Creepy Crawlers..............

When Greg and I decided to move to Mexico, one thing immediately caught our attention and concern.  Not the crime stats, not the healthcare, no, for us it was all those creepy crawlers that live well in Mexico.  We're not talking about regular insects, we're talking about the scary ones..............
Scorpions, Cockroaches, Black Widow Spinders, Rattlesnacks.   We are well accustomed to mosquitos, ticks and the dreaded Black Flies...............but this was going to be different, these could kill you!
We listened carefully to the advice of our expat friends.............Never go barefeet, not even in the house, keep bedsheets and blanket up off the floors, use this product or that product on your floors, but the one tip suggested time and time again was "Be sure to use plastic drain covers on all your drains when not in use.:  We did all of the above.
One morning I decided to take a bath instead of the usual fast shower.  I had bought myself some lovely coconut foam bath and was anticipating a nice long soak.  I opened up the tub/shower door and reached down to pour in my bubbly..........to my shock, there was a very healthy scorpion sitting on the drain - tail pointed straight up!  Well, that was the end of the nice relaxing soak .  Screeching, I call Greg.  We're both standing there looking at the thing not knowing how these things move.  Will it jump?  Do they move fast?  Can it fly?  Yeesh.............. After a few minutes we decided the best thing to do was to go get one of Greg's Size 13 sneakers.  Success!
We haven't had a further close call but we do see them around from time to time.  We were concerned for the dogs being outside so much.  Our vet recommended that we keep a vile of anti-serum (complete with syringe!) in the fridge to allow us to administer a quick needle in the event of a sting.   We have the same thing for ourselves.  Most of the scorpions here are small and we are told will not kill you.  They leave a very painful sting and of course for those of us who are allergic to bee stings, this can cause a problem.  The Red Cross phone number sits beside the phone - just in case!
  Our newest little addition "Bella" is a scorpion hunter.  The other day on the front porch Bella begins to bark looking directly at the corner.  Not her usual bark, this one was an alert bark.  You guessed it, there it was on the floor - a scorpion!  Size 13's again fixed the problem.
We now have the outside of our home, around the perimeter sprayed monthly - we're told that this will elliminate the little monsters from coming indoors.
And to think that I use to be afraid of the Little Brown Mice we had visiting us on Black Lake!!