatened including possible internal haemorrhaging and paralysis.
However despite these alarming reactions, even if the victim may lose consciousness, it doesn’t often lead to death except in children and the vulnerable. Some scorpion venom doesn’t have an antidote, such as the Arizona bark scorpion so treatment consisits mainly of ‘waiting it out’ for 24 -48 hours until the uncomfortable symptoms subside.
Exceptions might include those more vulnerable such as young children, people who have a sensitivity to insect bites and go into Anaphylactic shock and older adults who are already suffering from high blood pressure and other diseases which are keeping the immune system occupied. If the venomous sting is not immediately lethal there are a number of things that can be done straight away to ease the pain and reduce the risk of death.
The first action to take would be to apply a tourniquet above the site of the sting (remembering to loosen it now and again to allow some blood flow to return to below the bitten area so as not to lose the limb). Cool the affected part with ice if available and give pain relief as soon as possible, either by injection or through the use of a local anaesthetic and if there is an antidote available or breathing difficulties are severe, get the patient to the hospital as soon as possible.
If you decide to have a scorpion as a pet a rule to remember is to never handle your scorpion.
Some species can be fairly docile and relatively harmless but others are potentially lethal.
If you must handle your scorpion at all it is better to do it very gently with something like a long pair of soft tipped forceps.
Dammit!
I just spent ages typing a long comment, and when I tried to send it my FireFox hung.
Did it come though or is it lost and I have to do it again?
It didn’t come through, Angus
I’m going to tell my wife about this.
Great Information. Thanks!!
Stung by Texas scorpian on shoulder blade last night. Very painful. Younger went numb and lower lip. Pain subsided within a couple hours but woke up this morning with some of th numbness remaining , after reading your article, I can feel more at ease that I’ll be OK. OUCH!
Excuse me … but the word “bite”
does not apply to scorpion stings.
A “bite” is an act by a mouth.
The scorpion stings with its tail.
Not its mouth.
Please be more correct in your
use of the English language.
Thank you.
Frost ‘bites’ but it doesn’t have a mouth!
Thanks for your ‘biting’ remark. Thank God I don’t have any teeth marks to show for it.
Are you an American presuming to tell an English woman how to speak/write English?
There are thousands of people ‘punching’ the phrase “scorpion bites” into google in order to find out more … if I only provided information to those who entered the phrase ‘scorpion stings’ I would be doing the rest of the people who are searching a disservice.
as the great philosophers Carlin and Wright have said : why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway? English is the most dynamic language around: get over it; yes the scorpion [in German Skorpion] does sting vs. bite, the bottom line is to learn we must ask, and as Admin says: frost bite has no mouth. Beautifully spoken [or for the challenged with little to no effective humor, written]. it is not the bite of the snake that kills: it is the envenomation by INJECTION that does. Anyone care to argue semantics on the dangers of snake bites? please, act adult if even one isn’t. eventually the habit of doing so becomes the modus vivende and oilla! you get treated as one! Take care stay biteless[stingless too]!
admin, I agree with the American. I see your insulted, but a Scorpian has both a mouth and a stinger and the result of each is distinctly different, right? I am confused by the way you jumped around using both thems. Overall the article is great, but if your reasoning is “thousands of People” are uninformed, isn’t is your job to make the distinction in the article clearly? There should be room for both in correct context. And the English do not have a “Gold Star” on using the English Language correctly, that was extremely petty and insulting to Americans. Respectfully.
it was a great information because i am so worried with my feet stung by an scorpion
I have to agree with admin! I am utterly alarmed that anyone would have such harsh words to say about a helpful internet site! You are correct that most people do not realize that a scorpion ‘stings’ rather than ‘bites’. Thank you for your information, I found it helpful!!
What is the Treatment of scorpion bites?
Tell me plz, what to do after bitten by scorpion uncle..??? Treatment and madicins?
Thanks for this, My auntie and cousin were stung a few days ago and we’ve all been panicking about it. Hopefully they’ll be ok though.
Also was the ‘bite’ remark really necessary? I found it funny that somebody would take such offence to that!
