Our Life with Scorpions

We live in the Moroccan countryside outside of Essaouira where my husband Aziz and I moved three years ago to launch our e-commerce ‘souk’ of mid-century furnishings, Mid Century Maroc. 

The advantages of countryside living are vast but there are some hazards, namely the presence of scorpions which are endemic to our region.

When we bought our broken down house on an acre of land in 2018, I knew in the back of my head that with that purchase would also come scorpion sightings. But I honestly did not want to deal with the reality until I had to. Suffice it to say that at that point I had a phobia. That phobia skyrocketed when we had a pool dug and the workers told us they filled up one bucket of scorpions. They murdered all of them and luckily no one was stung. 

There were things we did initially to decrease the chances of seeing one. The region of Essaouira is known for having very rocky soil and we knew enough to know that scorpions love to burrow under rocks, not to mention dark crevices in your home. So we got rid of the 1M rocks over time. 

We also read that spraying a mixture of water and cinnamon oil on door and window frames acted as a good deterrent. 

We welcomed four cats into our home. Cats have some kind of built in instinct whereby they have a brief ‘play’ with the scorpion then artfully flip it on its back, rendering that nasty stinger null and void. Then they somehow go in for the kill. During the summer months we can expect on average four dead scorpions deposited outside our bedroom door per week. As shocking a sight this is in the wee hours, we are grateful for our cats!

Aziz and cats

And there was the ultraviolet flashlight that Aziz bought. Scorpions ‘glow’ a fluorescent green-blue under moonlight or black light. This is due to the ‘hyaline layer’ in the scorpion’s exoskeleton which reacts to UV light.  Why they glow, the jury is still out. This little flashlight is both a blessing and a curse. I mean who really wants to go scorpion hunting in the bedroom just before bed? Aziz does. I just pretend it’s not happening and grab my book. 

Additional prevention measures:

Check shoes

Check bed before entering

Check under bed 

Make loud noises at night in bed

Use torch for night time toilet runs

Don’t grab anything you cannot see, ever

Chickens, roosters, hedgehogs, cats and peacocks all help

Soon after our house was rebuilt, my daughter Margot and six of her friends descended upon us for a two-week summer stay. It was a blast! The house was full of bodies, jubilance, laughter, intense conversations, and merriment around the pool. We cooked, we explored, we danced. We were in heaven.

Margot and friends, 2019

But as Aziz and I knew we had to be on guard as all the property works had only just concluded which meant the earth was freshly ‘disturbed’. And that means so are the scorpions. Add to this 85-degree heat. If you didn’t know, scorpions head indoors when it gets too hot outside.

One week into their visit, our first scorpion arrived. He was gorgeous. And dead. Someone found him in the gutter of our pool. No one called us. There were no shrieks. Rather, calmly and coolly fallen argan nuts were collected and an artful funerary barrier of sorts was arranged around the corpse. Possibly even a few daisy chains were woven and a pagan dance thrown in. I’ll never know because I was too busy cleaning up the eternal mess that only recent American graduates know how to create. And there the scorpion stayed for days. 

Our very first scorpion

Belonging to the Androctonus maroccanus family, also known as the fat tailed scorpion, these are considered one of the most dangerous in the world. Like all other scorpion species, our boy has eight legs and a segmented tail containing two glands that hold the venom. Pincers out in front help him catch his prey. And of course the stinger located at the tip of the tail. When ready to sting, his tail curves up pointing the stinger at his victim. A sturdy exoskeleton similar to a lobster shell makes up his body. 

Fat tailed scorpion venom contains neurotoxins, which can stimulate an abnormal amount of neurotransmitters in the victim. This can lead to mild reactions which include pain at site, sweating and nausea. More serious reactions include numbness throughout the body, difficulty swallowing, a thick tongue, blurred vision, roving eye movements, seizures, hyper-salivation, and difficulty breathing. If someone dies as a result of a scorpion sting, it is likely due to heart or respiratory failure. In rare cases, anaphylaxis, a life threatening allergic reaction, can cause shock and closing of airways. If death is going to occur, it can happen within hours. It goes without saying, it’s crucial to seek medical help immediately when stung. 

