Man Stung by Scorpion on Flight From Seattle

Komo News ^

[Drawsing]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon man got a big surprise on a commercial flight from Seattle to Anchorage, Alaska, when he was stung by a scorpion while sitting in his plane seat.

Jeff Ellis of West Linn said he was trying to sleep on a red-eye Alaska Airlines flight June 17 when he felt something in his sleeve and tried to brush it away. He said he felt the crawling again, looked down and saw the culprit.

"I picked my hand up and said, `Oh, my God. That's a scorpion,"' Ellis told KPTV.

[Drawsing]

"He got stung because he threatened it," Brooks said. "Had he used something else to get it off with or just calmly tried to move it onto something else, it probably wouldn't have stung him."

Cultural note: These stories always contain something to demonize the human and excuse the poor victimized animal.

[Tax-chick]

Something of which to be aware ...

[Larry Lucido]

Again? This is happening a lot lately. :-)

[Larry Lucido]

You can find the other two scorpion attacks here. Same flight too, apparently. :-)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=all;o=time;q=quick;s=scorpion

[FourPeas]

I don’t think it demonized the human. Rather it explains how to handle something like this — not to say it’s that easy. I was surprised by one crawling on me a few years ago. Without thinking I quickly brushed if off. I didn’t get stung, but I could have very easily.

[texas_mrs]

He would have still needed to kill it once he got it off, or it would have stung someone else. They hurt like hell. I got stung on the inside of my wrist once and the surface of my tongue went numb!

[Lazamataz]

I have had it with all these m********g scorpions on this m********g plane!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The scorpion's first sting is usually not poisonous, just a puncture with a small dose of water. The second is a doozy...

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Not to worry: no one has ever died from the bite of a scorpion.

[NavyCanDo]

The most natural thing is to swat at something you feel crawling on you. As natural as a horse swishing its tail at a horse fly. Yesterday I felt something crawling on the rim of my glasses and without even thinking my hand goes up and I swat at my $300 pair of glasses which flew to the passenger side of the car. Never did figure out what it was.

[dragonblustar]

Another reason not to fly.

[reed13]

I’ve heard the smaller ones are more lethal than the larger ones ... anyone know if there is truth to that?

[Pylon]

Got stung by a scorpion on the little toe at a hotel in Tulsa. Within 5 mins my little toe was bigger than my big toe. Hurt like F&$@!%#$!@^%$g heck.

[delacoert]

This is happening a lot lately.

Global warming. :p

[steveo]

Not to worry: no one has ever died from the bite of a scorpion.

Correct... it's the sting that will kill you.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We have little scorpions here in the Missouri Ozarks. I've been “tapped” a couple of times but only saw a small welt on my hand. We also have brown recluse spiders. I definitely want to avoid those...

[freedomlover]

Not to worry: no one has ever died from the bite of a scorpion.

---

Not sure if that is true or not. However I have been stung three times by them (little brown ones - in Georgia). The ones on the arm and hand hurt like h%ll, but the one on the EAR honestly made me want to die.

I would take 10 wasps or 20 yellow jacket stings before a scorpion sting. Honestly feels like a hot poker.

[Yaelle]

How did the scorpion get on with no boarding pass or ID?

[ken21]

yep, us humans are in the way of al gore’s ma earth.

[RainMan]

WA Ping