Deathstalker Scorpion Attack - Gimme Shelter

Wes gives the boys a rundown on what may very well be the deadliest scorpion in the world, and how their search for a space place to hide from the rain led to hundreds of bites. Watch us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/43b25otqx4U ~ Hims - Ready to build a better sex life? Visit https://hims.com/tooth for a personalized plan—for sex, hair, weight loss and more. AquaOmega - AquaOmega: One of the highest-dose omega-3 supplements per serving, no fish burps, and for every bottle sold, removes 1 lb. of plastic and debris from the ocean and coastlines. Use code TOOTHANDCLAW for 20% off at https://myaquaomega.com/TOOTHANDCLAW. onX Backcountry - Click here https://www.onxmaps.com/purchase/backcountry/membership?promo=tooth&utm_source=tooth_and_claw&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=bc_comm_nosoc_%5Btooth_and_claw%5D and use promo code TOOTH to get 30% off a premium or Elite membership to onX Backcountry LMNT - Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT's most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/tooth. Nutrafol - Get $15 off your first month's subscription and free shipping at https://nutrafol.com with promo code TOOTH. Remi - Treat, don’t trick, your teeth this month and go to shopremi.com/TOOTH and use code TOOTH at checkout for 50% off with Remi Club. ~ To advertise on the show, contact us! Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/c/toothandclawpodcast ~~ Tooth & Claw is brought to you by QCODE. Support the show and get access to an extensive library of exclusive episodes like this by supporting the show on Patreon or joining the Grizzly Club on Apple Podcasts. For the latest updates on the show and all things wildlife, follow us at toothandclawpod.com and social: Instagram: @ToothandClawPodcast Twitter: @ToothandClawPod Wes: @GrizKid Jeff: @jefe_larson Mike: @mikey3ds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:43Speaker 00

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• 1:39Jeff Larson?

  Hello, everyone. Welcome back to an episode of Tooth and Claw Podcast. Don't forget, you can listen to us ad-free on Patreon. We have our wildlife biologist, Wes Larson, finally back with us.

• 1:52Speaker 00

  Finally back after a week. Yeah.

• 1:55Jeff Larson?

  You got your haircut?

• 1:57Speaker 00

  Got my haircut. It's short.

• 1:58Jeff Larson?

  Oh, my goodness. Wow.

• 2:00Speaker 00

  I, as I was sitting there, I was like, man, I never should have cut my long hair.

• 2:04Jeff Larson?

  G.I. Joe Wes.

• 2:05Speaker 00

  I guess.

• 2:06Mike Smith?

  Jarhead Jake Gyllenhaal.

• 2:08Jeff Larson?

  And then you got the other guys.

• 2:10Speaker 00

  The other two.

• 2:11Jeff Larson?

  Doesn't really matter. We got Wes.

• 2:13Speaker 00

  You got names, but no one needs to know them.

• 2:15Jeff Larson?

  Well, we got Wes Larson and then the other guys.

• 2:19Speaker 00

  World's wildest podcaster.

• 2:21Mike Smith?

  Whitest?

• 2:22Speaker 00

  Wildest.

• 2:24Jeff Larson?

  My podcast was world wildest.

• 2:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, but remember that thing that came out? What was it? Podcast review? You introduced me that way. You're making me feel dumb now.

• 2:34Jeff Larson?

  I forgot. I did have CT, so I forgot about that.

• 2:37Speaker 00

  It's all right.

• 2:38Mike Smith?

  Too much golf.

• 2:39Jeff Larson?

  Too much golf, dude. This 90-year-old was just drilling it. Good for him.

• 2:45Speaker 00

  Did he beat you?

• 2:47Jeff Larson?

  No. No. I played pretty well today.

• 2:49Mike Smith?

  Ooh, nice. Congrats, dude.

• 2:52Jeff Larson?

  Thanks.

• 2:54Speaker 00

  Way to represent Tooth and Claw out there.

• 2:55Jeff Larson?

  I was letting him know, too. Every hole, I'd be like, so I got a par, and then you counted that one little one you had, right?

• 3:07Speaker 00

  To be honest.

• 3:08Jeff Larson?

  That'd be a triple bogey, I think.

• 3:10Mike Smith?

  Golf probably like, come on, man. I've lived my whole, give me this one stroke. I'm 90. It's my last round.

• 3:15Speaker 00

  Golf already like really straddles the line for me of like whether or not it's fun or awful. And the thought of playing with a stranger for 18 holes or whatever just pushes me so far into the awful category that it's like not even a discussion for me.

• 3:32Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, well, you don't respect the elders the same way I do.

• 3:35Speaker 00

  For me, it's truly anyone. Like, I just don't want to have to make small talk with anyone.

• 3:40Jeff Larson?

  I don't, I don't make small talk.

• 3:42Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 3:43Jeff Larson?

  Well, I asked him straight to his face, 90 years old. I was like, so you have a lot of experience. What do you think of 9/11?

• 3:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm sure you did. I don't doubt that for a second. Yeah.

• 3:57Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, I'm turning a little bit, I'm turning into an old person. I called the marshal on the group ahead of us. They were slow. I'm like, I've been on guard all day here. We got a 90-year-old, and you guys are making us wait up every hole.

• 4:13Mike Smith?

  Speaking of slow people, what are we talking about today, Wes?

• 4:18Speaker 00

  That's actually an interesting question, Mike, because I'm gonna make you guys guess. I think 21 questions is too many because you guys know it's an animal, because we're an animal podcast. So that narrows it down quite a bit and kind of just the...

• 4:34Jeff Larson?

  That's a lot more than 21 animals.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  Well, you know, but like sometimes you have to do a lot of questions to get on animals.

• 4:41Jeff Larson?

  Well, if we have to guess the answer.

• 4:43Speaker 00

  You're getting 12 questions, Jeff, and each of you get six. And you, all you have to do is get to like the group of animals that we're gonna talk about.

• 4:51Jeff Larson?

  Is it a kangaroo?

• 4:52Speaker 00

  No, that's Jeff's first question. It's not a good way to start.

• 4:57Mike Smith?

  Wallaby?

• 4:58Speaker 00

  Let's just, let's take a quick break.

• 5:01Jeff Larson?

  What? That counts?

• 5:02Speaker 00

  Sure, it counts.

• 5:03Jeff Larson?

  He's right, isn't it?

• 5:04Speaker 00

  No, it's not. Try and get, try and narrow it down. Just play along with me for one second here.

• 5:09Jeff Larson?

  All right. Is it a type of bird?

• 5:12Speaker 00

  No. I'm starting back over. This is your first question.

• 5:16Jeff Larson?

  No, that was three.

• 5:17Speaker 00

  Mike, what's your first question?

• 5:19Jeff Larson?

  I won't play if you start it over.

• 5:21Mike Smith?

  Yeah, I'm boycotting.

• 5:22Speaker 00

  Okay, fine. You're, we're not starting over, but it's 14 questions.

• 5:26Jeff Larson?

  I'll get in 12.

• 5:27Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 5:28Jeff Larson?

  And I won't guess for 14.

• 5:30Speaker 00

  Okay, so it's not a bird.

• 5:32Mike Smith?

  How, is it bigger than a bread box?

• 5:34Speaker 00

  No.

• 5:35Mike Smith?

  Ask if it's smaller than a bread box, Jeff.

• 5:37Jeff Larson?

  Is it a spider?

• 5:39Speaker 00

  No.

• 5:40Mike Smith?

  Is it an insect?

• 5:44Speaker 00

  No.

• 5:45Jeff Larson?

  Does it have, yeah, it's gotta be like a scorpion or a centipede, or his eyes flicked up. Is it a scorpion?

• 5:52Speaker 00

  It's a scorpion.

• 5:56Speaker 00

  You didn't need all the questions.

• 5:57Mike Smith?

  Nice, Jeff.

• 6:00Speaker 00

  It is a scorpion. And there's, you know, this is a Halloween episode. It's our last of the season. They're getting a little harder.

• 6:07Jeff Larson?

  Is this spitting cobra? Or is it a spitting scorpion?

