Is it true? Are they dangerous or just a nuisance? Planning a trip, but will I have to check my shoes?

So what's so bad about scorpions? I spent 2 months on the Amalfi Coast last year and was only bitten twice by a scorpion. It's the centipedes you need to watch out for, they're killers.

Now this is a new one.... Yow!!!

Found 2 scorpions in a house we rented in Provence...we managed to kill them before they saw us! Property manager said they would have given us a nasty sting had one bitten us. Haven't heard of them in Italy and I'm going there this July...yikes!!

Hey Bugs, didn't you ever hear of the Tarantella? I believe Italians from the Naples area or somewhere around there in Southern Italy, claim it as their local folkdance. It's based on movements made by tarantulas. I'd much rather the scorpions. Wouldn't you?

Put socks or something in your shoes, and shake them out before you put them on. Scorpians like dark cubby homes and shoes FIT the bill! Tee Hee

Thanks Danna - good idea. Maybe I'll stick to sandals...

Brad, <BR>I don't know about that (tarantulas vs. scorpions) <BR>Years ago, we rented a house in a (mini) rain forest in Tobago for a month <BR>We had a resident tarantula that just appeared one night. <BR>We actually thought it quite harmless and ignored it , until one afternoon, the caretaker of the house came up, and as soon as we told him about it, he grabbed a racket and ran off to whack it to death. <BR>He then told us that tarantulas have great capacity for jumping distances. <BR>So, now everytime I look at the picture of my husband and that spider, cheek by jowl, so to speak, I just have to shake my head, and write it off youthful idiosy, (and all the beers one seems to consume in the tropics). <BR>My only experience with scorpions is from watching cowboy movies from the 1950's. <BR>They are pretty scary looking! <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

Hello All, they have a type of scorpion here in Georgia. My neighbor and I captured one in her basement, but the centipede(we also bagged) was truly yuckier. Yes, we have some buggy problems. We also learn to shake those shoes out first. Judy ;-)

I have only seen a few scorpions in Tuscany - squashed on the cobblestones of Colle Alta (best type of scorpion per me). However, a friend was stung on her ring finger while sitting on her bed in our villa a couple of years ago. No big deal except that she didn't take her rings off in time and was in horrible pain due to some swelling. A wonderful doctor sawed the rings off in the ER of the local hospital in Poggibonzi and she was fine. The "treatment" was free and extremely kind and friendly. Of course her husband had to pay for new rings....

I have been stung many times by scorpions here in Texas. It is very similar to a wasp sting--try to dab a little bleach on it as soon as you can. Tarantulas around here are usually harmless--kids love to play with them.

I thunk the Scorpions were from Germany?