Scorpions mate typically during the springtime and begin their intimacy with an incredible scorpion mating dance. The female chooses her partner and once the mating ritual is over, female scorpions have been known to kill and eat the male if he stays around too long post coitus. Females give birth (vs laying eggs) on average to 20 babies. They cannot survive without her and live on her back until their first molt. This can take up towards 50 days. 

Scorpions have lived on this earth for over 400 million years hence depictions and references date back to every ancient culture not to mention religious texts such as the Bible. One such example, Scorpius, the constellation identified by Greek astronomer Ptolemy in 130 AD, is forever with us in the night sky. In Greek mythology, Orion, the great hunter, chased a scorpion in vain only, in some versions, to be killed by it. Zeus then turned Orion and the scorpion into constellations where Orion is eternally chased by Scorpius. 

The constellation Scorpius

Additional scorpion facts:

Globally

·      They have survived for over 400 million years

·      They are arachnids, close relatives to spiders and tics

·      1,700 species exist globally

·      Average lifespan 3-8 years

·      Estimated 1M stings a year mostly in the global south

·      Approximately 3,000 deaths per year 

·      They can survive months without food 

·      They can live under water for up to two days

In Morocco

·      They are the most dangerous animal reported

·      50 species with 22 considered deadly

·      On average, 30,000 reported stings annually 95% of which are under the age of 15

·      Of these stings, 70% take place in the home (fatality rates too difficult to ascertain at this time due to conflicting sources)

In Morocco, a majority of reported envenomation (stings) happens in the countryside, at night and in the home. Hands searching in the dark for an article of clothing, little fingers investigating crevices, firewood being collected at night. All of these normal activities become dangerous when you can’t see that which you are reaching for. While not an exhaustive list, some traditional methods of treating scorpion stings include aspiration, bloodletting at the source of the sting, cauterization, prayer, and application of chemicals or herbs.

Scorpions require a space no bigger than a credit card to enter. Houses in our region are typically built using large stone and cement. The end result is not a sealed environment but rather one with plenty of crevices for intruders.  In the summer months when scorpions seek cooler temperatures and water, these crevices provide a gateway into the home. 

What is most important when stung is to get to a medical facility immediately to be monitored for dangerous changes in symptoms and when appropriate and if available, given a dose of anti-venom. This is problematic in Morocco for a few reasons. Lack of access to health care is often cited as a huge barrier especially for people in the countryside. Additionally, lack of personal transport and night time ambulances, underqualified medical staff and more make the few hours one has in an extreme case, dicey at best.

What is the good news? The Moroccan Ministry of Health launched an awareness campaign in July 2019 against scorpion stings and snake bites. Their ambition is to reduce deaths to zero through better education of health care workers and the population, improve hospital care, and better understand the social and environmental factors that contribute to scorpion stings. 

A few Non-Governmental Organizations are on the forefront either in advocacy or research. One such organization, the Moroccan League for the Defense of Human Rights (LMDDH) recently released a statement alerting the public of the serious dangers posed by scorpion stings in Morocco. Citing access to information and health care as a human right, the LMDDH is advocating for improved access in order to prevent deaths due to scorpion envenomation. 

A few years after moving to Essaouira I’m no longer in a state of paranoia but have a newfound respect for these arachnids. What worries me most these days is not our risk, but that of our community. With low access to transport and at times sketchy health care in Essaouira, I’m keen to work with our community to decrease morbidity and mortality rates associated with scorpion stings. I have many ideas and will soon begin reaching out to our countryside neighbors in an effort to learn about their perceived barriers to keeping safe while living among scorpions. Stay tuned for news of this venture in future blog posts!

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Welcome to the Mid Century Maroc family.

Aziz & Brooke

Sources: Morocco World News, The New York Times, Cleveland Clinic, Worldbirds.com, ResearchGate, Smithsonian Channel, Moroccan Poison and Pharmacovigilance Center (CAPM)