• 6:11Speaker 00

  It's not a spitting scorpion, but those do actually kind of exist, I think, which I just learned about a little. But uh, it is a Halloween episode. And I kind of feel like we have gone over a lot of the kind of animals that you would pick if someone said, do an animal episode during Halloween. And this is one that was a little bit more out in right field or left field. What do you say? I don't know. It's out there.

• 6:36Mike Smith?

  Centerfield, let's call it, just to...

• 6:38Speaker 00

  And I picked it really just because it has a name that feels very horror and Halloween related to me. So today we are talking about the death stalker scorpion.

• 6:49Mike Smith?

  Oh, that's cool.

• 6:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, this is a medium-sized scorpion from northern Africa and the Middle East, and it's often considered to be the most dangerous scorpion on our planet. I'm not gonna speak for other planets, because who knows? Can you guys think of any animal that has like a more horror-coded name than the death stalker scorpion?

• 7:09Mike Smith?

  Yeah, hellbender?

• 7:11Speaker 00

  Hellbender. That was one of the ones on my list. Yep.

• 7:13Mike Smith?

  Pumpkin crab?

• 7:14Speaker 00

  Jeff, you said one once that I'm gonna give you a hint to refresh your memory. It's a type of gecko. The satanic leaf-tailed gecko has a pretty, a pretty horror name.

• 7:26Mike Smith?

  Isn't there a Dracula parrot?

• 7:28Speaker 00

  There's a Dracula parrot. Nice job, Mike. You really got a lot of these.

• 7:31Jeff Larson?

  Vampire bat?

• 7:32Speaker 00

  Vampire bat, vampire squid, the bearded ghoul, which is a type of fish, the goblin shark, and the ghost bat are all ones that I think are in contention.

• 7:43Jeff Larson?

  Sperm whale.

• 7:43Mike Smith?

  Sperm is pretty, I don't like that stuff.

• 7:46Jeff Larson?

  Well, like, it's big as a whale?

• 7:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, that would be kind of horrific, huh? Big old sperm. All right. This episode's gonna be a little bit different from our typical episodes, and it's gonna feel maybe even like a little bit more like a subscription content, maybe a tiny bit more compact. And there's a reason for that. And that's because even though this scorpion is probably responsible for the highest number of medically significant scorpion stings, there are just not a lot of stories out there about people being stung. But there is a lot of really interesting information about these scorpions. So it's kind of gonna be the opposite, where lately I feel like I've been doing a lot of stories with not a ton of science. This one, we're gonna have quite a bit of science with not a lot of story. But it's really interesting

• 8:31Speaker 00

  stuff about these scorpions. So if you're here for the stories, I urge you to stick with us, because these are a cool critter. All right, Jeff, stay with us, even though I know you're just here for the stories.

• 8:43Jeff Larson?

  All right, put shanks in my seat and just leave.

• 8:48Speaker 00

  And, yeah, all right, okay.

• 8:50Jeff Larson?

  What?

• 8:50Speaker 00

  So we are gonna start off with a story, nothing. We are gonna start off with a story of sorts, and I'm gonna set the scene for you a little bit. We're gonna picture, so you guys, close your eyes and picture that you're an Egyptian, living in a small mountain village near the beautiful city of Aswan.

• 9:08Jeff Larson?

  What year?

• 9:09Speaker 00

  This is found 2021. The city is found in southern Egypt. It lies on the shores of the Nile. Aswan's famous for being one of the oldest continually habituated cities. It's often visited by tourists due to the beautiful pastel buildings, the large amount of ancient Egyptian ruins and temples and archaeological wonders, and the gorgeous Nile River.

• 9:31Jeff Larson?

  All right, what year did I time travel from?

• 9:35Speaker 00

  You time travel from this year back to 2021, and you're an Egyptian.

• 9:39Jeff Larson?

  Okay, man, I think I can handle that. If I tried and traveled from like, 2070 back to this time, I think that'd be crazy.

• 9:49Mike Smith?

  I'm gonna be Cleopatra. We're role playing, right? Is this like Dungeons and Dragons?

• 9:53Speaker 00

  It's not role playing. You're just, uh, you're living, let me set it up for you a little bit more, Mike. You can keep closing your eyes if you want, but you can also open them if you feel like it. On November 12th, 2021, you walk out of your modest mud brick home on the edge of your village not far from Aswan, and you look up at the sky. There's dark clouds forming. The wind is really starting to kick up. And storms aren't totally uncommon, so you really don't think much of it, until it starts to rain, which is really uncommon for this part of the world. They don't get much rain at all. I read somewhere it's like 10 millimeters a year in this part of Egypt. And this amount of rain that's coming down is unlike anything you have ever seen before.

• 10:36Speaker 00

  In an instant, it turns biblical. There's huge flash floods that are barreling through canyons, and then down the road in your village, the water is washing away some of your neighbors' homes, their possessions, and people are scrambling all over to find dry ground, to find safety, and to find more sturdy homes, including yours. So a few of your neighbors rush in the door.

• 10:58Jeff Larson?

  That's where it rained frogs too, biblically.

• 11:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, it did rain some frogs. And we're, you know, keep that plague mentality in your mind here, because this is gonna get real plaguey here in a second. A few of your neighbors even rush into your house. They're shaking, they're scared, and you all jump when a bright bolt of lightning and a huge crack of thunder rip through the air. So imagine you're just in your mud brick home. There's lightning, there's thunder, there's neighbors, there's floods. This all happened just out of nowhere.

• 11:29Mike Smith?

  Neighbors?

• 11:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, your neighbors are there, yeah.

• 11:32Mike Smith?

  Oh, no, not those guys.

• 11:34Jeff Larson?

  Washing into your house.

• 11:37Speaker 00

  What none of you realize at that moment is that people aren't the only ones scrambling to find safety from this sudden influx of water. Thousands and thousands of scorpions, many of them death stalker scorpions, are also searching for somewhere to stay dry and safe. And as you try to comfort your neighbors, you take the hand of an elderly woman who lives a few homes down from you, you don't notice several of these three inch long scorpions skittering under your door and hiding under the rug in your front room. You also don't see the five or six scorpions that have found their way through cracks in the bricks of the walls of your room, and one of them has already climbed the wooden legs of your bed,

• 12:19Speaker 00

  and it's tucked away safely in the dry, dark haven of your bed sheets.

• 12:23Jeff Larson?

  Yeah.

• 12:25Speaker 00

  That night, the rain slows, your neighbors go back to their homes to survey the damage, you say your goodbyes. You're really, really tired, and you're just get ready for bed. All you wanna do is lay down. As you turn off the lights. Yeah, that's pretty much every night for all three of us. As you turn off the lights and slip into your bed sheets, your life changes for the second time that day, when a much more figurative bolt of lightning shoots through your leg and erupts in a fiery, burning pain. You didn't even see this tiny scorpion as your leg pushed too close to its new hiding place, and now the pain it's caused is your whole world. All right, so this little scenario happened to 503 people

• 13:09Speaker 00

  in the Aswan region on November 12th, 2021.

• 13:13Mike Smith?

  Rest one bad region to be in.

• 13:15Speaker 00

  It is. Uh, it must have felt like a plague for these people, because they had, was that an, was that, it was like an Aswan?

• 13:24Mike Smith?

  Yeah, yeah, sorry.

• 13:25Speaker 00

  And I only know if I'm saying that right, um, Aswan, Aswan, I'm not sure, but that was great. Good job, Mike. You mentioned the biblical plagues a second ago, Jeff, and it must have felt like that, because they had a flood, and then suddenly their homes are just inundated by scorpions, and not just any scorpion, but the scorpion that's thought to be the most dangerous on earth, the death stalker.

• 13:47Jeff Larson?

  Young, young Jeff would be like, I did this with my, with my impure thoughts.

• 13:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, this is what I did. I shouldn't have done that.

• 13:58Mike Smith?

  Since I'm role playing as Cleopatra, I'm probably holding one up to my breast right now.

• 14:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:03Jeff Larson?

  A scorpion.

• 14:04Speaker 00

  You know what? I want you to pin that thought for a second, Mike.

