Eloise Horsfield
IT brings a whole new meaning to the question ‘Has this suitcase been left unattended at any point?’
But a British teenager got the fright of her life when she found a deadly scorpion in her mum’s suitcase a month after a holiday in Almeria.
The ‘Deathstalker’ is the second most venomous scorpion in the world and its powerful sting that can kill children and the elderly.
“I just saw this thing on the top of everything in there,” said Hollie Jayes, 18, from Skegness.
“I thought it was a spider so I screamed and slammed the case shut.
“After I calmed down, me and my friend picked up a coat hanger and opened the case and we realised it was a scorpion.
“We both screamed and slammed the case shut and threw it into the bathroom. “There was a lot of shouting and shaking.”
The creepy crawly must have crept in the suitcase when Hollie’s mother, Theresa Jayes, was on holiday in Santa Peta, Almeria, a month earlier.
“It’s quite scary to think back – I put my hand in that case 20 or 30 times while unpacking, I must have been so close to it,” said Theresa, 43.
The RSPCA later confirmed it was a yellow scorpion, or ‘Deathstalker’ – usually found in north Africa and the Middle East – before warning the family to check it had not laid any eggs.
That is actually Buthus Occitanus, the Common Yellow Scorpion, not Leiurus quinquestriatus, the Deathstalker. The sting would hurt, but it is nowhere near deadly.
I think James is right. It seems that it would be incredibly rare to find a Deathstalker (Leiurus quinquestriatus) in Spain.
“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathstalker”
I’ve been stung four times by these scorpions over the years – it hurts for several hours, but is hardly deadly.
Come to think of it – there’s no ‘Santa Peta’ in Almería.
Lenox, you are right. I have just checked my indexed road atlas and there is nowhere with that name, or anything remotely like it, in Almería.
It´s not 1 April already, is it?
EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT
Brit finds deadly crab in underwear following holiday in Almeria
Had this one in our kitchen – it is definitely not “deadly”…and it is the Buthus species, the deathstalker is not found anywhere in Spain. A wasp can be more dangerous…
As I understand, this is one of those racist Spanish scorpions that only attacks British people. Had the teenager been Spanish, she never would have found a scorpion in her suitcase.