Sting things: Bark scorpions from Arizona making presence felt in valley

Thursday, July 18, 2002 | 10:50 a.m.

The thumb-sized scorpions common in the Las Vegas Valley don't scare landscaper Alfonso Ponce. He and his friends barbecued scorpions back home in Puebla, Mexico.

Before shimmying up a palm tree in Henderson on Wednesday, wearing gloves as protection against the pests that may be hiding within, Ponce said the really dangerous scorpions south of the border are the size of iguanas.

But dozens of Las Vegas Valley residents don't take the local species so lightly. In recent weeks victims of scorpion stings have been showing up increasingly in emergency rooms -- some with symptoms as serious as temporary paralysis, though none life-threatening.

"We've definitely seen a rash of patients with stings in the last couple of weeks," said Dr. James Fenner, an emergency room physician at the University Medical Center, Sunrise and St. Rose Dominican hospitals.

"One woman ... was bitten on the neck and suffered respiratory failure and became so hyperactive she had to be sedated and put on a ventilator."

The symptoms subsided within a few days, as is usually the case.

While experts say the upsurge in scorpion stings may be due to a host of factors, one fact is hard to ignore -- there's a relative newcomer on the scorpion scene, and it's the one doing the damage.

Known as the bark scorpion due to its habit of hanging out in trees, the two-inch terror was brought over the border from Arizona about a decade ago on palm trees used for landscaping. It started showing up here and there, but is now found throughout the valley, state entomologist Jeff Knight said.

The population of people is also booming -- meaning people will have more run-ins with scorpions.

Then there's the summer's role in the animal's life cycle -- it's a more active time, since there are more bugs to eat, Knight said.

The result: More people are getting stung with a venom that is especially dangerous for the young and old and those with respiratory or heart diseases. The bark scorpion has never killed anyone in Nevada, but fatalities have occurred in Arizona, Knight said.

Dave Barton, owner of Pro-Tech Pest Services, said he's been getting a lot of calls this summer from people with scorpions in their houses.

"I got five calls just last week -- which is not very common," he said.

Barton, who has been in the business for 40 years and has received hundreds of calls about scorpions, said he has become an expert on the bark scorpion since its arrival about 10 years ago.

"We started getting it when the state began bringing palm trees from Arizona instead of Southern California," he said.

"I've even had personal experience with the bug -- I got bit by one on the leg one night before I was going out to look for some."

Scorpions -- like the valley's other venomous member of the spider family, the black widow -- are nocturnal. They feed on insects such as spiders, cockroaches and even other scorpions at night.

The bark scorpion can be easy to spot in an area lit by a black light, because it glows in the light's rays. The only local species that can climb vertically, it also would be the only scorpion found in high places.

"I was getting ready to black light a yard, and the bug was in the battery charger," Barton said. "He got in my shorts and stung my leg. It was like a bee sting, but it only hurt awhile."

The pesticide veteran said people can hunt for scorpions with a black light and kill them with anything from a boot to sprays available on the market. He said it's also useful to close any possible entryways into a house or apartment, and to use gloves and extra care when working in areas like dark garages.

He also has a product that he uses when exterminating scorpions -- "but I really don't want everybody to know about it," he said.

Even so, the product is only about 80 percent effective, he said.

"Basically they're here to stay," Barton said, "and we're never going to get rid of them."