Welcome to Living in South Texas

Just in case I forgot where I was temporarily, this little guy (to my husband he was little, to myself he was a monster of epic proportions) decided to pop by and remind me that I am now living in south Texas. Thanks, bud! I was having a moment of peace and sitting on the couch watching some television. Bro Bro monkey was in his pack and play while his sister was napping. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a large brown spot across the room. I couldn't make it out at first and thought it's awfully large to be a bug. We've been having a problem with flies in our neighborhood so I've become accustomed to spotting them around. I watched it for a moment and started to make out it's shape. It looked kind of like a scorpion, but surely there wasn't really a large scorpion hanging out on my wall near where it meets the ceiling. I got up and inched closer and saw it's tail curl and finally confirmed that, yes indeed, there was a LARGE SCORPION in my house!

I moved Bro Bro's pack and play further away from it and closer to me on the couch. I sat back down and tried to call my husband. Why is it that whenever I want to talk to him during the day, he's conveniently 'stepped away from his desk'?! I did move as close as I dared to it in order to take a picture for posterity. No one told me scorpions climb walls. I remembered that our pest company had been out earlier that morning so I thought I'd call them. I don't know why, it's not like I expected them to say 'oh, sorry ma'am, we'll be right there to help you remove this little guy so you're not so freaked out'. I confirmed that they do spray for scorpions and the woman was very polite and understanding. She said that if it was out during the day, then it was probably having a reaction to the pesticide and might be in distress. Honestly, I couldn't care less about the scorpion's distress when I was in my own distress due to him. I told her I wasn't going anywhere near it and she said she understood. I thanked her for the information and that was pretty much the end of that call.

There was no way I was dealing with this on my own and I didn't want to leave the room and let it out of my sight. I sat on the couch for 2 hours until Dadda monkey came home, laughing at me on his way in. He decided it was a 'normal' size for a scorpion and he was going to trap it and take it out to the trash. First off, I have seen 2 other scorpions since I've lived here and I know this one was at least twice as big as those others had been. Secondly, I forbade him to use my Glad containers unless he was willing to throw it out as well. Am I really that unreasonable in not wanting to keep a food container around that used to house a scorpion?

I asked Dadda monkey to take a closer picture since mine weren't very clear (it's kind of obvious who took which pictures) and then he set to work. He took an old soup carryout container and put it over the scorpion. I saw part of it flick out of the top and warned Dadda monkey. I'm not sure if it was intelligible because, to be honest, I was shrieking a bit. He slid the container down the wall and the scorpion fell out and landed on a picture that was hanging below it. That put me over the edge and I was completely standing up on the corner of the sofa, still shrieking. I honestly don't remember much that follows, except that Dadda monkey finally got him back in the bowl and took him out to the trash. Good-bye Mr. Scorpion and thanks for the reminder that I'm not in Maryland anymore, though I could have done without it. By the way, your friends are not welcome here!