Before we moved to the scorpion territory, I did a lot of research about what to do if one of us got stung. Thankfully, for 2 years we never had to test any of the treatments personally, despite seeing a handful of scorpions every year. We'd just take them carefully outside where they belong.
Now our family are more fully initiated to the low desert life. Not only have we survived summers where it is "cooling off" when it gets to the low hundreds, we've now experienced the sting of the Arizona Bark Scorpion. If you want to skip the story and background, I have a summary with a list of what we used at the bottom.
A Bit About Scorpions
First I want to dispel a few myths about scorpions. Scorpions aren't out to get humans. They eat insects (like cockroaches and grasshoppers) and would sooner run and hide from you than sting you. Of course, running and hiding can include inside the couch cushions or LEGO bin, which can get a little awkward. They have bad eyesight, and are usually hiding along edges of walls, shoes, piles of clothing and not in the middle of the floor. Coyote Petersen does a great job showing that scorpions don't want to hurt you unless pressured too and even freehandles a bark scorpion. They like to live in palm trees and are the only type of scorpion around here that can climb (so if you see one on your wall, it's easy to know what type you are dealing with).
Most scorpions in North America have a sting comparable to a bee sting. The exception is the Arizona Bark Scorpion. The antivenom is available at Arizona hospitals and the side effects can be serious and troubling. Some neighbors suggested that if a kid gets stung, it is best to just go over to the hospital just 3 minutes away just to be safe. Scorpions can choose how much venom to release, and every body will respond differently. Since kids are smaller, they are more likely to be effected worse by the venom.
Our Story
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| The Arizona Bark Scorpion that did the stinging... after a night in the freezer |
Let me start by saying I'm not making any medical recommendations, just telling our story of what happened to us. I had a hard time finding much info online when I was researching (probably in part to Google's filtering, which will still affect less biased search engines.) This is what tools I was grateful to know and chose to use for my kid. You do what is best for you and your family.
So, after our family movie night we were all doing a few things around the house and getting ready for bed. Suddenly, my 5 year old starts screaming. He was just walking across the room, no one else was near him and I couldn't see any thing around that could have hurt him. My first thought was that it much be some sort of bite or sting. He wasn't in a state to give me much feedback, but it was obvious that his leg was hurting so I pulled down his pants in case the culprit was inside and took him over to some remedies.
I didn't even think about the hospital as an option. I was too busy trying to take care of the immediate problem and getting in the car wasn't on the list of potential solutions in my brain. Before I even knew the cause, I was going for the Apis Mellifica 200c homeopathic remedy. Before I was able to get to it, I happened to see the scorpion on the pants I'd pulled off and alerted my husband who immediately went to work capturing it.
Now we knew for sure what we were dealing with. It was an experience I'd been dreading since before moving here and know my nightmare was reality. Through God's grace, I was able to stay calm and know what to do. Soon I had the dropper of Apis out and put a few drops near the area, knowing that getting him to hold still so I could do it on his tongue wasn't a viable option while he was screaming in pain. Unable to find the bentonite clay (good for pulling out toxins) at a glance in the cupboard, I grabbed the Apple Cider Vinegar and splashed it on, not caring about how much or how to get it on while he continued screaming.
Still hoping to put some clay on it, I took him upstairs where I thought it might be. Still no luck, but there was more apple cider vinegar so I put more of that on for good measure. A friend had used ACV on her kids and found it to be the cure all in her situations, but we still needed something more. At this point he is still screaming and in a great deal of pain, but able to talk/cry about it in detail, which to me was a good sign. He described the pain as burning or worse than burning and hurting worse than a bee sting. While obviously still in intense pain, I knew that he needed more than TLC to get him through it so I left him for a few seconds to grab my essential oils.
I remembered another friend when we first moved here recommended Frankincense Essential Oil so that is what I grabbed first. Again, not taking time to be careful with dilutions or application (and not even sure where the exact sting zone was) I just splashed a few drops in the area. This was this first thing that gave him noticeable relief . (Like I said before, I noticed positive effects from what we'd already been doing, but it wasn't noticeable from his perspective).
By this time, he'd calmed down enough that TLC and mommy hugs was one of the more powerful things I could be doing to continue his recovery so I was grateful for other family members that were able to grab books and look up things for further treatment. Someone brought the homeopathics upstairs to me and I gave him some Hypericum Perforatum 200c, this time he was calm enough to talk it orally. I also mixed up a bit of bentonite clay (it was exactly where it was supposed to be, just not where I looked) and started lathering that on.
Looking over the list of homeopathics revealed I'd already chosen the best options (I'd done the research before, but wanted to double check in case I forgot something). The EO book led me to the Purifying Blend essential oil (We don't use the Essential oils often, but they were still powerful after years of storage) which also provided noticable relief.
After all this, he was starting to get tired. This was a really good sign. A common side effect of these type of stings is anxiety and intense pain, so I knew there were no concerns with sleeping, especially since it was late. Even though he was doing fine, I wanted to have something on him working through the night so I wouldn't have to. I didn't have any plantain on hand, but that would have been my herb of choice. Instead I mixed some dried comfrey with more bentonite clay and purify essential oil, put it all over his leg, wrapped the tatters of an old cloth diaper around it and saran wrap over that. As I was wrapping he complained that it was actually hurting when I touched it...further investigation revealed that what was hurting was the itchy comfrey leaves not the sting (if itchy leaves are your worst problem less than an hour after getting stung, I'd say you are in good shape!). He was tired enough we decided he could try sleeping through it and if it bothered him, he could wake me up and I'd take it off.
After we put him in bed, he got a Priesthood Blessing from his dad. He was asleep shortly after laying down. It had been less than an hour from screaming from terrible pain to fast asleep. In the middle of the night, after he'd been asleep about 3 hours, he woke up and wanted the itchy bandage off. I took it off and rinsed off his leg. No pain from the sting and no signs of it. He slept through the night and got up just as usual. The next morning there was no pain or complications.
Summary
After being stung by an Arizona Bark Scorpion, our 5 year old was in intense pain. Less than an hour later, we'd administered remedies we had on hand and he had little to no pain and was sleeping peacefully. I don't make any guarantees about how effective these were individually or collectively. I don't know how many times he was stung(scorpions can sting more than once) or how much venom was used.
Here is a list of what we used:
- Apis Mellifica 200c homeopathic (a few drops near the sting site)
- Hypericum Perforatum 200c homeopathic (on the tongue)
- Apple Cider Vinegar (poured near the sting site)
- Bentonite clay (near sting site. Left on for many hours)
- Frankincense Essential oil (near sting site. Very effective)
- Purify Essential oil (near sting site. very effective)
- blend of clay, comfrey and purify essential oil (applied near sting site and left on for many hours to continue drawing out any residual poison)
- Priesthood Blessing
- Plantain (didn't actually use this, but if I had it, I would have)
I'm really grateful for all the resources and friends that helped me know what tools to turn to when I needed them. I'm grateful we were able to effectively take care of this at home and hope that this may be helpful to someone else too.
that doubles as a diaper sprayer
= about $7
for conserving diapers a few times a day (and when we are lucky, making #2 easier to clean up) 
