Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Even the "Eastside" Has Its Issues

Remember April the birthday girl? Well I finally caught up with her on the phone yesterday and we had a fabulous 2-hour conversation. Most the of the conversation was pleasant. However, there was one piece of disturbing information I could NOT get out of my head. It seriously made my stomach sick to think about it.

April lives in a beautiful neighborhood (I've never been there but I'm sure it's awesome) in Northeast Mesa that was built on what used to be orange groves. So she has like 8 orange trees in her yard and two grapefruit trees. Heaven, right?

Yeah, that's what I thought up until the point that she explained scorpions infest their neighborhood every spring and summer. Worse yet, these suckers can magically fit themselves into any space the size of a credit card... yes, a CREDIT CARD. That means they sneak through windows, doors, and even crawl between the stucco on houses. So, basically your house is open season. She finds them all the time and says people most often get stung at night in their own beds. (Gag me now!)
Killing them is also no easy task. April told me she doesn't feel safe unless she decapitates them because sometimes if you "squish them they just puff back up". Can you imagine? Arizona just lost some of its appeal to me during yesterday's conversation.

Sorry if this freaks you out, but I didn't want to be the only up at night stressing about this.

SO NASTY!





28 comments:

Jan said...

My son serving there in AZ said they have to take some sort of light and go thru the whole house before they go to bed. He is not really loving the bugs down there, but ironically, I think thats where he'll move too. What a scary thought of a credit card size. Who would have thought that? Yikes. Or Ouch. Whatever.

AOlson said...

Yeah, I think I'll stop complaining about all the wasps and spiders now!!

meohmyers said...

This seriously makes me cringe. HORRIBLE!! I can't imagine. I would never be able to sleep in my house if I knew a scorpion might be inside!

Jessica said...

YUCK!! That gives me the heebeejeebees!! No possible way I would/could ever live there!

Sara said...

Yikes, remind me never to move to mesa

Kris said...

A credit card space? That's incredible. Thanks for freaking me out today Heather!

goddessdivine said...

Two words: Pest Control!

Brooklet said...

That completely grosses me out!

Debie Spurgeon said...

My SIL is having trouble with cockroaches in Las Vegas. scorpions in Arizona? WE really do have it pretty good here, my only complaint is a few ants.

Heather said...

Yeah except it's like the whole town Kristen. April's neighbors paid to have their house "sealed". I guess it's to seal up the spaces they can get it- and it didn't work. I asked about poison and she said it only stuns them or something?? I don't

I'm proabably telling it wrong, so set us straight AZ residents.

PRP said...

I would never be able to sleep at night. Seriously nasty.

Kate said...

ew!

Jodi said...

EEEEWWW!! Thanks for the graphic scorpion pictures!
BTW--The meeting in Yakima was awesome. I'm a newbie so it was good to get a feel for the company and meet Orville and everyone. I hope I don't seem too stalker-ish. I actually clicked on your name because I have a friend in WA named Heather who is very proud of her feet. When I saw your little picture with feet on it, I thought it might be her. Funny, huh?

tharker said...

I am thanking my lucky stars that I live where I do! That is so creepy!

Sarah said...

Gross! I am a total wimp when it comes to any creepy crawly thing. What happens when they sting you? My sister-in-law wrote a funny post about scorpions last year. Here's the link:
http://rdtovey.blogspot.com/2007/05/scorpions.html

Washington Rimmasch Family said...

I have a friend who just moved to Arizona last fall. Up until last week she hadn't really posted any complaints and then the big nasty came out to play. She had a cockroach climb her leg while she was in the shower! Apparently it came out of the drain. So now after that and then this I can safely say I would take the nasty cold of Wyoming over the nasty bugs in AZ. any day. And that my friend is saying something.

ashley said...

That's gross, I've never heard that before! And here I have been trying to get Marcus to go to law school in Arizona...no thanks!

Kristy said...

My future brother-in-law lived in Mesa and now lives in Maricopa. They only has a scorpion once when some dirty stuff was left outside. It must just be the area. And they have pest control spray their house at least once a month. The crickets are really bad there too.

Nicole said...

NEVER moving to AZ.

Vanessa said...

My parents live in Phoenix right by some mountains and they occasionally get a scorpion, but nothing like what your friend describes. That sounds absolutely horrible! There are killer bees down there too, and that terrifies me to no end. Not to mention the snakes and cockroaches, Yuck!

Lisa Christine said...

oh, that completely, 100% creeps me out.
I lived in Arizona for a few years when I was very young and I do have memories of seeing these scary creatures all around.
I'll take spiders anyday over scorpions.

April-Benjamin said...

Hi guys! I am April- the Arizona friend. My husband things you should check out this Web site: http://askabiologist.asu.edu/research/scorpions/index.html
It says that no one in AZ has died from a scorpion sting in 40 years (because we're close to hospitals) and only 100 AZ stings each year receive scorpion antivenin.
I'm still freaked out by them though.

I have a good life said...

That is nasty. I have had two friends each find one in Texas, but they sound much more common and annoying there. Yuck!

Randi said...

Did I mention I love living in Colorado?

Tara said...

reminds me of the time I was in Utah and saw a friend stompon a cockroache and it get up and walk away...still gives me the shivers. i am glad that I have never come into contact with a scorpion to.

goddessdivine said...

I sold pest control in southern Cal. It protected against scorpions. And yes, the basic idea is to create a barrier around the home.

Busy Bee Lauren said...

As a Mesa resident I must say Pest Control is the WORST option in this case. We have scorpions in our backyard too (and honestly it's no big deal when you live here) and we have geckos too. The Geckos actually eat the scorpions which keeps the scorpion numbers down. By having pest control it kills the geckos but not the scorpions so they just double.

It's crazy really. Oh how I love Mesa haha! I found one in my room, on the wall, next to my face when I was laying in bed. I calmly got up and told my mom to kill it haha.

OUR WILD ZOO! said...

Hey Girls! Okay so I'm the "AZ friend's friend"...the one who sealed their house for scorpions :) April brought us neighborhood girls to this blog today and we were all smiling at the horror and discust. YES it's as bad as you say. The neighborhood husbands have banded together and think that us ladies are making too big of a deal of this. My entire family has been stung (five of us) including our baby boy who spent the day with seizures, rolling eyes & foaming at the mouth. We have enough chemicals floating around our property to make our hair fall out... Anyone want to come for a visit? We have a comfy guest room...in the basement :) Funny, I just did a post on scopions a week ago.