My first scorpion

After hearing tales from a friend here how he stuck his hand under his pillow one night and was stung by a scorpion, I couldn't believe that I'd ever really run into one. Maybe I was just in denial.

Well, lucky me, tonight I just saw my very first scorpion. Ever. Three inches long in the kitchen sink. I still can't believe that things crawl up out of the drainpipes. I mean, isn't there supposed to be a u-joint with water in it that keeps smells and things like that away??

Sorry there is no picture to go along with this post but the last thing I was going to do was run around looking for my camera and risk discovering that the thing had disappeared, and then stay up all night imagining it was under my pillow. No, instead I grabbed my most treasured possession - my can of Raid under the sink and blasted the thing, before taking a 10 inch knife and cutting it in half.

Normally I'm really buddhist when it comes to living things - I feel so guilty if I have to squish an ant. But scorpions cross the line. eeesh.

postscript: I thought I'd add a link to a web picture in case anyone was interested. How wonderful that the first link I clicked on included not only a picture (quite accurate) but also wonderful news that Mexico is home to the fifth deadliest scorpion in the world which kills 1000-2000 people a year here. Great.