• 14:08Mike Smith?

  Okay.

• 14:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, all right.

• 14:10Mike Smith?

  As long as you need me to.

• 14:12Speaker 00

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• 15:44Speaker 00

  So, death stalker scorpions. We're gonna learn a little bit about this tiny venomous land lobster. You guys can tell me if you think it's earned its horrific name and its reputation. So first of all, death stalker is just one of the common names for Laurus quinquestralis. Some of the other names include the Omdurman scorpion, the Nakab, Nakab desert scorpion, and the Palestine yellow scorpion. And I do wanna mention, those are the names I found in every source I looked through, including all the scientific literature and Wikipedia. But I do wanna point out that when someone in Israel gets stung by the scorpion, they call it the Israeli yellow scorpion instead of the Palestine desert scorpion.

• 16:29Speaker 00

  They're the only ones that do that. Uh, every other place calls it one of those other names that I mentioned earlier. Death stalker scorpion seems to be the most common.

• 16:38Mike Smith?

  It's the coolest one.

• 16:40Speaker 00

  It is a cool name. They're invertebrates, which means they don't have a backbone, no internal spinal column. Scorpions don't have any bones at all. They have a chitinous exoskeleton.

• 16:50Jeff Larson?

  So when someone says like, hey, you got no backbone?

• 16:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:54Jeff Larson?

  You can be like, yeah, I'm a scorpion, bitch.

• 16:56Mike Smith?

  Death stalker.

• 16:57Speaker 00

  They're cool, actually. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 17:02Speaker 00

  You could do that. This chitinous exoskeleton is what provides them with structure, with protection, though. So like, it almost serves as bone, but it's not the same thing. They are arachnids, which means they have eight legs, a cephalothorax, and an abdomen. Now, we've talked about the Arizona bark scorpion before, and they look really similar to that scorpion. They're yellow, they're about the same length. They do have some features that are very similar that we talked about being features that you can look at to kind of determine if the scorpion you're dealing with might be more venomous. And do you guys remember what those are?

• 17:39Mike Smith?

  Oh.

• 17:39Speaker 00

  I think we actually only talked about one of these on the Arizona bark scorpion episode, but I'm gonna bring up another one.

• 17:45Mike Smith?

  Remember.

• 17:47Speaker 00

  They're pincers. If they have really long, slender pincers, it means that they don't really need their pincers to, to like subdue prey, to kill things. They really rely on their venom. So the venom is often more potent when they have those really long, slender pincers. And if they have the really big, thick ones, like those big black emperor scorpions, they're really using them to kill everything and not so much their venom. So it's kind of the trade off. And then the other thing is with these kind of scorpions, the really highly venomous ones, they often have a really thick bulb right by their stinger. So that last little segment on their tail is gonna be pretty thick and pronounced.

• 18:24Mike Smith?

  Cool.

• 18:25Jeff Larson?

  And they glow in the dark.

• 18:26Speaker 00

  They do glow in the dark. Yeah, they, under a UV light, you can't, they do glow. They reflect UV light, which is a really cool thing. Um, something I don't remember if we talked about on the other episode, I don't think we did. Those pincers are really important sensing organs for the scorpion. They have tiny hairs and bristles on those pincers, and they can detect air currents, textures, and vibrations. And then they also have these little slit organs on their, um, pincers in their legs that can pick up vibrations as well. So in a way, like-

• 18:56Jeff Larson?

  I feel like I can do most of that with my hands.

• 19:00Speaker 00

  You can pick up-

• 19:00Jeff Larson?

  Air currents, for sure.

• 19:02Speaker 00

  Vibrations.

• 19:04Jeff Larson?

  Vibrations if I'm touching the ground.

• 19:06Speaker 00

  Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You know, I do think to an extent, we can pick up all of these same sensory things, but not at the level that these scorpions are.

• 19:16Jeff Larson?

  They're dialed in.

• 19:17Speaker 00

  Essentially, all of their feet and their pincers are, are acting like ears for them. Um, now, you might ask, what about their nose?

• 19:29Mike Smith?

  What about their nose?

• 19:30Speaker 00

  Thank you, Mike. I'm glad you asked. Their nose is pretty much on their undercarriage, and it's called a pectine. Uh, if you flip a scorpion over, you see this feathery comb-like structure right behind its legs. It looks like, like a feather almost. Uh, and each of the combs, like the teeth on this comb are covered in tiny sensors called peg cincilla. And as a scorpion scuttles along on the ground, that feathery part is actually brushing the ground and picking up any kind of chemical signatures that might be there. So they're, this is acting like their taste and their smell. Uh, and they're highly sensitive to anything that might be on the ground, which I think is really cool.

• 20:10Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 20:10Speaker 00

  I think we as humans just think of like nose and mouth as taste and smell. And this, the scorpion has this feathery appendage that touches the ground and acts as its taste and smell, which is really cool.

• 20:22Mike Smith?

  Seems like if you had a big enough one, they might be a pretty good Roomba.

• 20:26Speaker 00

  Uh huh.

• 20:27Mike Smith?

  Gonna sweep your floor for you.

• 20:28Speaker 00

  You guys are, you guys are dialed in, cuz I was gonna mention-

• 20:32Jeff Larson?

  Covid probably makes them really lost.

• 20:34Speaker 00

  Why?

• 20:34Jeff Larson?

  Cuz they can't taste.

• 20:37Speaker 00

  The Roomba thing, Mike, I, I really actually like that comparison, because I do think when you think about animals like this, where they're not experiencing the world the same way as us, they are kind of just like sensors. There are these little walking sensors that are just navigating based on cues. And it is kind of like a Roomba, or like a autonomous car, or something like that, where they're just relying on all these different sensory inputs, and just kind of looking for prey, or looking for mates, or safety. But what about eyes, you might ask?

• 21:12Mike Smith?

  What about eyes, Wes?

• 21:14Speaker 00

  Thanks, Mike. I'm glad you asked. Deathstalker scorpions have one pair of eyes on the top of their head, and then two to five pairs of eyes on the side, which I thought was really interesting. Everything I read said two to five. So I think even among individual scorpions, there's a difference in how many eyes they might have.

• 21:33Mike Smith?

  Of the same species?

• 21:34Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 21:35Mike Smith?

  Oh, weird.

• 21:36Speaker 00

  Um, yeah, which I think is really interesting, and I don't fully understand. I tried to look into it a little bit, and that's kind of what I ended on, is that they can have difference amounts, different amounts of eyes. Uh, I think the 12 is the most common number for these scorpions, though. And their eyes are pretty basic and thought to be kind of the last sense they use when they capture prey. Uh, they really probably only detect light, dark, and movement, but they are useful for grabbing prey in like that last moment. But that being said, those eyes on top, there's two eyes on top. And some biologists think that they have a 360 degree view, and that those two eyes are incredibly light sensitive,

• 22:18Speaker 00

  maybe the, like, some of the most light sensitive eyes in the whole animal kingdom, and that they are experiencing the stars on like a different level, and maybe even using the stars to navigate. And I really like that idea, that like a little scorpion might be experiencing like the cosmos at a much higher level than we can ever understand or comprehend. I think that's really cool.

• 22:44Mike Smith?

  That's awesome. That's really cool. Ever since I got Lasik, I get really bad light bloom at night.

• 22:49Speaker 00

  Uh huh.

• 22:50Mike Smith?

  So the starry night sky has just been completely ruined for me.

• 22:53Jeff Larson?

  Oh, really? You really do?

• 22:55Mike Smith?

  Huh. Uh huh. It's like really, the, the sky, under a really starry night sky, it's kind of just a blanket of light, almost.

• 23:02Speaker 00

  Has it been that way since you got it, or did it happen recently?

• 23:05Mike Smith?

  Basically, since I got it.

• 23:07Speaker 00

  Cuz I worry about that.

• 23:09Mike Smith?

  Okay. And I'm like, doggone. Every time the stars are out, I say, doggone.

• 23:13Speaker 00

  Doggone.

• 23:16Mike Smith?

  Usually more than once.

• 23:18Jeff Larson?

