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Camping or hiking in the desert poses a unique risk: scorpions. They are virtually impossible to avoid completely, and their sting can be painful. Scorpion stings are generally not poisonous in North America, and they are rarely fatal even when they are - there are a few species that are poisonous and are especially dangerous, such as the Bark Scorpion, but healthy adults will generally not die from it. Children and the elderly are at greater risk, however.
Precautions Against Scorpions:
1) Shake your boots or shoes out before putting them on. Scorpions like to hide inside, and will often crawl in during the night.
2) Get out of your sleeping bag slowly when getting up, and don't roll around. Scorpions sometimes go underneath people's sleeping bags at night, especially if you're not in a tent. If you are shaking around, you increase the risk of getting stung.
3) When you take down a tent in the desert, do not reach anywhere you can't see. Scorpions hide under tent floors, so you can get stung by just sticking your hands under there to lift the tent up. Give it a good shake before packing it up, and inspect the tent to make sure you're not packing in any scorpions.
4) Also be careful about any clothes you've left out. It can be a good idea to put your clothing inside a cooler or something that you can lock up - bags are very easy for them to get into.
5) Do not wear sandals. This should be obvious for hikers, but people just hanging around a campsite might. Shoes, or preferably hiking boots, are better protection.
6) Remember that scorpions are nocturnal. They hide during the day, and you won't encounter them unless you're disturbing their burrow or hiding place. At night, they will be moving around, so it's not a good idea to be blindly moving around in the dark.
7) If you go to any other continents to go camping, then do your homework. You may want to bring antivenom or a scorpion bite kit of some kind if you're going to a place with lethal scorpions.
What are the symptoms of scorpion stings?
Usually the sting area will be very painful and somewhat numb. It will have slight swelling and be sensitive if you touch it. Children bitten by poisonous scorpions sometimes have weird movements of their eyes or get very hyperactive. Adults may have breathing problems or twitching if stung by a bark scorpion.
How to Deal with Scorpion Stings:
1) Wash the sting using water and soap.
2) Put ice on it or something cold.
That's pretty much it - usually there's nothing else you need to do or can do. If the scorpion was non-poisonous, you are going to have an annoying and painful sting for awhile, but it will go away and the ice will dull the pain.
If you start showing any other symptoms, then you ought to call poison control. One thing to do is go look here for pictures of bark scorpions. The only problem is they sort of look like regular scorpions - there's not really any clear identifying mark. There is an antivenom, and it's mainly given to people in the Arizona area and parts of surrounding states (which is the only location in the U.S. with poisonous scorpions). If you're outside the U.S., especially in India, there are scorpions that are much more dangerous
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