Scorpion Stings Girl At W.Va. Wal-Mart

[OhioChick]

Source: Wpxi.com

POSTED: 8:09 am EDT May 27, 2008
UPDATED: 8:43 am EDT May 27, 2008

BARBOURSVILLE, W.Va. -- A West Virginia girl got a scorpion surprise at a local store.

On Sunday, 12-year-old Meagan Templeton was stung by the insect while shopping for watermelon at Wal-Mart in Barboursville near Huntington.

Meagan's father thought she was mistaken until Wal-Mart workers caught the scorpion so the family could take it to the hospital with them.

William Templeton, Meagan’s father, said, “I said maybe it was a bug or bee, it wasn't no scorpion. There is no scorpions in West Virginia."

Read more: http://www.wpxi.com/news/16400443/detail.html

---

Goes to show that one never knows what's coming over in those overseas boxes.....

[wtmusic]

1. There AIN'T no scorpions in West Virginia

Rube!

[reggie the dog]

19. normal hill accent

accent maketh not a rube.....I got stung/struck by a scopion while I was planting weed out in the bush here in France, luckily they are not dangerous here in the south.

[enki23]

2. how does "overseas" have anything to do with it?

it might have come from overseas, but it could just as well have been in an upscale supermarket buying produce from the american southwest. we have plenty of our own scorpions in the US. trying to make this story into something about the dangers of international commerce is really just... silly. at best.

i'm not sure whether west virginia is one of them, but more than half of the fifty states have indigenous populations of scorpions.

[StClone]

4. Mexico., Texas

Watermelons are grown where Scorpions live.

[Kali]

40. love your dung beetle

[OhioChick]

7. I just don't see Walmart

buying their products from the US. The products in their stores definitely don't show it.

[enki23]

32. that wasn't my point.

my point is this: it doesn't matter where the damned scorpion came from. north american native scorpions could as easily be found in our own damned produce. this is simply a freak occurrence, which is why it's news. it could have happened damned near anywhere. that it happened at walmart probably has more to do with the large market share walmart controls than to do with walmart's poorly-implemented scorpion-inspection system. (sarcasm, for the impaired) there are plenty of reasons to rag on walmart. this just isn't one of them.

[OhioChick]

34. Thanks for clearing the damned air....

:)

[jobycom]

39. Hardly matters where the product is made.

The scorpion could more easily have crawled into a box at a distribution point in Texas or Arizona.

[TheMightyFavog]

3. Two things:

1. Scorpions are arachnids, not insects

2. Did the scorpion in question rock her like a hurricane?

[mikelgb]

6. Thank you for number 1

hopefully are journalists is learning soon

[ashling]

14. The story did not say that

scorpions are insects. the poster was correct that scorpions are arachnids, but there was nothing in the OP or in the story at the link that said anything about "insects." maybe our posters will read the story next time. :evilgrin:

[nxylas]

26. It's in the second paragraph

"On Sunday, 12-year-old Meagan Templeton was stung by the insect while shopping for watermelon at Wal-Mart in Barboursville near Huntington."

[mikelgb]

41. thanks to you too

sheesh

[ashling]

58. OK, so I was talking about

myself when I said that the posters should read the story.

... but it was obvious that I meant that these things sometimes go into June.

:blush:

[YOY]

16. No but she is now feeling the "winds of change"

n/t

[SavageDem]

47. Ya know, JonathanChance...

...there's no one like you.

[onehandle]

5. Or... Climate change is bringing Southern creatures North.

It's likely it came in with the produce, but we are seeing more and more creatures in Georgia that are common to Florida.

Our weather patterns are looking more like Florida's weather too.

We have Scorpions down here. Another decade or two and they'll be marching to Canada.

[Fridays Child]

8. "Wal-Mart said the incident was extremely rare."

Does this mean that scorpion attacks are not completely unheard of, at Wal-Mart? :shrug:

[ElboRuum]

20. Nothing to see here...

No really. Nothing to see here. Insects and arachnids are sometimes unintentional stowaways in produce shipping, and sometimes they are venomous. This happens occasionally. Most of the time, they are found prior to making it to the produce case, but occasionally they are not.

[FSogol]

9. I knew that Heavy Metal band was nothing but trouble. n/t

[RaVeN_MeaD]

12. Heavy metal

Is it really fair to classify scorpions as heavy metal, maybe soft metal or metal light but definatly not heavy metal.

[ElboRuum]

23. "Heavy Metal"

There are three categorizations of music of any importance:

1) Excellent
2) Passable
3) Teh SuXxOrz

I give the Scorps a 2.

On edit: My '1337' was epic fail on first attempt.

[JerseygirlCT]

48. Another stupid 80s hair band, I think

They all wanted to look tough, but the music is anything but new or interesting!

[berni_mccoy]

10. When they turned the scorpion over, it had a "Made In China" sticker on it.

[OhioChick]

11. Probably So.

:rofl:

[DMCarter]

55. another recall from china

maybe it wasn't a scorpian at all..maybe it was merely a back ordred lead toy ...then again maybe it was one of those weapons of mass destruction we keep hearing about

[Endangered Specie]

61. Probably covered in lead too...

poor guy.

