Bark scorpions such as this unfortunately live in the same place I do. Their sting is quite painful and can be quite dangerous to small children and those with allergies. They usually hunt at night but fluoresce under a black light and are thus easy to spot.
"You and your hobbies."
That's what I hear from friends as I recall my night battles to rid my yard of the ubiquitous desert bark scorpions. I hunt them at night with a battery-operated black light in one hand and an old rubber-soled moccasin in the other. (I call it the "Slipper of Mighty Slaying.") I also take a three inch wide putty knife with me to reach into hard to reach cracks.
Battling scorpions takes constant and consistent effort. They are predators and therefore don't reproduce and spread like scavenger bugs - ants or cockroaches for example. But because they predate, scorpions don't act like other bugs. I've seen them march right down the middle of the sidewalk, for example, claws held high, acting as if they own the entire world. "All this is mine for the taking," they seem to indicate, not bothering to scurry or hide like other bugs. They will travel long distances (for example, from the neighbor's back yard wall to inside my house) searching for other bugs to prey on.
That's not to say they aren't quick and won't defend themselves. That tail delivers a sharp, painful sting to anyone or anything that gets in their way. Only when confronted with superior force do they curl into a defensive ball or run full tilt (they are fast) back into the cracks of the cinder block fence where they live.
They are perfectly colored to camouflage themselves and can stand absolutely still for hours on end. They can go for months without food. Bark scorpions are highly resistant to bug spray and exterminators. They can flatten themselves paper thin, to slip into cracks or away from underneath a stomping shoe.
Yet, they do have a weakness. They fluoresce under a black light - glowing bright yellowish-green. They are also susceptible to getting squished under the stress of, say, a Slipper of Mighty Slaying, or to getting cut to pieces by a Putty Knife of Truth. (You have to hit them at an angle. They will merely flatten themselves if you attempt to swat them with a shoe, then laugh at you as they run merrily away.)
Understandably, I don't like them in the house. Hence, I spend time out at night with black light, slipper, and putty knife in hand, on endless patrols to keep the scorpions at bay. It's sort of relaxing in its own way, and quite cathartic.
Which brings me to my now two-and-a-half year-old blog where I've snarked and explained, complained and snarked some more against leftist ideology with its accompanying hedonism, nihilism, and singular attempts to rewrite the founding principles of the US in its own image.
Taking on leftist ideology is a lot like keeping the scorpions at bay, and for the same reasons. Leftist ideology is predatory, insidious, and carries a painful sting. Take my battling bark scorpions as an analogy to taking on leftist arguments, whether those arguments are based on socialism, statist ideals, identity politics, or even pipe-dream utopianism.
It takes constant effort. Yet we are helped along the way by such self-evident truths as the foundational principles of the US: inalienable rights versus invented rights; the rights of the individual versus the rights of the group; limited government versus the welfare state; market economy versus socialism.
Sure the sting of leftist backlash can be sharp and quite painful at times. Yet modern conservatism has the light of the foundational truths of liberal democracy to light the way and send the scorpions scurrying for cover.
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