Scorpions. What Next..Rattlesnakes?

When I got the wild hair to move out of Alabama I did my homework and found the perfect spot I wanted to relocate. Before I made my final decision I researched everything about Austin...climate, topography, ethnicity, economy, etc. It was perfect!

I have been living here for a year and a half now. One thing I never even thought about researching was the animal inhabitants. I figured if I could tolerate the huge tree roaches that inhabited Mobile's muggy climate then I could tolerate anything. By the way, I have an intense fear of large cockroaches and feel very blessed that I have not seen even one in my 1 1/2 here. I'm sure they are here...somewhere on the west side of Austin closer to the Hill Country, but not here on the edge of the Blackland Prairie.

Our first year here our yard introduced us to the scorpion. I had never in my whole life seen a real live scorpion, that is outside of a zoo or environmental center. Mind you, these are not the kind of scorpions that are huge, black and scary looking.

"Fortunately, none of the species in Texas are considered deadly. Stings from most of these species are about as painful as a bee or wasp sting, but the severity of the sting is dependent upon the individual scorpion and the person's reaction to the venom."

We have on occasion found these stinging creatures in the house. No big deal, we sort of have the live and let live attitude with creatures that aren't flying aimlessly around or eating holes into our food supply. When we find them we usually just shoo them out into the outside world to go on about their business.

I guess that's what we get for being nice. our attitude has turned around and 'stung" me in the butt. :-) For the past week yours truly has been stung not once, but twice! The first time I was awoken to the feel of some lightweight legs crawling on me. As I brushed it off in my half-awake state, I was stung on my finger.

Thank goodness I was half asleep and probably didn't get to experience the full extent of the sting. I awoke hubby abruptly and informed him that I had been stung. I don't know how I knew it was by a scorpion other than instinct. We searched the bed area and lo and behold there it was on Toby's pillow. We were still nice
and picked him gently up and threw him out the front door.

I figured this was just an isolated incident and promptly forgot about it after a couple of days. A few nights later I was awoken by the same stinging feel on my back. I obviously had rolled over and in self-defense it stung me. Again, I jumped up out of the bed flipping on lights to find the culprit. There he was planted in the middle of my bed as if he owned it. I think at this point, Toby decided to flush him.

Needless to say, I have a slight paranoia to me. Everything that slightly touches me I flinch and jerk waiting for the sting. Yes, I think that I may have to resort to measures that I would prefer not to in a world where everyone should cohabitate together.

I'm not sure how to co-exist peacefully with a creature that insist on crawling into my bed only to leave me with a harsh sting....

Any ideas???