[matt007]

13. Emperor scorpions make great low maint. pets

mine even glows under a black light.

[B3Nut]

37. I have a couple emperors

I haven't tried a black light yet though...bet I could get some cool macros doing that! Super easy to care for, and a great entry into home arachnoculture. I just keep fresh water in their dish and toss in a handful of crickets every week or so, and they're happy.

[matt007]

54. awesome

yea i do about a half dozen crickets every week to week and a half. fresh water. A little sponge works good too. mine likes to sit on it.

I may get another...just one now

[Kali]

38. I think most of them do

that is one of the recommendations for clearing your camp/house because poisons don't work too well on them and usually there are only a few around anyway.

I usually find them by falling asleep. bastids. they run and sting as they go while you are trying to levitate out of bed - because you know damn well what that was....

[SavageDem]

49. Fun for the whole family! (NT)

[EnviroBat]

63. Woa, wait just a second here.

I've seen these little buggers sold as pets in some pet stores, but what I've always wondered is if the scorpions can sting you or is the stinger removed? What is it like to be stung by a scorpion? Is it like a bee sting, or more like big city nights?

[reggie the dog]

75. all depends on the scorpion

The scorpions we have in the Var region of France give a welt like a bee sting. They are small (2 to 5 cm). In Lybia tiny scorpions can kill you while you are trying to get to the hospital.

[matt007]

77. mine nailed me between my knuckles

like a wasp sting pretty much. My fault though.

[noonwitch]

15. My dad used to tell me that tarantulas hid in bannanas

I was scared to break bannanas off the bunch for that reason. My mom told me there were no tarantulas in Chiquita bannanas.

[BearSquirrel2]

28. Tarantulas don't hurt humans ...

Tarantula venom is no danger to humans. They are calm and kept as house pets.

One of these however:
(the wandering spider)

will kill you quickly and they are common to banana plantations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/4499921.stm

[Taverner]

35. DIE WANDERING SPIDER DIE!!!!

I hate spiders...

[bad_robbie]

62. Does your tarantula bite?

Reminds me of the bit from the Pink Panther movie where Clouseau asks the innkeeper if his dog bites. He says "no," then the dog bites Clouseau, who says "I thought you said your dog didn't bite". Innkeeper responds: "Zat is not my dog!"

So anyway, we don't need to worry about getting bitten by a tarantula in a bunch of bananas.

[swimmernsecretsea]

69. Day O Lyrics

When I was growing up, it was an urban legend to think that there was a deadly tarantula hiding in a bunch of bananas. It's even immortalized in song:

A beautiful bunch a'ripe banana
(daylight come and he wan' go home)
Hide thee Deadly black tarantula
(Daylight come and he wan' go home)

Snopes.com, the urban legend debunking site, goes over this, and some other popular legends at length here:

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects/cactus.asp

[IronLionZion]

30. tarantulas won't hurt you

but there are venomous spiders out there that will do terrible things to you. I got bit in Hawaii and had a big nasty rash on my arm and had to be treated.

[Kool Kitty]

59. All I have to say to that is.....

daylight come and I wanna go home. You know?

[booksenkatz]

74. I've seen a tarantula in the bananas at a grocery store

Several years ago, I was passing near the bananas when a little boy yelled out to his mom that there was a "spider" in the bananas. His mom and some employees came over... I saw the thing myself. The ONE thing on this planet I'm afraid of is a spider (I think rodents, snakes and bugs in general are cute), so it has definitely changed my grocery shopping habits. My need for bananas has dropped to about zero since then. I've wrestled with arachnophobia for 40 years, and it's abated a bit, but never goes away entirely!

[hedgehog]

17. Reminds me of the time my husband and I saw a road runner wandering

the parking lot at our grocery store in Fulton, New York. I tell you, that was one bird that was sorry to have hitched a ride!

[nxylas]

22. Was it being chased by a coyote?

Using an Acme roadrunner-catching device?

[ElboRuum]

31. Bah Dum Psssh.

[AnneD]

56. One time while in

Carlsbad New Mexico-I saw a sea gull. Growing up on the coast-I could not confuse the call or the profile. Your road runner must have been on vaca, that or global warming is far worse than we think.

[alarimer]

84. Sea gulls are commonly found at garbage dumps all over.

I think the term "sea" gull is something of a misnomer, as they can occur in inland areas as well, especially around lakes.

[FatDave]

68. Did it follow "free bird seed" signs to the parking lot?

[ElboRuum]

18. All produce shipments...

...can have insect and arachnid stowaways. When I was working at a grocery store in my youth, occasionally, a black widow spider or some other venomous creature would make its way into the shipping container, which, because of the nature of fresh produce, has openings on the top or sides. Most of the time, the people case-wrapping the produce from the boxes would find them, but occasionally, they'd end up in the case.

[yardwork]

43. Yes, my neighbor found some black widow spiders in her grapes once.

They'd obviously come home in the bunch of grapes she'd bought at the grocery store. They were still there when she pulled the grapes out of the fridge. Cold and grumpy.

