The Arizona Bark Scorpion

The Arizona Bark Scorpion

The Bark Scorpion is the most venomous scorpion in all of Arizona.  Males can grow up to 3 inches long.  Scorpions eat various insects like crickets and roaches and are eaten by many insects, reptiles and animals like snakes, spiders and rodents.

Bark scorpions can live for up to 6 years and can stay under a rock for up to 9 months without needing food or water.  Scorpions, like spiders, breathe through lungs called Book Lungs.  This is why it is more difficult to kill arachnids with regular bug poisons unless you spray the poison directly on them.  Local exterminators suggest that you have a better chance of killing scorpions by catching them yourself than you do using pesticides.  However, pesticides will kill the bugs that scorpions eat which will eventually cause them to leave your area in search for food.

To catch scorpions yourself you need a few items

1. A black light flashlight- typically found at Lowe's or Home Depot for about $14
2. A pair of 10 inch tweezers found at your local pet store
3. A jar- scorpions can not climb glass

Bark Scorpions will actually glow when you shine a black light on them as shown in the pictures below.  If you go out at night, typically after 10pm you will have a good chance at seeing them.  In 2011 I caught over 70 of them around my home.  This year I have caught about 30 or so as their populations are way down around my home vs. last year.

When put into a jar with more than one scorpion they will start eating each other.  In the video below you will see a huge scorpion as he attacks other scorpions and then begins to eat one of the scorpions that he caught.

The Sun Spider


This is the sun spider.  Another, creepy looking, yet harmless to humans insect.  The Sun spider isn't a spider at all but rather a solpugids.  These guys can actually walk up windows and are crazy fast.  Fortunately, they don't mess with humans unless you mess with them.

 From the Desert Museum's Web page


Sun spiders are good predators, able to run down their prey and catch it with great speed. Sun spiders feed upon insects and arachnids, and even small lizards. They are also good diggers and probably spend most of their time underground. They are most active in the desert southwest during the warm months of May and June, and they remain active throughout the rainy season during July, August, and September.

Tailless Whipscorpion

7/10/12 caught on the kitchen floor

This is the Tailless Whipscorpion.  We found one on the kitchen floor two days ago but we see them frequently around the property.  In my opinion it's one of the scariest looking spiders out there.  These spiders are not poisonous so we try not to hurt them.  The more bugs they can eat the better.

From the Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute

Amblypygids, which include tail-less whip scorpions and whip spiders, are non-venomous, non-silk-spinning arachnids. Taxonomically they belong (along with true whip scorpions) between scorpions and spiders, having a closer affinity to the latter. They differ from the more elongate uropygids in having a rounded anterior and an elongated oval abdomen lacking a tqil and poison glands, and in having the cephalothorax joined to the abdomen by a slender pedicel.


Amblypygids are common nocturnal predators of insects, including: cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, butterflies and wood lice, and also arachnids, and are harmless to people. They can be found in dark moist sites among rocks, under wood debris and logs, as well as in human dwellings. 

07/2011- Also caught inside the home

Frontal view

07/11/2012 guarding a gopher hole

 Poisonous? NO.  Creepy? YES!!!

The Arizona Blonde Tarantula

This is an Arizona Blonde Tarantula-  I found it walking in my door way tonight as seen in the video below. She is a female as shown by her thick body and tan colors.  Not too far from her was a large male as well.  The male's aren't as thick and are darker in color.

From the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's website you learn the following about this harmless spider-

Distribution and Habitat

The Arizona blond tarantula is typically found in saguaro-dominated plant communities. There are many similar species throughout the desert southwest, but they are difficult to differentiate.

Ecology

Tarantulas are nocturnal predators that never venture far from their burrows unless it is mating season. In winter they plug their burrows with soil, rocks, and silk and survive in a relatively inactive state. During this time the animals live off stored fat reserves.
Tarantulas have an interesting defensive capability in addition to venom. Some of the hairs on the top of the abdomen are specialized for defense. These urticating hairs, as they are called, are tipped with backward pointing barbs. If a tarantula is threatened in any way, it brushes these hairs into the face, paw or other body part of its attacker. Once these hairs are embedded, they are irritating and very difficult to remove because of the barbs.


Male tarantulas mature when they are 10 to 12 years of age, at which time they leave their burrows in search of females. Upon finding the burrow of a mature female—she’s usually at least 10 years old—the male will announce himself by stroking the silk at the top of the burrow and tapping particular sequences that the female responds to. During mating, the male must reach under the female to insert his pedipalp into her gonopore to deposit sperm. He is particularly vulnerable to predation by the female when mating. The male’s first pair of legs has a “spur”located behind the knee which he uses to hold the female above him during copulation. After copulation the male makes a hasty retreat. The female lays her eggs in a burrow, sometimes staying with them. The young remain in the burrow until they disperse.

Here's a picture of what the males look like- The first picture is of an adult that was in the front yard not too far from the above female.  The 2nd is a very young male that was on the back patio a few days ago.  He is only about the size of a half dollar.