  It's tough, too, because like, that's a hard thing to describe to you. Like, if we're out looking at the stars, and you're like, can you describe it?

• 23:26Speaker 00

  You probably don't even remember what they look like anymore.

• 23:29Mike Smith?

  Yeah. I can't remember the taste of strawberries and cream, though. I do have Frodo beet on that one.

• 23:36Speaker 00

  Well, if you didn't already wish you were a scorpion, Mike, you're about to. And I hope you guys have like some cold water, or some fans, or something nearby, cuz things are about to get hot.

• 23:48Mike Smith?

  Do you know what's kind of ironic is the drummer for the band, The Scorpions, only has one arm, and scorpions usually have many more than that.

• 23:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:57Mike Smith?

  Shout out that guy, though. One-armed drummer is pretty sick.

• 24:00Speaker 00

  Isn't that Def Leppard? I thought that was-

• 24:02Mike Smith?

  Oh, I'm so wrong. That is Def Leppard.

• 24:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's all right.

• 24:05Jeff Larson?

  Leopards have four arms, so I guess it's still ironic.

• 24:09Speaker 00

  Not quite as cool.

• 24:10Mike Smith?

  I think leopards have zero arms, right? It's four legs. So the drummer's got him beat.

• 24:15Speaker 00

  Four legs, and yeah, you're right.

• 24:17Mike Smith?

  So he's lucky, in a sense, right? That he even has one.

• 24:20Jeff Larson?

  For a leopard?

• 24:21Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 24:22Jeff Larson?

  He's not deaf or-

• 24:24Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 24:24Jeff Larson?

  Armless.

• 24:27Mike Smith?

  Yeah. What a poor description. Def Leppard's such a bad name for that band.

• 24:32Speaker 00

  It is a bad name.

• 24:33Jeff Larson?

  Oh, Wes, why are we gonna get hot?

• 24:36Speaker 00

  Cuz we're gonna talk about these scorpions boning. We probably shouldn't even say boning, cuz they don't have any bones.

• 24:42Jeff Larson?

  Exoskeleton.

• 24:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:44Mike Smith?

  Chitneying?

• 24:45Speaker 00

  Yeah. So, those feathery combs that we talked about on their ventral side, on their stomach, they're gonna use those to detect pheromones from potential mates. And then they follow that pheromone trail until they encounter another deathstalker scorpion of the opposite sex. And that's when things get a little dangerous for the male specifically, which we also know is hot.

• 25:08Jeff Larson?

  Hmm.

• 25:09Speaker 00

  Right?

• 25:10Mike Smith?

  Agreed.

• 25:11Speaker 00

  So, what they do is they lock pincers, and they start to do a little dance across the sand. This dance is commonly referred to as a promenade adieu, and they may do this dance for minutes or even hours. And they have these locked pincers that may assist with synchronization in this dance, but it's also probably just a strategy for the male to control the female's pincers to make sure she doesn't kill and eat him before they mate.

• 25:38Jeff Larson?

  Wes, you can relate to that.

• 25:40Speaker 00

  Oh, boy. Yeah. Do I just ever have to hold those hands so they don't kill me, you know? That's what makes it fun, though. So they dance until the male finds the right spot to blow his load, so to speak. And basically, he's looking for-

• 25:59Jeff Larson?

  Is that the scientific?

• 26:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  Uh, basically what he's looking for is like a harder, flat spot in the sand. And that load is actually called a spermataphore. And after he finds the right spot, he deposits the spermataphore. And then because they're still locked together, he maneuvers the female into the right position. So that her genital operculum is right over the spermataphore. And she just, she slurps it right up into her operculum.

• 26:31Mike Smith?

  Really?

• 26:32Speaker 00

  Slurp probably isn't the right word there.

• 26:34Mike Smith?

  Oh, yeah.

• 26:35Speaker 00

  She essentially picks it up with her sex organ and then she is inseminated.

• 26:40Mike Smith?

  So is that being guided by the male part of the mating ritual? Or is this kind of a thing where she doesn't necessarily want this to be happening? Or what's that all about?

• 26:51Speaker 00

  I think it's, I think it's kind of two part in that he doesn't want her to eat him. And she probably will if he doesn't stop her. Um, and even if she wants to mate or whatever, I think maybe that urge to, to perdate is overwhelming. And then the other thing is that he has to deposit his spermataphore first. And so I think that's why it's maybe being guided by him as he, you know, has to do that first step. You know, the foreplay, you might say, but it's not foreplay. Um, but you know, you have to wonder if like teenage male scorpions just have like a bunch of those spermataphores in like tiny socks everywhere.

• 27:35Speaker 00

  You know, cause scorpions would have a lot of socks.

• 27:39Mike Smith?

  Yeah, I'm gonna avoid stepping on any of those flat sandy spots outside.

• 27:44Speaker 00

  They're just, yeah, they're just looking at internet images of like hard, flat sandy spots. Oh, yeah.

• 27:51Jeff Larson?

  It's kind of cute too. They probably just think they're like holding hands.

• 27:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, that is true. That is in dancing. Yeah. All right. Um, all right. Well, after mating, the two unlock their pincers. And if the male doesn't get away fast enough, the female will kill and eat him. She gives live birth to scorpions and she can have as many as a couple dozen. Or she can have as few as a couple dozen to as many as 87. And then we talked about this in our other scorpion episode, but the little baby scorpions will get on her back when they're brand new. And they ride. Yeah. They're like, all right, let's ride.

• 28:27Mike Smith?

  I love that.

• 28:28Speaker 00

  Uh, and they do that until their second molt and then they leave. And they're kind of translucent, pale looking when, but they look like little tiny scorpions.

• 28:36Mike Smith?

  I hope they do the regulators, mount up the Warren G, get on the back of their mom.

• 28:42Speaker 00

  The last, that's the job of the last one to come out.

• 28:45Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, it is. It is funny to think of all of that in human terms. Just like you hold both hand, you hold hands until you just go and then you guide her into it. And then you run away as fast as you can.

• 29:02Speaker 00

  You dance for two hours until you can't hold it anymore. Yeah.

• 29:07Mike Smith?

  I know that sometimes it's overstated how often the female will try and consume the male partner in these sorts of sexual encounters. Is it higher than usual with these scorpions?

• 29:19Speaker 00

  I don't think so. I, okay. There were certain sources I saw where they made it seem like this is a struggle for life or of life and death for the male. And then there's other ones that didn't even mention it. So I, okay. I would guess it's somewhere in the middle with arachnids though, I do think it is somewhat common. Cause the males are almost always a little bit smaller, sometimes significantly smaller. And, um, yeah, and the females will eat them, but.

• 29:45Jeff Larson?

  Well, like if she's having 70 kids, it's like, their population numbers are going to be fine to kill a few guys after sex.

• 29:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 29:56Speaker 00

  All right. So let's talk a bit about the venom, cause this is, I think where it gets really interesting with the scorpion. As I mentioned, stories with a narrative are really hard to find for these scorpions. And I think part of that's because they're found in a part of the world where their stings are just kind of a way of life. So it doesn't really even make the news. And then the stings often happen in these really remote places too, where there isn't a lot of reporting. What there is a lot of is medical papers to talk about their stings and how they were treated and the complications. And in those papers, there are a lot of dead children. I don't know why I laughed a little bit right before I said that, but I think it's cause I saw that in my notes and I was like, oh, you really wrote that.

• 30:38Speaker 00

  Um, as we mentioned before, there are about 1.5 million scorpion stings reported each year. About 2,600 to 3,000 deaths globally each year from scorpion stings. And it's likely that a good chunk of them come from death stalker scorpions. Another big chunk of them come from that scorpion. We pulled away from Leia's head in Brazil. The Brazilian yellow scorpion kills a fair number of people too. Man, yeah. Deaths in adults are very rare unless the victim is elderly or has some underlying condition that leads to systemic issues when they're envenomated. Kids do die from these scorpions at a higher rate.

• 31:20Speaker 00

  And what I read is that left untreated, death stalker stings have about a 20% mortality rate in babies and infants. And about a 10% mortality rate in kids up to age 13, which is like, that's substantial. That's 20% for a baby that gets stung is pretty one in five, you know, that's pretty crazy.