[cstanleytech]

21. My brother works as a produce manager and

all sorts of stuff come in often.
For example he has had more than a few live spiders come in boxes of bananas and also a large black widow in a box full of grapes.

[ElboRuum]

29. What's that about...

Had the same thing happen at my store, and a black widow was found in the grapes. Do they like the grapes or something? I figure they could probably move from box to box freely, so what's the deal with the grapes?

[yardwork]

44. See my post up above! I wonder why black widows end up in the grapes?

Are there black widows in the vineyards where grapes are harvested? If that is true, then think of the danger to workers picking them.

[cstanleytech]

65. Considering grapes grow outside on vines then yeah

I think its a safe bet spiders probably live among them *grin*

[reggie the dog]

76. lots of spiders

I harvested grapes one year. Lots of spiders, nasty looking ones too, but I don't know how dangerous they were. The farmer said not to get bitten by them but that if you were bitten and got a fever the hospital was necessary.

[IronLionZion]

24. "in those overseas boxes"

:rofl:

That made my day! OhioChick it's usually a pleasure to read your posts!

[OhioChick]

36. As it is Yours......

:rofl:

[ChromeFoundry]

79. I have to agree with you

I enjoy the articles she posts. Amazes me how some people still just don't get it. :silly:

[jpak]

25. Scorpions are *not* fucking insects - they are fucking chelicerates

jesus h fucking christ

[ElboRuum]

27. OMG Jesus's middle name does not start with H. GAWD.

:evilgrin:

[jpak]

57. Attitudes like that are what's fucking wrong with Amerika

Once we get our fucking cornflake-fried heads out of our collective fucking corn-flake-fried ass, we'll get a fucking clue and understand the fucking difference between a fucking chelicerate and fucking hexapod.

Don't get me started....

[ElboRuum]

66. Um, too late? n/t

[ElboRuum]

67. Um, too late? n/t

[yardwork]

45. Could you watch your fucking mouth? For fuck's sake.

[conspirator]

71. fuckin dog has fucking papers... can't board it ... he gets upset ... n/t

[SavageDem]

50. Fucking insects is probably against the law in many southern states

Not to mention uncomfortable. And probably very little foreplay. And the female of the species is more deadly than the male (with apologies to Rudyard Kipling).

[swimmernsecretsea]

53. Samuel L. Jackson?! I LOVE your movies!

http://www.jarrattmoody.com/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=syf8olcM0z4



http://images.dawgsports.com/images/admin/Samuel_L_Jackson_cool_with_gun.bmp

[Aramis]

33. Now, watch out for that sting by the trail lawyer.

[jobycom]

42. And they'd need a trail lawyer because scorpions are found on trails.

Sorry, the pedanticism on this thread has sunk to a new low. Or I'm trying to make it sink thus. Feel free to pick on "pedanticism."

[SavageDem]

51. Why worry about ped-ant-icism...

...when we're talking about ped-scorpion-icism. </bad joke>

As long as we don't involve didactism along with pedanticism.

[DMCarter]

46. those watermelon scorpions are pesky lil devils

makes me kind of wonder if daddy's been out west lately or knows someone that has. My daughter works for a walmart here in indiana...thank God she doesnt work near the watermelons lol.

[darue]

52. "a big one or a little one?" n/t

[hootinholler]

83. LOL!

[ptolle]

60. nukes

You've got to know that within a matter of days the wingnuts will be offering thanks this wasn't a nuclear scorpion and Condi might be warning us of the stinger shaped smoking gun.I'm glad the little girl is OK as far as I know and hope she doesn't turn into scorpion girl a la peter parker and his radioactive arachnid. It might turn out to be interesting to see how wally-mart handles this after the case Olbermann shoved down their throats. I'd suspect they're more than a little leery of adverse publicity of any sort.

[EnviroBat]

64. Oh for God's sake!

Now I've got to worry about stinging creatures hiding in produce at the grocery store? Just KILL ME ALREADY! I can't sleep. I can't eat. I can't go out in public. I can't put gas in my car, and now THIS? I'm about to explode.
FAAAAAAHHHHHHHKKKKKKK

[oedura]

72. You always did...

Nothing's changed.

[oedura]

70. Everybody thinks they're a fucking expert...

William Templeton, Meagan’s father, said, “I said maybe it was a bug or bee, it wasn't no scorpion. There is no scorpions in West Virginia."

http://bugguide.net/node/view/2447

Not that it matters. The watermelons came from Mexico.

[hyphenate]

73. Hmmmm

I would rather get my scorpion from the local chinese restaurant.

[mitchum]

78. That whole article reads like satire by one of we elitists...

It has everything
scorpions
Wal Mart
watermelons
West Virginia
atrocious grammar


Hell yeah!

[Finn Polke]

82. Oh, hell yeah!

I'm a definitely keep a eye out for scorps, though, now that watermelons is on sale again. Can't be too careful. Hippies from D.C. probably bring scorps in they hair!

[Buns_of_Fire]

80. Turn Bear Grylls loose on it. He'll eat ANYTHING.

Man vs Wild-Mart, this fall on the Discovery Channel.

[Hubert Flottz]

81. He tried to eat West Virginia, I heard!

I think it gave him Coal-itus!