Scorpion Fact and Folklore

• Strange myths about scorpion origins include the Egyptian belief that scorpions came from the corpses of crocodiles, and the English belief that bruising sweet bay leaves would breed scorpions.
  
• Scorpions can withstand hours of total immersion, weeks of freezing, and up to nine months without food or water. Some species can live for months buried alive!
  
• Scorpions are considered to be the first arthopod to have emerged on land. Some sources believe them to be the first land animal
  
• Egyptians believed that women were immune to scorpion stings. Another old belief was that scorpions stings were only fatal in the morning!
  
• An old treatment for scorpion stings involved dosing the patient with a chicken's brain and five ants dissolved in vinegar...then the patient had to eat the scorpion roasted!
  
• One superstition states that a scorpion surrounded by a ring of fire will sting itself to death.
  
• Today stings from lethal scorpions are treated with a serum derived from the venom of scorpions.