Some useful tips and information ...

Here you  find a few useful suggestions and recommendations about how you may safely collect living scorpions and pack and ship them fast and economically to ARACHNODATA. But be always aware that scorpions are unpredictable venomous animals and that inattention may provoke a very painful sting experience. And be specially careful if you have a disponibility to allergies in concern of  bee, wasp or other insect venoms! At the end of this page, see information about a very efficacious First-Aid method to treat scorpion stings.

Collecting, packing and shipping

• Tools to collect living scorpions
  1 forceps, 1 (marmelade) glass, a number of self-adhesive envelopes (C6 or smaller) and 1 solid plastic container (little larger than the envelopes).

• Collecting and packing of living scorpions
  1. Each scorpion is carefully pinched between two cauda segments or at the joint behind the pedipalpus (hand) with the forceps and put into the marmelade glass.
  2. A self-adhesive envelope is now labeled with accurate details of the collection site (country, province or state, location or distance from nearest city/village, further description of collection site and habitat, date of collection and name of collector). Apply one very small ventilation hole (1-2 mm) at one side of the envelope.
  3. Transfer the scorpion from the glass into the envelope and seal it carefully.
  Attention: Always pack only one scorpion into one envelope! Many scorpion species are cannibalistic!

• Packing of living scorpions for air-mail shipping
  1. Preferably, take a solid cardboard or styrofoam container which is a little bit larger than the envelopes.
  2. Pad the bottom of the container with soft and light material (cotton-wool, styrofoam flakes, slightly crushed paper etc.).
  3. Put all the envelopes into the container in such a way that the packed scorpions are not placed one upon the other but opposite of each other.
  4. Pad the empty space of the container carefully with additional light material (see under 2).
  5. Seal container with strong tape and apply a few very small ventilation holes (1-2 mm) at each lateral side of the container.
  6. Mark container with the address: ARACHNODATA, Frauentalweg 97, CH-8045 Zurich / Switzerland and your sender address.

• Shipping of living scorpions
  preferably by normal air-mail or enregistered air-mail.
  Attention: The shipping container must also be labeled with the green customs declaration (C1) and contain the following informations of the content:
  "Arachnids for scientific studies and examination" and "No commercial value"!

• Packing and shipping of dead scorpions
  Dead scorpions are preferably preserved and stored in 70% ethyl alcohole in little pill or similar adequate glass or plastic jars. These jars may then anytime been carefully packed (make sure that jars cannot break or leak) and shipped by air-mail. Don't forget to label jar with informations about the collection site.

ARACHNODATA is confirming the receipt of each contribution of living and dead scorpions by letter or e-mail.

If you need further informations, then please send e-mail.

Many thanks in advance for your contribution!

What to do in case of a scorpion sting?

The following method has proved to be the most efficacous First-Aid treatment :
Apply the sting site immediately with very hot water (>50°C) or any other hot medium (stones, compresses, lighter (but be very careful!) etc.) in short intervals of about 10 to 20 seconds until the characteristic burning pain sensation has completely gone. In general, this happens after  just a few minutes. In some cases, kind of a hypersensibility or numbness at the sting site may be observed, but this feature is not of medical importance.  This heat method has also been successfully applied in allergic persons that got stung by bees, wasps and other insects and is also helpful in curing stings by ordinary mosquitos.

Important: The heat method should always be applied by the patient himself as it is up to his own decision at which temperatures and in which time intervals he wants to perform the First-Aid treatment!

Please let me know the experiences you have made with the heat method!

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