Inverts are so much harder to read body language as its pretty subtle and when people don’t see it thats when injury occurs to the handlers and or the animal.
Like i can tell if my Androctonus Australis doesn’t like me near her , her tail will go subtly to the side.
The Androctonus Australis has the second fastest sting the Deathstalker has the fastest sting, they also sting more times which makes them considerably more dangerous. The Androctonus has an LD50 of .032 and the Deathstalker has an LD50 of .025
(In toxicology, the median lethal dose, LD50 (abbreviation for “lethal dose, 50%”), LC50 (lethal concentration, 50%) or LCt50 is a toxic unit that measures of the lethal dose of a toxin, radiation, or pathogen.[1] The value of LD50 for a substance is the dose required to kill half the members of a tested population after a specified test duration. LD50 figures are frequently used as a general indicator of a substance’s acute toxicity. A lower LD50 is indicative of increased toxicity.)
You can see the LD50 of venomous snakes here: Most Venomous Snakes in the World - Untamed Science
You will see that the Eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) is LD50 1.2
So you can see that the scorpions i keep even have more lethality than the king cobra. If a scorpion was able to deliver the amount of venom as a snake there would be even greater deaths by scorpions.
Seriously these guys are nothing to trifle with, while they can deliver a dry sting and even measure the amount they wish to give or they can give you their entire stores and with a species such as Androctonus Australis they have a very large telson ( thats the bulb where venom is stored). A guy was messing around with an Androctonus Amoreuxi ( they are often misinformed of how toxic they are) anyways he spent 3 days in the ICU he’s lucky he didn’t die.
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If a fire ant injected the same amount of venom as a diamondback rattlesnake you would likely lose the entire afflicted limb as the peptides rapidly dissolve flesh which is why you get a pustule from a fire ant sting.
I think we are kinda getting away from the original point here but i understand what you are saying, yes many animals potentially can be dangerous/deadly.
My point is we shouldn’t be so blasé about animals especially in our care. I feel as keepers we are often under the same microscope as the idiots on social media, mishandling, mistreating animals for likes and shock value for their own selfish purposes.
There is nothing wrong about being passionate about animals, having social media to highlight animals etc. Delivering false information or engaging in activities such as live handling of dangerous species, downplaying the seriousness of venom etc. Is not good ambassadorship, it only serves to get people hurt, the animals hurt and causes legislation to deem them “dangerous” so that nobody may keep them, even responsibly.
I want for people to get excited about arachnids and to see they aren’t vermin to exterminate on sight, but i also want to express that while they are wonderful animals that proper education and handling is top priority. It makes me sad to see people go “eww a spider kill it” especially since spiders are helpful animals and though we on occasion get bit, we are definitely not on their menu and there are ways to promote the species and be safe. I’ve been working with arachnids most of my life (approximately 40 years) have only been bit one time which wholly was my fault when i was about 12.
Arachnids including scorpions are fun simple pets that are extremely low maintenance that really don’t require “hands on” they are completely safe when properly housed and proper procedures are followed.
I want to be a good ambassador to show we can live with arachnids. I also do my best to call out those who promote improper care and handling directly on their platform. I may get removed by them, even blocked however hopefully people saw it before that. I will never advocate for acting stupid, i also do my best to accurately and as easily put out correctly my knowledge. Can i be wrong? Sure on occasion however i try very hard to not post on something i have no knowledge of and never knowingly put out false information as that does not help anyone and in certain circumstances it is reckless and dangerous.
In closing i just want for people to responsibly enjoy animals because it’s best for all parties involved including the welfare of the animals that we care about.
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It’s nice to want to educate them about it but the fact is people dont learn their lesson until life smacks em hard and wakes them up. They’ll have to suffer a life-threatening dose to wake up and realize the error of their ways.
we are a trial-and-error species, it’s why you cant just educate people most of the time, we need to make mistakes and learn from them. IMO nature itself will take care of the problem… and people thinking freehandling dangerous species is cool and emulate others are no different lol. They’ll probably learn alot faster should they survive, hahaha.
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You are right about that too bad we reward the stupid with law suit payments.
When i was growing up if we got hurt doing something stupid our parents gave 0 sh*ts and told us “that’s what you get for being stupid”