Neurological Pathogens!

Today's topic at Mom's group was Poison Control. It was very informative. We learned the signs that your child has been stung by a scorpion, as there is no red bump or other indication at the sting site. Scorpion stings are very painful and the child will immediately start screaming. Apparently, the pain of a scorpion sting is akin to being jabbed with a piece of glass repeatedly (nice analogy, eh?). As the pathogen is neurological in nature, the signs to look for include the eyes jittering and not tracking together, the cheeks jittering, and drooling. Not a pretty picture, but at least they are distinctive traits. :P Arizona has 56 varieties of scorpion, but only one is venomous. That is also the only one which can climb walls (or just about anything, in fact). The other scorpions are ground-based scorpions. Baby scorpions are tiny and can squeeze through a crack in your house that is the thickness of a credit card, so there is really no way to keep them out. If your house has scorpions, chances are it will continue to have scorpions. On the flip side, the reverse is true, as well. If you don't see scorpions now, then you aren't likely to see them in the future (phew - luckily this is the case at our house). One myth is that getting rid of their food source will get rid of scorpions, however the scorpions don't know that you've gotten rid of their food source, so they will continue to go into their usual haunts to hunt. If their hunting grounds include your house, that is too bad for you. Scorpions are present all year, though they are more active and thus possibly more noticeable in the summer months. One inventive way mentioned to kill scorpions (aside from the tradition shoe crushing method) includes using packing tape to catch them and then wrapping them up. Bark scorpions end up in places like baby cribs generally because they crawl up wall or the onto the ceiling and then fall into the crib. If you have a scorpion problem, the best thing to do is to install a scorpion shield about the crib. The shield ideally would be foam board, possibly edged in double-sided tape to catch any errant scorpions. Otherwise, a scarf or other piece of material that is larger than the area of your crib will do. The idea is the scorpions will fall onto the shield and from there onto the floor versus into the crib. To protect the crib from scorpions on the bottom, place the legs in smooth glasses. Clean, smooth glass and plastic are the few things that bark scorpions cannot climb up. If you get a scorpion sting, immediately call Poison Control (1 800 222 1222) for advice. Most scorpion stings do not require a trip to the emergency room. Only if the neurogen reaches the lungs will a person die. Scorpion stings are graded, and depending on your symptoms you may not be given the antivenom. Most adults just deal with the pain, which will peak by the 6th hour after being stung. The reason to avoid the emergency room is that they will not do anything for you there, so you may as well be observed in the comfort of your own home where you will be remotely monitored by the poison control people every 15 minutes.


Also discussed were the black widow and the Arizona Brown Spider (which is a cousin to the brown recluse spider). The black widow can be an issue, but the Arizona Brown Spider is rare and is not aggressive. Tarantulas, while technically capable of biting humans and venomous as all spiders are since this is the method they use to kill their prey, generally do not bite people as they are mellow in temperament. This being said, anything can last out if it is being put into a defensive situation. This also applies for rattle snakes. In general, they don't want to bite you, as they know they cannot eat you (given the large size of humans with respect to snakes), so they don't want to waste their venom on you.

Bees in Arizona are all Africanized. This means that if they get mad that they will go on the offensive and attack you. If you get even one sting from a bee, you need to go take a shower to remove the pheremone scent associated with the bee from your person. Otherwise, when you go back outside, the rest of the bees from the hive will still attack you as you will still be carrying the pheremone "flag" which keys them to attack - ! The good news from people (but not for citrus trees) is that bees are on the decline. Beekeepers try to keep their hives Europeanized by importing Queens from Europe, but all feral bees are Africanized. If you have a bee problem, do not address it yourself. Pay a beekeeper to come and remove the hive. If you see someone getting attacked by bees, immediately call 911. It takes 7 to 10 stings per 10 pounds of body weight to kill a person, but many hives are 70,000 strong.

On a more banal yet positive note, Dominic weighed in at a chunky 13 lb 5.6 oz with clothes and diaper - yay! :D

(Images in this post are taken from the bannerhealth.com website linked to in this post; some photos are listed as courtesy of the Phoenix Zoo).