• 31:38Jeff Larson?

  Yeah. 200 billion out of a trillion.

• 31:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, it'd be 200 billion out of a trillion, which is a lot. 200 billion is a lot. Yeah.

• 31:47Mike Smith?

  Jeez, you're right.

• 31:48Speaker 00

  All right. As far as scorpions go, they have one of the most potent, if not the most potent venom out there. And their venom is a complicated cocktail of a few different neurotoxins, peptides and enzymes.

• 32:05Mike Smith?

  Oh, man. So stupid. Oh, it's so stupid.

• 32:15Mike Smith?

  Whew. All right.

• 32:19Jeff Larson?

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• 33:04Jeff Larson?

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• 33:44Speaker 00

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• 34:28Speaker 00

  They stay engaged until help arrives. No matter where you go, you're going to have rescue coverage that follows. There's no reimbursement process, no surprise rescue bills. And then the base app too is just so cool. There's LiDAR based topo maps. They give true to life elevation and terrain detail for hiking, skiing, mountain biking or climbing. There's just so many different layers to explore in Onyx Backcountry. You can see who owns what property. You can see where there's trails. You can see where there's wildfires. There's so many different things you can see. A really cool one is you can even see where the cell signal might drop off. So it's just really, everything is in this app for people that are looking for a really good backcountry GPS mapping app.

• 35:10Speaker 00

  So use the promo code tooth to get 30% off a premium or elite membership to Onyx Backcountry. That's promo code tooth to get 30% off. All right. Now, whenever we talk about venom, there's gonna be some more complicated technical anatomy stuff, and it can get kind of hard to understand. So I'm gonna do my best to make this as palatable as possible, and we're gonna use our Egyptian stand-in, our guy that was stung in his bed, to illustrate this venom and how it would do its job. So first of all, before we get into this, these scorpions can deliver a dry sting, but for our story, we're gonna assume that the victim gets its full load of venom, which would be about 0.23 milligrams of venom, which is about as much as a grain of salt. Actually, it's less than a grain

• 35:55Speaker 00

  of salt. It's about a third of what a grain of salt would be. No, so it's not much venom at all, and it's pretty crazy to see what it can do to your body, considering how little volume we're talking about.

• 36:07Mike Smith?

  It's not, probably not a great substitute for electrolyte drink mix, though.

• 36:12Speaker 00

  No, I don't think so. Yeah.

• 36:14Mike Smith?

  Quite enough salt, so stop doing that, anyone who thinks.

• 36:16Jeff Larson?

  No dodgy ingredients.

• 36:17Speaker 00

  Someone, yeah, no Death Stalker scorpion venom, which we're gonna talk about as maybe one of the most valuable substances in the world.

• 36:27Jeff Larson?

  Really?

• 36:27Speaker 00

  Besides, besides that stuff in those whales' brains.

• 36:30Jeff Larson?

  We should be milking those suckers. That's why I keep saying.

• 36:34Speaker 00

  Well, we'll talk about that, too.

• 36:36Jeff Larson?

  Fort Knox is just full of scorpions a few years from now.

• 36:40Mike Smith?

  Nicholas Cage is gonna steal it all.

• 36:42Speaker 00

  We're gonna, we're gonna talk about why that's a bad idea.

• 36:44Jeff Larson?

  Well, let's talk about it.

• 36:46Speaker 00

  Uh, no, we're gonna wait a second. Uh, the first thing our victim feels when he's stung is a burning shock of almost unbearable pain. People describe it as feeling like a high voltage wire is inside and is alive inside of you, or lava's running through your veins. This is happening because the main thing that this venom does, and this is the thing to keep in your mind, is it's like main function, is it disrupts the natural channels that you have in your body, and the main one that it does as a neurotoxin is disrupting your nerves. So your nerves have these sodium gates that when you're injured, they flick open and close, and that allows these neurotransmitters to get sent to your brain to tell your brain, hey,

• 37:30Speaker 00

  you know, pain, like pain is happening, and your brain makes you feel pain. And that's what makes you pull away from like a hot thing, or you know, your brain's, you're protecting your body with that pain.

• 37:42Jeff Larson?

  You should do, like, hot ones with scorpions. You get like celebrities on and you just get stung by a worse scorpion every time?

• 37:50Speaker 00

  Yeah. Coyote, if you're listening.

• 37:52Jeff Larson?

  And then you just like, get stung by a really bad scorpion, and you're like, so. And Fast and Furious, you, you couldn't drive before you started it, right?

• 38:05Speaker 00

  And then just go into pulmonary edema. Uh, no, I, I will say there is not that many videos out there of those influencers being stung by these kind of scorpions, because it is.

• 38:17Jeff Larson?

  There's a market.

• 38:18Speaker 00

  Not a good thing. Okay. So basically, those nerves are held open. So instead of like flicking open and flicking close to send that shortened pain symbol to your, or signal to your brain, this venom holds them open, and they're just sending constant messages to your brain. They're constantly firing and sending a non-stop message to your brain that your brain reads as continuous screaming pain. So that's what you feel. And during this portion, people often feel waves of electric-like pain, and then sometimes numbness and burning, too. But it just sounds awful.

• 38:54Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, that's terrible.

• 38:56Speaker 00

  And once the venom's in your bloodstream, the different peptides and enzymes go to work, and they also completely disrupt the way that your nerve cell work, and they prevent the cells from repairing themselves. So when this is all happening to a body, and it's like having all this crazy neurotransmission and pain and all of that, your brain is trying to fix it. And if it can't fix it by sending these little fixers to your nerve cells, what it's gonna do is try and fix it with like your adrenaline and with your fight or flight response. And because it doesn't really know how to handle this, it reacts in what's called an autonomic storm. And basically, what that means is that you have kind of like a gas pedal

• 39:40Speaker 00

  and a brake pedal for your adrenaline system, and it's just slamming on both of them. So your body just gets flooded with everything that it's doing to try and stop like, like fight or flight. And this leads to, it leads to a lot of adrenaline and norepinephrine in your body, and a lot of crazy symptoms. So this is where people start getting uncontrolled muscle contractions, spasms, salivation, diarrhea. Mike, that's a good one. Preapism, Mike, that's a good one.

• 40:10Mike Smith?

  I do like preapisming.

• 40:12Speaker 00

  That's when you got an uncontrolled boner that you can't get rid of.

• 40:15Jeff Larson?

  It gives you that sometimes, huh?

• 40:16Speaker 00

  That can happen with these guys. Sweating, vomiting, issues with eyesight, and even paralysis. And again, this is just your body's reaction to the venom. This isn't the venom doing this. It's your body trying to like react to the venom's effect. Your heart rate and your blood pressure might go way up at this point, too. Now, this is where people that might have underlying issues.

• 40:40Jeff Larson?

  Might die.

• 40:41Speaker 00

  Might have systemic effects. So old people or people with underlying issues or kids.

• 40:45Mike Smith?

  Oh, that guy you were golfing with, Jeff.

• 40:47Speaker 00

  The guy, oh, that dude.

• 40:49Jeff Larson?

  He was, he was doing pretty good, though. I don't know.

• 40:52Speaker 00

  Oh, he's got some high blood pressure, I'm sure.

• 40:55Jeff Larson?

  He didn't look a day over eighty-five.

• 41:00Speaker 00

  But basically, what happens here is because of these non-stop signals, a lot of the blood vessels in your body are kind of clamping shut. And the heart is trying to pump blood, but the blood doesn't really have anywhere to go. So instead of it going into the body and the vessels, it goes back into the heart, and then the heart dumps it into the lungs, and that can lead to an excess of fluid in the lungs, and that can lead to pulmonary edema. And also, because there isn't enough blood going into the body, that can lead to cardiogenic shock, which is just essentially your body isn't getting enough blood, organs start to shut down, and pulmonary edema is literally like your bloods are full of liquid, or your lungs are full of liquid. Both of those conditions can be fatal. They're both

• 41:44Speaker 00

  extremely serious conditions, and they're just a couple of the few conditions that scorpion venom can lead to in kids and people that have a systemic reaction. So they can kill you, but it is usually because.