What difference does it make, bite or sting, it still hurts like hell. And just FYYI “American”, I just googled “bit by scorpion” so thank goodness she answered me. Get a life.
Pls. give the treatement of scorpion sting
Thanks admin. I looked up scorpion bite and got your info. I didn’t even think to type in scorpion sting. Ignore people like American who are just jerks.
I got stung last night in the leg…OUCH! I could not figure out what the heck was getting me. I thought it was a bee. But there was not one. This thing was in the house. It was worse than a bee sting. It swelled a bit, found your web site and washed the affected site and called poison control. Took some benedryl and went to bed. This morning all is well and just a little red mark where I was stung. Don’t care to experience that again.
oh,I forgot last post to say Thank you for the info….it was very helpful. I am glad that I the sting was not worse than it was, live two hours from town out in the middle of no whereville in the desert. I hope no more are in the house…
Thanks again.
I looked up Scorpion bite…when something hurts me, I often say that has a really big bite to it….I agree there are many uses for the word bite…The fact that someone is so particular to the use of the word really bites the big one! I got shocked on my electric fence and it had a really hard bite to it…I did not wear any teeth marks from it. So, the lesson to be learned here is, let us not limit our uses of words and expand our minds to all that is available and use it wisely without being critical of others. If
I am an American. I goggled “Scorpion Bite” since I was just bitten by one. Yes, I know it was it’s tail but sting or bite I just wanted some information to see if I should be concerned. Of course I could have avoided it by wearing gloves. The American might have been right in calling it a sting but the American was being petty; as was the Admin with the reply of saying the American was telling and English person proper English. Both of you need to get over yourselves and just provide the best information in the fastest manner possible. I am so sory that was not proper English, in case anyone wants to correct me, I don’t care. When you encounter a scorpion and it hurts you just want good information on how to take care of it and not a bunch or petty vocabulary trash.
Great info & Funny topic. Was it necessary to complain about the “bite” word usage? I mean cmon. I bet “An american”is the queen of mistakes.& anyone that complains is just as goofy. In that case you should’ve Juss searched: (“Scorpion sting”) aint that right? & that goes for the next clown too.:)
I was ‘stung’ by a scorion yester night. Inasmuch as this site’s information is comforting kindly let me know of the effects (if any) of delayed treatment. And let the american know that a search on scorpion sting yields totally different and not so helpful results as scorpion bite.
Please be aware of that
we lost 2 children because such stings
any body can send to us any guideline for this managments we will be greatly thankful
great thanks
Fairly cool post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I’ve actually preferred reading your blog posts. Anyway I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you put up again soon!
i have just biten by a scropio . what i will do now . Plz. send me the primary treatment.
What is the Treatment of scorpion bites?
as describe in books prazosin been used in scorpian sting .how it acts .i seems it only aplicable in complication
tomato, tomato…the only thing american was interested in was the english?? you honestly didn’t learn anything? didn’t appreciate anything? how petty.
thanks for the info. helped a good deal. haven’t been “bitten” or “stung” by one but had one in my house a while back. scared me big time. good work.
@ Tarun Roy: Well, funny as it may seem, there is actually no known treatment for scorpion bites/stings. Best one can do is manage the symptoms. Some scorpions lead to more serious reactions than others and some reactions, e.g anaphylactic ones may need immediate intensive care to give breathing support etc. Other than that, basic first aid would be appropriate and these approaches are discussed on this blog .. just check out the posts.
