# Scorpion in my apartment! Mexico City!



## MissThing

Okay, have been pleasantly free of visitors since I came to Mexico City. Thought it was a stain on the floor. My tiles are white and hard to keep clean. But it was a scorpion. I freaked out, have never seen one before. Grabbed a bottle of vinegar next to me and splashed it to stop it from getting away, then crushed it with my wastepaper basket, so am assuming it's that time of the year and I can expect others. 

It was black, not the translucent kind in the usual Internet photos. Does anyone have any advice for me on what to do in the event that I step on one or get stung by one for some other reason. I'm here without health insurance for the time being!


----------



## sparks

Your local Centro de Salud should have an anti-venom. It's free here. I would find their building and ask in advance


----------



## chuck846

MissThing said:


> Okay, have been pleasantly free of visitors since I came to Mexico City. Thought it was a stain on the floor. My tiles are white and hard to keep clean. But it was a scorpion. I freaked out, have never seen one before. Grabbed a bottle of vinegar next to me and splashed it to stop it from getting away, then crushed it with my wastepaper basket, so am assuming it's that time of the year and I can expect others.
> 
> It was black, not the translucent kind in the usual Internet photos. Does anyone have any advice for me on what to do in the event that I step on one or get stung by one for some other reason. I'm here without health insurance for the time being!


You need some cats ! 

Yes it is that time of year. I spray (maybe monthly) inside and out with biothrine.
BIOTHRINE FLOW 100 ML en http://www.homedepot.com.mx/
You can pick it up for half the price at HD at your local garden center. (It is pet safe once dried by the way). In an apartment you could use a little hand-held spray bottle.

We have black/brown scorpions and white scorpions and red scorpions. I've been told the red ones are BAD. But is very rare that a scorpion stays alive inside the house (we have good hunters). And if one happens to be hanging on a wall or something we have four heads looking up staring at it with tails wagging 

If we were to get stung we would go to the local Red Cross Hospital - which is where everyone goes (even though we have IMSS ins.). They must have a window that says - "Alacranes".

Quick story - many years ago as an undergrad I was studying at a lab in the USVI. I was sitting in the common area, on a couch, with my feet up on the table in front of me. At one point I felt something crawling up the inside of my shorts and not knowing what it was I stuck my hand inside the leg of my shorts. WHAM ! I will never forget that sting. It got me on the thumb. So I waddled into the bathroom, dropped my shorts and shook them over the toilet - down dropped a scorpion into the water. I went to the resident nurse and she said something like - oh don't worry about it - if it were poisonous you would be sick by now. I guess it could have been a lot worse


----------



## sparks

I suggested Centro de Salud because there are so many of them. Our Cruz Roja is 45 minutes away while we have 3 Centro de Salud's within 10 minutes

Caution ..... Centro de Salud is not open 24 hours like we found out last week


----------



## Hound Dog

Scorpions are overrated as being perceived as dangerous. Now, in our garden and home in Jalisco, we have an abundance of black widows and, while they are reclusive and not particularly aggressive, you do not wish to cross them at an inappropriate moment. I understand that brown recluse spiders have been immigrating to México from the U.S. recently and I would avoid them as well.


----------



## MissThing

Will buy biothrene. Hope it helps. Thx!


----------



## MissThing

I have no idea where my local Centro de Salud is. I think I need to do some asking around


----------



## sparks

If your doors are open at the bottom ..... pick up some door sweeps. I installed them and get almost no creatures inside except tiny spiders. I had lots of scorpions around when I was building .... especially in brick and rock piles .... but none now 

Don't know what you would call a door sweep in Spanish but they're easy to find at Home Depot


----------



## MissThing

Yes, my doors are definitely open at the bottom! Thx!!


----------



## Isla Verde

MissThing said:


> I have no idea where my local Centro de Salud is. I think I need to do some asking around


I live in Mexico City and have no idea what a Centro de Salud is. Could someone please enlighten us?


