I wouldn’t expect them in the British isles. Although I have to add that, as the scorpion and the frog parable plays a key role in the movie The Crying Game, scorpions are now oddly linked to Britain for me, when I think of that metaphor.

Wait, not the scorpions, the gardening and DVD-watching.

Although, I’ve never seen a real scorpion so the novelty would have a certain value for me…

NM, I visited an old and good friend in Phoenix last November; he lives near Camelback, but when they first arrived they almost bought a house that is north of downtown Phoenix. They didn’t get it, but read about the sale of the house, later, in the newspaper.

It turns out it had a huge nest of scorpions underneath it.

Enough to entail failed visits by exterminators, lawsuits, and stories in the newspaper.

Just thinking about it is enough to put me up on the roof with a sleeping bag at night.

The stuff grows everywhere, but each area seems to have a special problem with bamboo unique to the area. In Phoenix, well, scorpions looooove bamboo. Hey - those cool, green tubes? They beat the heck out of those hot desert rocks when it is 125 degrees. I’d hang out in there myself.

I remember one summer when my Grandma was visiting in Phoenix and we got on the subject of the “bamboo problem.” To make a long story short, we wound up removing half a yardfull of the stuff in July. Ugh. I was not stung, but there was a mass exodus of scorpions and a bunch of them wound up in the pool. Double-ugh! Guess who’s chore was cleaning the pool?