• 41:57Jeff Larson?

  Car wrecked you?

• 41:59Speaker 00

  It could cause a car wreck. If you're driving and you.

• 42:01Mike Smith?

  Swerve to get out of the way of one.

• 42:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:04Jeff Larson?

  Yeah. Or if you get stung and then start driving after.

• 42:08Speaker 00

  Yeah. It also could, or you run one over and you slip, and your car spins out.

• 42:13Mike Smith?

  Yeah, slip like a banana peel. Yeah. Or it's, uh, tail pops your tire.

• 42:19Speaker 00

  Yeah. All of those are other ways that this scorpion could potentially kill you. Uh, but I do just want to stress that this is generally not an animal that kills a healthy adult human. And the other thing that I wanted to stress is it's not the venom itself. Like, it is not this, you know, less than a grain of sugar amount of venom that's somehow like burning through your body. It's the body's overwhelming, overwhelming response to try and fight the venom that's actually going to kill you.

• 42:52Mike Smith?

  So it is kind of.

• 42:54Speaker 00

  It is, like, right, but I'm saying it's not the actual, like, the venom itself isn't causing, it is, you're right. I get what you're saying. It is the venom.

• 43:04Mike Smith?

  I got you, dude. I got you. Oh, man.

• 43:06Speaker 00

  It's secondary, you know? It's not like the venom isn't directly responsible for it, even though it is. So you did get me.

• 43:15Jeff Larson?

  If a scorpion crawls over the nuke button.

• 43:18Mike Smith?

  Oh, gosh. And you like to try to hit it with a fly swatter, and you hit the button instead.

• 43:24Speaker 00

  We'd have to bump up those numbers. Yeah. Uh, there's a lot of different ways that these guys could kill people. Um, all right, Mike, take that pin out, because we're gonna get into the thing that you had pinned. So Bedouin people, which is kind of a catch-all term for nomadic peoples that live in the desert, uh, this, in this part of the world.

• 43:45Jeff Larson?

  What are they called in Star Wars?

• 43:48Speaker 00

  Uh, in Star Wars, they're the, uh, oh, the ones that he kills. Tusken Raiders, sand people. Yep. And I do think he based them off of those people back when.

• 44:01Speaker 00

  Oh, George. Yeah. All right. Well, these people, though, who are not Tuscan Raiders or San people, they have a very rich, beautiful culture. They deal with these scorpions pretty much constantly, and they have some really unique traditions for trying to create immunity to their stings. One of them, Mike, that I only found in a couple places, and I think is pretty outdated. I don't think people really do this anymore. They would dry and crush up a scorpion and then rub it on their boob when they're breastfeeding. And the idea was that the kid would get some of that scorpion venom and that would maybe, you know, create some immunity. So the boob, the ass to the boob wasn't that far off.

• 44:44Mike Smith?

  That's weird.

• 44:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:46Mike Smith?

  I mean, is there any kind of scientific reality where that makes sense to you?

• 44:51Speaker 00

  No. So we're going to talk about the other couple real quick, and then we'll talk about that. Another one is they would dry and crush scorpions again and make a bit of a powder and then put it either in like coffee or milk and give that to to young children and newborns. And then another one I read is that they would be dried again and crushed and then mixed with oil, like olive oil, and rubbed on the skin of newborns. And all of these tactics were to give people immunity as they grew up to not, you know, react to death stock or scorpion stings.

• 45:23Mike Smith?

  Would ingesting?

• 45:24Speaker 00

  Go ahead.

• 45:25Mike Smith?

  Sorry, I interrupted, but would ingesting or getting that substance rubbed on you cause damage or pain even?

• 45:32Speaker 00

  No. So that's the thing. And that's, again, you know, we've talked about this a lot. This is like one of our mantras. Venom is injected, poison is ingested, and this is venom. So it really wouldn't have an effect if you ingest it. It might make like give you a stomach ache or something, but I don't think your body would react to it in a way that it could ever build any kind of immunity to it. That being said, these are cultures that have histories that go back much further than our understanding. And I don't want to dismiss their beliefs or their, you know, their practices. But like from a scientific view, it doesn't seem like these things would be effective.

• 46:13Speaker 00

  All right. Our guy in Egypt survives. In fact, all 503 people that were stung by these scorpions survive. The news initially reported three deaths from them, but it was actually three military people who live wire fell into the water they were standing in and they were electrocuted to death. So it was not scorpions.

• 46:34Speaker 00

  I did find a lot of articles in medical journals that had stories of people being stung, but they were always just a few sentences long. And it was just like a child in blank place was stung by a scorpion and taken to the hospital. You know, or there was a US military member that was stung in Iraq. But the journal just said like all the procedures they did to keep her alive. It didn't really talk about the story at all.

• 46:56Jeff Larson?

  And you don't think the scorpions clipped the electric wire with their claws?

• 47:02Speaker 00

  I did forget to mention that that is another way they can kill us.

• 47:08Speaker 00

  Oh, man, we do have to go back and change that probably. I put it, put an asterisk on those three deaths. We don't know. Yeah.

• 47:17Speaker 00

  So if anyone out there does ever get stung by one of these or knows someone that has been stung by one of them, and there's a story. I would love to hear it. Feel free to send it, because they're really disheartening.

• 47:28Jeff Larson?

  Well, I know someone.

• 47:30Speaker 00

  Oh, you do?

• 47:30Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, I do. Ian has a friend in South Africa.

• 47:34Speaker 00

  They're not in South Africa.

• 47:36Jeff Larson?

  I guess that would be different.

• 47:38Speaker 00

  And Ian was stung down there, but it was a different species again.

• 47:41Jeff Larson?

  He was saying it's the worst scorpion his friend got stung by, and his friend got spat in the face by a spitting cobra.

• 47:50Speaker 00

  There, there

• 47:51Mike Smith?

  disrespectful.

• 47:52Speaker 00

  Is some debate over like what the worst scorpion is. There's another one in India that some people think is worse. But I think the combo of this scorpion having such potent toxic venom and then also being like pretty willing to sting, like this is a scorpion that doesn't really hold back, is why they often get this this title being the world's most dangerous. So.

• 48:16Jeff Larson?

  And the name.

• 48:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, and death stalker. Okay, but even though there aren't that many stories of stings, there is a story about their venom that's playing out in real time that I wanted to tell you guys, because I think it's really fascinating. One of these toxins in their venom is called chlorotoxin. It's a peptide that's comprised of 36 amino acids, and it works by blocking chloride channels in cells. And it's probably mostly used for causing paralysis in prey. So if they catch like an earthworm or a cricket or whatever else, this is maybe the thing in their venom that's causing paralysis in that animal. Well, somewhere along the line, medical researchers realized

• 48:59Speaker 00

  that scorpion derived chlorotoxin, this one little bit of their venom, could be used to fight brain tumors. So there's this type of brain tumor that's called a glioma, and it's really tricky because it kind of looks like brain tissue and then it has these really deep roots that will go into your brain. And so surgeons always really struggled with this type of brain tumor. Because if they were too aggressive, they could cut out a lot of brain tissue. And if they're too cautious, they don't get these roots. And it's really tricky to see them and find them. And so they just, it was a really, really hard tumor to operate on and a really hard one to isolate. They just like didn't know what to do with them.

• 49:41Speaker 00

  This chlorotoxin in scorpion venom doesn't bind to human brain tissue, but it's an absolute magnet for these gliomas. So what these medical researchers did, they figured that out, like at some point they injected scorpion venom into brain tissue. And they saw it just like glob onto this tumor. And so now what they're doing is they add fluorescent molecules to that chlorotoxin. And then they inject it and then they can light it up. So once it's like on the tumor, they can light up the tumor, light up the roots, light up the entire thing. And then it's really easy to find and cut out effectively.

• 50:24Mike Smith?

  That's incredible.

• 50:25Speaker 00

  Isn't that cool?

• 50:26Mike Smith?

  So cool.

