This is an unedited photo of a scorpion under a black light that we took last night.
It is pretty awesome that this is how scorpions fluoresce when they are exposed to Ultra Violet light. In fact, since scorpions are nocturnal, they are often found roaming around at night. Unfortunately, their small size and their habit of running around in the dark makes them hard to see sometimes.
This is why some companies actual produce and sell black light flashlights, and thankfully, @papa-pepper has one.
I picked this one up years ago from "Scorpion Master" before one of our trips to Texas. For some reason, I always wanted to catch some scorpions and rattlesnakes, and now, I've done both. My first scorpions ever were caught behind a gas station in Austin, TX back in 2012.
I went for a walk to stretch my legs with my daughter, and I have the habit of always poking around a little bit. As I've been known to say, "You never know what you're gonna find, but you find more when you look." True story! Anyway, under an egg carton in the bushes were two little scorpions. Man was I excited! It was almost like getting crickets at the pet shop because those are often on egg cartons too.
Since I had zero experience with scorpions, it was a little intimidating, to say the least. But, I'd heard that scorpions in Texas were non-lethal, so I didn't consider it to be too big of a deal. I tried to poke one into a container, and soon realized that they were very fast. Almost cockroach fast!
How @papa-pepper picks up scorpions.
I figured that is I just grabbed the tail, where the stinger is, then they couldn't sting me, right? Well, it worked anyway.
Since then, I've gotten either a little more foolish or brave (opinions vary), and will even let them crawl around on me. In fact, I thought about trying to take a verification picture with one on my tongue for this post. A friend of mine was bragging about the high quality of photos that his new phone can take, so I had him take a few of these black light ones for me last night. I agree, the quality is pretty good.
These other shots I just took myself, and they look pretty good this time too.
Since all scorpions will show up fluorescent under black lights, this can be helpful information worldwide. Whether you're out camping in the south or just live in an area where many scorpions are, picking up a black light flashlight for evening strolls may be a good idea, or just to take a quick peek in the tent before you crawl in for the night.
If you ever see a black light poking around in the dark, it just might be @papa-pepper, out for a late night adventure, enjoying one of his peculiar hobbies. Whether or not this was some new information for you, I hope you enjoyed the photos and my story. Check out this cool video of the flashlight and the scorpion.
Blacklight Scorpion - See what happens when the light is turned off & on.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper, and here's the proof:
proof-of-a-scorpion-in-the-hand-is-worth-two-under-the-rock
Awesome Handcrafted @papa-pepper logo kindly donated by @vlad - Thank you!