----------



## sparks

Centro de Salud is the older free public health clinic that in most cases has been combined with Seguro Popular. Don't think it's by State or Regional ..... but that's what has happened in Jalisco


----------



## TundraGreen

sparks said:


> If your doors are open at the bottom ..... pick up some door sweeps. I installed them and get almost no creatures inside except tiny spiders. I had lots of scorpions around when I was building .... especially in brick and rock piles .... but none now
> 
> Don't know what you would call a door sweep in Spanish but they're easy to find at Home Depot


That wouldn't help me. All my doors except the main front door open onto patios and I leave most of them open all the time when I am at home. They only get closed and locked when I leave the house. My kitchen door is never closed (because there is nothing in there I am worried about losing). I close the doors to the main part of the house since it was broken into a few years ago. They came over the roof into a patio. Those doors get closed when I leave, but when I am home they are open all year round.


----------



## chuck846

Isla Verde said:


> I live in Mexico City and have no idea what a Centro de Salud is. Could someone please enlighten us?


My guess is a seguro popular site ? For us that would certainly be the closest alternative - but a) we don't have that coverage and b) they seem to work regular business hours.

Can a non-insured person simply walk into one of those clinics and ask for help ?


----------



## sparks

There are screen doors that a sweep could be attached to


----------



## sparks

chuck846 said:


> Can a non-insured person simply walk into one of those clinics and ask for help ?


I take my Mexican neighbors there often. Last year took my Canadian neighbor who thought she was stung (might have been a wasp). Yes ... they are open to everybody. Scorpion is considered an emergency


----------



## Isla Verde

sparks said:


> Centro de Salud is the older free public health clinic that in most cases has been combined with Seguro Popular. Don't think it's by State or Regional ..... but that's what has happened in Jalisco


There are none in my neighborhood, and I have never heard of any in other parts of the city, but perhaps they exist in _barrios populares.
_


----------



## maesonna

Seeing one scorpion doesn’t necessarily mean they are planning an invasion. I lived in my in-laws’ for three years and saw one scorpion in all that time. We never took measures against them; they were too infrequent.

I can’t promise that you won’t have any more if you do nothing about them, but it’s possible that it can play out that way.


----------



## chuck846

maesonna said:


> Seeing one scorpion doesn’t necessarily mean they are planning an invasion. I lived in my in-laws’ for three years and saw one scorpion in all that time. We never took measures against them; they were too infrequent.
> 
> I can’t promise that you won’t have any more if you do nothing about them, but it’s possible that it can play out that way.


DF is 'generally' a pretty cool (as in sometimes cold) place. When the weather warms up in Cuernavaca (April) we notice the scorpions show up. Just like when the rains come (May/June) the fire ants show up.


----------



## Isla Verde

chuck846 said:


> DF is 'generally' a pretty cool (as in sometimes cold) place. When the weather warms up in Cuernavaca (April) we notice the scorpions show up. Just like when the rains come (May/June) the fire ants show up.


Since the end of March, it's been unseasonably hot and dry in Mexico City. Maybe that's why MissThing found a scorpion in her apartment. I wonder how common they are in the city. In almost nine years, I've never seen one in my apartment, just the occasional cucaracha.


----------



## sparks

Isla Verde said:


> There are none in my neighborhood, and I have never heard of any in other parts of the city, but perhaps they exist in _barrios populares.
> _


They may tend to be rural or in certain Barrios. A dense population might overwhelm them


----------



## Isla Verde

sparks said:


> They may tend to be rural or in certain Barrios. A dense population might overwhelm them


A dense population of people or "bichos"? 

I live on the fourth floor of my little building. Maybe scorpions have a fear of heights!


----------



## chuck846

Isla Verde said:


> Since the end of March, it's been unseasonably hot and dry in Mexico City. Maybe that's why MissThing found a scorpion in her apartment. I wonder how common they are in the city. In almost nine years, I've never seen one in my apartment, just the occasional cucaracha.


I believe I have never seen a cockroach in Cuernavaca. When we first got here we rented in a very nice area outside el centro. Two story house, lot next door was woods. One morning we woke up to find a snake curled up in the corner of the bedroom (on the second floor) - four cats staring it down. That was a little disturbing. 

It also just occurred to me that if MissThing moved into an apartment which had been vacant for a while that may be why insects may have found a home. That was the case in our present house. The previous owners were out of here for a year before we bought it. Sure they had someone keep the house clean - but that is not the same as when a house is lived in.