• 50:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:28Mike Smith?

  Man.

• 50:28Speaker 00

  So they're also figuring out ways to like attach radiation to the chlorotoxin so that it will kill the tumor on its own. It's just like this really interesting breakthrough in the way that they're fighting this specific kind of tumor. And I just think it's amazing that it comes from a little scorpion in the desert.

• 50:47Mike Smith?

  You see what the difference a couple of molecules can make, Jeff?

• 50:51Speaker 00

  Couple of molecules makes the whole difference. Yep.

• 50:56Speaker 00

  All right. Our last really interesting thing about them, and this is

• 51:00Jeff Larson?

  Didn't you invest in like scorpion venom when you were in college?

• 51:04Speaker 00

  It was something else. I think it was cobra venom. There's someone using cobra venom.

• 51:10Jeff Larson?

  You almost had it.

• 51:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, they're using cobra venom to fight cancer. I know. And I bought stock in the company. All right. So this is the last thing, and Jeff, this is the thing you kind of had pinned. Their venom can be used to make antivenom, but you need larger quantities to do that. And they produce such a small amount. And between like using it for antivenom and medical research, scorpion venom is often reported to be the most valuable liquid in the world. And in 2019, a Stanford chemist said that a gallon of it would cost $39 million.

• 51:46Speaker 00

  Yeah. But this isn't true.

• 51:48Jeff Larson?

  Gas prices right now.

• 51:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. He was over, he was oversimplifying.

• 51:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:00Jeff Larson?

  We should get cars to run on scorpion venom instead.

• 52:07Speaker 00

  This guy didn't really go into the thing that makes it actually much less valuable, though. And that it's that there really isn't a market for that much scorpion venom. And that the antivenom market, which does use larger quantities, they're not willing to pay that much for scorpion venom. And then the medical research people will only get it from like the best labs. And they need very small quantities of it. So there's really not a market for like gallons and gallons of scorpion venom.

• 52:37Jeff Larson?

  Make its value less than what you said it is?

• 52:40Speaker 00

  It is less. That's what I'm saying. This guy

• 52:42Jeff Larson?

  So you tricked us.

• 52:43Speaker 00

  This was all in the news for a while. And but the thing is, the crazy thing is that number got out. And people heard that number. And especially, yeah, in like Egypt and some of some of these places in the Middle East. There was a lot of like back alley scorpion milking operations that that popped up out of nowhere. And they're not hard to like breed and keep. Like you give them crickets and a safe place to hide. Like they'll, they'll like be pretty happy and they'll breed and stuff. But these places that were buying scorpion venom for antivenom and stuff started noticing they were getting really poor quality venom that had like dirt in it and all sorts of other things in it.

• 53:24Speaker 00

  And it's bad because that dilutes like the product that makes it look less effective. So it's not a good thing that these kind of back alley, yeah, hustlers have started doing this. Yeah. Yeah. And there was one guy that does it on the up and up. And he was like, listen, if it was worth that much, I'd be driving a Ferrari, not a Ford Bronco. So he was like, it's not.

• 53:46Mike Smith?

  Bronco's pretty nice.

• 53:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's not bad.

• 53:47Mike Smith?

  Just ask OJ.

• 53:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's true. I do like a Bronco.

• 53:50Jeff Larson?

  Can't. Rest in peace.

• 53:52Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. Did OJ die?

• 53:54Jeff Larson?

  Yeah.

• 53:55Mike Smith?

  A while ago, right?

• 53:55Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, he did, didn't he?

• 53:57Jeff Larson?

  But something just, he's back in the news. Someone just like, it just came out that someone helped him or something and

• 54:04Speaker 00

  It might have been a scorpion.

• 54:07Mike Smith?

  That's a good point.

• 54:09Speaker 00

  That's another way they kill people.

• 54:12Jeff Larson?

  It turned out he did it.

• 54:13Speaker 00

  It's a jealous rage. Yeah.

• 54:17Speaker 00

  All right. Well, that's what I have for the Death Stalker Scorpion. Really interesting little critter and I, I just really liked learning about him. It's been a fun couple of days getting to know them a little bit better.

• 54:29Mike Smith?

  I had fun learning about them from what you learned about them.

• 54:32Speaker 00

  Good. That's the whole point of this show.

• 54:34Jeff Larson?

  Transfer information from what you read to us and now we can help do that to the whole world.

• 54:43Speaker 00

  Yeah, right. That's our, that's our goal here. Um, job, Wes.

• 54:46Mike Smith?

  All right. Well, let's go into our categories then. I have a question actually before we do, if you don't mind. So i- is there any progress being made as far as creating synthetic?

• 54:58Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 54:58Mike Smith?

  Anti-venom in labs, so we don't need to take it straight from the source?

• 55:02Speaker 00

  Well, I, let me reel that back a little bit. This chlorotoxin that they are using for like the brain tumor research, they can now create synthetically. But it is like still mocking, you know, the scorpion one that they used originally. Anti-venom, I think is still, I don't think they've figured that one out yet. Cause again, like, like scorpion venom is a combination of thirty six different, you know, or no, it's like a hundred different peptides and amino acids and everything. And they're all in these tightly bound little packets and it's really a complicated thing. And so I don't think anyone's come close to replicating it.

• 55:38Mike Smith?

  Okay.

• 55:39Speaker 00

  Yeah. So the way that they make it is pretty crazy. Like they inject it into like horses for long periods of time. And the horses build like immunities to it. And then we harvest the antibodies from the horse to make the anti-venom.

• 55:53Mike Smith?

  Why horses specifically?

• 55:55Speaker 00

  I'm not sure. Some, I think some of it's made from goats too, but horses traditionally have been the ones that they've used the most. And I think I'm guessing it's because their immune systems are like pretty similar.

• 56:05Mike Smith?

  Don't even.

• 56:06Jeff Larson?

  You're triggered. You, you don't think horses can ever be useful? And here they are.

• 56:12Mike Smith?

  I'm just like, I'm just wondering if there's a kindred spirit out there or just invenomating horses. So I want to go shake that person's hand.

• 56:18Speaker 00

  He's like, what animal should I use for this? Horses.

• 56:24Speaker 00

  No, I, I'm definitely not doing that the justice it deserves, that process. But that's essentially what it looks like. So.

• 56:32Mike Smith?

  I miss the days when you called, called it anti-venine.

• 56:36Speaker 00

  I know. That was short-lived. I'm really glad. Cause I, I still have like, when I think of that, I'm like, oh Wes, why did you do that? Anti-venine. Yeah.

• 56:45Mike Smith?

  You were the guy who said croissol instead of croissant.

• 56:48Speaker 00

  That's what it feels like. It really does. I'm really glad that it wasn't long after that. I talked to Ian and was like, hey, do people say anti-venine? Cause I really hate saying it that way. And he's like, no, just people that are trying to sound smart. And I was like, ah, all right.

• 57:03Jeff Larson?

  Or like when you told me that the Roosevelt brothers described pandas?

• 57:08Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 57:10Mike Smith?

  You stand by that one or do you?

• 57:11Speaker 00

  I do stand by that one. Yeah.

• 57:14Mike Smith?

  Well, he'll come around, Jeff. Don't worry.

• 57:20Jeff Larson?

  Okay. So here's an update with my living situation. I'm in an apartment complex and I'm the most popular person here. And Element has become my new source of currency here. I will use it to get people to walk my dog. I will use it to make people my friends. I am giving everyone Element and they all love it. But I don't give them the lemonade iced tea because I like that little touch of caffeine in it. I think it tastes really good and I'm hoarding those ones. Man, with some cold ice water, that iced tea is just so delicious. And the result is noticeably steadier feeling, less spike, less drop, and without the crash that comes from most caffeinated drinks.

• 58:02Jeff Larson?

  It's trusted by Stanford neuroscientists, functional nutritionists, and professional athletes across the NFL, NBA, NHL, and CrossFit. I have been working out more recently and I feel like I really rely on Element to give me that little extra boost. Get in a few extra sets and feel more refreshed afterwards. Also, you know, I have some aches and pains. I'll go to specialists about it and they always say it's a good idea to include salt in your water. So right now get a free eight count sample pack of Element's most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at drinklmnt.com/tooth. Find your favorite flavor or share with a friend.