@ Pardeep: Ultimately prevention is better than cure …… but the ‘treatment’ you might need would depend on what type of scorpion bit/stung you and what symptoms you were experiencing. Check out the category ‘Treatment Scorpion Bites’ listed in the sidebar or go to this post: http://www.treatmentscorpionbites.com/scorpion-stings-how-to-treat-a-scorpion-bite
See: http://www.treatmentscorpionbites.com/scorpion-stings-how-to-treat-a-scorpion-bite
I talk about it here: http://www.treatmentscorpionbites.com/scorpion-stings-how-to-treat-a-scorpion-bite
I got a scorpion sting twice on my neck about 2 years ago. Not too sure what kind it was. I have been experiencing ALL kinds of problems since.I have seen neurologists, ENT, M.D.’s, had MRI’s and no one can seem to figure out my problem. Do you think it is possible for the venom to be attacking my brain? IDK
@ Lori: I am not qualified to be able to give you an opinion on that medically, but from my alternative health background ( I am a qualified natural health practitioner) I would say that if they haven’t found anything up to now it is less likely to be due to poisoning and perhaps is more likely to be due to something like the ‘trauma’ of the event – where emotions can get ‘trapped’ in the body and create all kinds of physical symptoms. Using one of the energy therapies like EFT tapping (like emotional acupuncture) or checking ot the ‘Emotion Code’ work of Dr Bradley Nelson might help
it’s too danger
I always thought Scorpions were a bit more deadly than that. Nice to know they aren’t all that bad although I fail to understand why anyone would want one for a pet…shudder!
Scorpi´s last blog post .. http://treatmentscorpionbites.com/scorpion-bites-spider-bites-and-symptoms
thank you for useful infor i will tell my family members to fear of these scorpion, but i have seen in Thailand and some countries around south east asia they can eat poisionus corpions after frying them
please give me the seasions?
how not dangerous fro them?
Thanks for the info, find it very helpful and encouraging. Concerning the comments above, i thank God that this is not an english class but to simply give me the info i needed. thanks again.
I was stung late tonight, 1 am jun 2. wife treated it w/amonia. pain went away quickly. we are in north east texas, it’s beginng to get hot, causing these critters to seek coolness. sorry about english folks, i can spell but not taking time to correct myself. just wanted to pass this info on to others.
recently i have got taste of scorpion bite. really its too pain ful
It’s fine that you worked “bite” into the title of the article, that is sufficient to get a google hit. After that you should have made it clear that scorpions deliver their venom by stringing, and not confused the issue by waffling back and forth like a politician between ‘sting” and “bite”. Also, scorpions and other arachnids are not insects.
How would I treat my dog if he gets stung. Same way?
my exprience in treating scorpian bite is to apply tight bandage some incheses above ;then give antiinflamatory +analgesic drugs every hourly up till pain is under controll.to inject dexamethasone5to 10 mg at local site.this gives lot of relief
antihistamin also helps.
i just got stung by a scorpion on finger today and i ameditly looked up scorpion bites haha i didnt even think about scorpion stings haha but anyways thanks for the info
Thank you for the information. I’m from West Texas and we live out in the country. We have numberous. almost daily run-ins with scorpions, as they are very difficult to erradicate once they are established. We have been stung on just about every location of the body, including the face) and most of our stings occur during the night, in our bed. For about three years now, we have been checking in and around our bed each night before we crawl in, but inevitably, one of the little boogers will sneak in during the night…and pass by right about the time my husband or I are rolling over. We don’t do much in the way of treatment, other than warm soapy water and a dab of ‘MRX’ (you can find this in beauty salons or suppliers). Recently, we have found that there are some changes in the stings compared to the past few years. Before, by morning, you could barely see the small sting mark, but now, approximately 16-24 hours after the sting, my husband and I both swell and our skin becomes red and itchy around the sting site. Has anyone ever noticed this with scropion stings they have received? We often wonder if they have built an immunity to the ‘dust’ that our Pest Control man uses and somehow we are receiving some of the ‘dust’ or poinson through the scorpion’s venom.
management -of scorpian bite. pt have immediate cardiogenic shock mainly due to myocardiatis.india prazocin is used as antidote.it really has dramatically response as well as we used inj. dobutamine to treat shock.
I stepped in the dark walking from my living room to my bedroom in front of the stairs on an older scorpion as it was about two inches long (of course barefoot) felt a needle go thru my toe, I am orginially from California and living in Arizona now, did not anticipate this at all as I have been living there a year and NO SCORPIONS…. Well, my mouth got swollen and cottony (is this a word?) an I applied Ice immediately and the pain seem to subside and go away. A week later I was fine and I decided to put on high heels on and it seemed as if I put pressure on the original sting/bite, and it started swelling up again. Is there a stinger that I needed to pull out? or is it that I just irritated it? I itch horribly and ice is not helping any more…..any suggestions????