----------



## Chelloveck

I live on the ground floor, and my front door opens out into a courtyard with a lot of foliage. When I'm home, I often leave the front door standing open so my two cats can go outside and play in the courtyard. Of course, this means that scorpions could march in whenever they want, as well.

But in the three years I've lived here, I've only seen two scorpions in the apartment. Both were the small brown/black variety, which aren't particularly dangerous, although their sting could still be painful. One was already dead. Given the proximity of his corpse to the cat litter box, I'd say he met his demise at the claws of a quick-striking feline adversary. The other I found alive and kicking in the kitchen sink. I'd actually seen him a few days earlier in one of the cabinets, but he scampered away before I could get him.

Most scorpions are territorial loners, so finding one certainly doesn't indicate any sort of infestation or anything. Most are also not particularly aggressive. They will try to run from danger first, then try to threaten their potential predator with their pincers, then sting as a last resort.

Cats are good scorpion hunters because they are quick, and have fur and thick skin. Small scorpions have small stingers, so unless they manage to tag the cat right on the nose or paw pad, they generally don't fare very well against a cat.

However, they will sting if they feel that death is imminent, such as when they are trapped in shoes or clothing. That's why I've gotten into the habit of shaking out my shoes before blindly sticking my feet in.


----------



## Chelloveck

Hound Dog said:


> I understand that brown recluse spiders have been immigrating to México from the U.S. recently and I would avoid them as well.


I still have a scar on my arm from a brown recluse bite that I got over 30 years ago.

My grandmother's old wood-frame house in rural Alabama was infested with them. Early one chilly morning while preparing to go hunt quail, I stuck my arm in the sleeve of one of my dad's old Army jackets that had probably been hanging unworn in the closet since the Korean war.

I can only deduce this in retrospect, since you don't generally feel the bite of the brown recluse. But when your skin starts rotting away a few days later, you figure it out.


----------



## perropedorro

Chelloveck said:


> Cats are good scorpion hunters because they are quick, and have fur and thick skin. Small scorpions have small stingers, so unless they manage to tag the cat right on the nose or paw pad, they generally don't fare very well against a cat.


Not many cats where we live, probably because of the abundant free-range dog population. We count on lizards to control the alacranes, and they do a fine job. Used to have a lot of scorpions, perhaps not quite an infestation, but almost every week one would make its way into the house, frequent enough to observe protocol with keeping clothes off the floor, shaking out shoes, etc. Then about four years ago the lizards set up housekeeping in some large cracks in the sidewalk next to the house. Haven't seen an alacrán since about then, either inside or outside. Lizards are my friends.


----------



## sparks

My cat kills the lizards sadly .... but leaves the cane toads alone. Toads must be eating something because they leave their poop behind


----------



## chuck846

sparks said:


> My cat kills the lizards sadly .... but leaves the cane toads alone. Toads must be eating something because they leave their poop behind


Our cats proudest moment is when they catch a lizard. The hunter will march around the house with the lizard in its mouth making a loud announcement like 'Hey guys - look what I found'. I don't like the larger lizards - with perhaps an inch wide body. Recently I stuck my foot into my work boot - which I had left outside overnight. I forgot to smack my shoes together upside down first. As I started to tighten the laces I felt something in the shoe. Pulled my foot out and out hopped one of those big lizards.


----------



## sparks

My cats latest claim to fame is 3 small iguanas (foot to foot and a half long). They like to sun themselves on top of my wall and the cat waits. Tried to get them away from him and it ends up looking like the Keystone Cops. It's just the kill because he won't eat them. Lizards he may eat part of but then vomits. Muy loco gato


----------



## chuck846

sparks said:


> My cats latest claim to fame is 3 small iguanas (foot to foot and a half long). They like to sun themselves on top of my wall and the cat waits. Tried to get them away from him and it ends up looking like the Keystone Cops. It's just the kill because he won't eat them. Lizards he may eat part of but then vomits. Muy loco gato


Iguanas are not good. In South Florida we had a long dock which was connected to our neighbors on each side. We had many 3 foot long iguanas. They carry diseases - eg. salmonella (and I want to say siglaterra but not sure). At one point something killed them all off - but I can't remember what that was - perhaps a drought.


----------



## chuck846

It was a 'frost' - very rare in South Florida.


----------