• 58:42Jeff Larson?

  Also, no question asked refunds. Try Element and see how you feel if for any reason you're not satisfied. Element's customer service team will take care of you.

• 58:52Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Nutraful. Sometimes upgrading your routine doesn't mean changing everything. It's just about finding one thing you can do a little better. It's kind of like how instead of eating the entire bag of Reese's pumpkins, I ate all of them, but two. It's a little better. I'm shedding, shedding the pounds. If hair health is something you've been meaning to pay more attention to, now's a great time to make it part of your routine. And that's where Nutraful comes in. Nutraful is the number one dermatologist recommended hair growth supplement brand, and it's the number one hair growth supplement brand personally used by dermatologists. Because hair health isn't one size fits all, Nutraful offers different formulas for both men and women at any age or stage of life.

• 59:34Speaker 00

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• 1:00:19Mike Smith?

  Beekeeper. It's Beekeeper.

• 1:00:21Speaker 00

  I knew it would be Beekeeper. That's not a horror movie, Mike. That doesn't count. Did you see that Beekeeper two is coming out in January?

• 1:00:27Mike Smith?

  Oh, really?

• 1:00:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:28Mike Smith?

  Oh, man. I'm camping out days in advance. Get a front roast, front row, middle.

• 1:00:35Jeff Larson?

  You know, I think the first one's just believable enough to have a sequel. It's like, I can't believe it anymore.

• 1:00:43Mike Smith?

  Where do we even go? I mean, we took out the president of the United States.

• 1:00:48Jeff Larson?

  No, her son.

• 1:00:50Mike Smith?

  Her son. Yeah.

• 1:00:50Jeff Larson?

  She was good, which was a crazy twist.

• 1:00:55Jeff Larson?

  I, I always thought Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a pretty good name.

• 1:01:00Mike Smith?

  Really straight to the point. Yeah.

• 1:01:02Speaker 00

  Yeah. Uh, I picked Let's Scare Jessica to Death, which is a 1971 horror movie. Such a good, a good name.

• 1:01:11Mike Smith?

  Yeah. Uh, real answer, I'm going to go, I spit on your grave. It's just so.

• 1:01:16Speaker 00

  Another good one.

• 1:01:17Mike Smith?

  Evocative.

• 1:01:17Speaker 00

  Visceral. Yeah. All right. Uh, what's one of your favorite Halloween traditions or just like a general thing that you like to do on Halloween? Doesn't have to be a tradition. Or around Halloween. Doesn't even have to be on the day.

• 1:01:32Jeff Larson?

  Oh, well, I wish I had known that.

• 1:01:34Speaker 00

  Well, that's all right. Yeah.

• 1:01:36Jeff Larson?

  Because I don't really have a tradition and that was the question. But I just, I always feel it's like one of those days where like, I want to be social. I want to go out. I want to be around people. But then I'll do that and I'll feel anxious and if I'm in like a costume, a lot of times I'll feel self-conscious about it and then I'll just go home and watch it.

• 1:01:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:02:00Speaker 00

  That's a tough tradition.

• 1:02:03Jeff Larson?

  But I do like Halloween, but I didn't really have like a thing I always do.

• 1:02:09Speaker 00

  You've been going to my friend's Halloween party in Salt Lake and your friends now.

• 1:02:14Jeff Larson?

  I've gone twice.

• 1:02:15Speaker 00

  It's a fun party. That's like the party I look forward to the most, I would say. I'm more of a Halloween season guy, like the day of Halloween itself is, I probably just do what I do most of the other days in the season, which is like watch a horror movie and kind of get cozy. But a new tradition, and this is kind of a plug for our Patreon again, is me and Mike have been doing the no pants allowed Mike and Wes horror movie mix up series the last couple of years where we talk about horror movies every week and, um, and our Patreon members have access to that. And that has been really fun because it feels like I have someone that I can force to watch horror movies with me all of October.

• 1:02:57Speaker 00

  And I've always wanted that. So yeah, that's, that's it. Watching horror movies and now doing it with some structure is my favorite Halloween tradition.

• 1:03:06Mike Smith?

  Well, he, Wes has turned me on to a couple of Alzheimer's for me already. The Wailing specifically is probably.

• 1:03:13Speaker 00

  So good.

• 1:03:13Mike Smith?

  Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust. My gosh. Oh my gosh, Wes. When I was younger, our family used to make pumpkin seeds, roast pumpkin seeds after, you know, scooping them out and making jack-o'-lanterns.

• 1:03:27Speaker 00

  And you put them in.

• 1:03:27Mike Smith?

  And I did that.

• 1:03:28Speaker 00

  Pudding and try and find the seed.

• 1:03:30Mike Smith?

  But yeah, whoever gets the full pumpkin seed gets a $5. No, but you scoop the seeds out, you clean them up and you just roast them simply like all over oil and salt. It's great. I just did that for the first time in a long time this year and it's going to be something I carry on. I think it was really fun, easy and tasty little treat. All right. Snack.

• 1:03:53Speaker 00

  Uh, we're going to do a let's argue, but it probably, I'm thinking it's probably going to be a let's agree. And my statement that we're going to maybe argue about, but probably agree about. Kids should be encouraged to trick or treat in their neighborhoods and not just like a safe trunk or treat or whatever situation.

• 1:04:11Mike Smith?

  I can't even play devil's advocate on this one. Yeah, trunk or treat. My gosh.

• 1:04:18Speaker 00

  I hate it.

• 1:04:19Mike Smith?

  I guess at a certain age range, if you wanna, I don't know.

• 1:04:22Speaker 00

  Just go with your kids.

• 1:04:23Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:24Speaker 00

  I like, I, maybe we've talked about this before. I kinda feel like trick or treating is, is like fading away and it was one of the last like true, like I trust my neighbors and my community kinda things. You know, and like my kids are gonna go out and we're all just gonna have like a, a fun, safe, like neighborhood building, community building experience. And I think people are like too afraid these days to do that. And I don't get it. And I don't have kids, so I get that, but like, my parents did it with us and it's not like there was less violent crime back then.

• 1:04:59Jeff Larson?

  Now you just do it on your iPad.

• 1:05:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, now kids are just trick or treating on their iPads.

• 1:05:05Mike Smith?

  They're trick or treating in VR.

• 1:05:10Mike Smith?

  Oh, that's actually a pretty good idea. You could go anywhere and be, I'm trick or treating in Beverly Hills tonight, baby.

• 1:05:16Jeff Larson?

  I went trick or treating in college.

• 1:05:19Mike Smith?

  Really?

• 1:05:19Jeff Larson?

  And they were all like, you shouldn't be doing this.

• 1:05:25Jeff Larson?

  There's a person who lived on my floor from China. And he's like, I really, really wanna trick or treat. I was like, let's do it. People together and we went.

• 1:05:37Mike Smith?

  That's great.

• 1:05:38Speaker 00

  That's fun. Yeah, maybe there shouldn't be such like a strict age limit on trick or treating.

• 1:05:43Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, it's like you guys.

• 1:05:44Speaker 00

  It'd be kinda fun.

• 1:05:45Jeff Larson?

  Ask me about my costume. Don't ask me how old I am.

• 1:05:49Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:50Jeff Larson?

  I'm Peter Pan.

• 1:05:53Speaker 00

  They're like, well, you've been Peter Pan the last six years in a row, so we're just a little wondering. Uh, yeah, I don't know. I, Mike, were you allowed to trick or treat on Sundays when you were growing up? When Halloween fell on a Sunday?

• 1:06:05Mike Smith?

  I don't, I don't ever remember being disallowed from trick or treating and I never, I'm sure I did when I was really young, but I don't have any memories of going out even with my parents at all, trick or treating. It's just me and the, the ragtag little crew of friends.

• 1:06:19Speaker 00

  There's one year when we were younger, when it fell on a Sunday and my parents didn't let us go and it was like such a devastating blow. And the church did like a trunk or treat instead. And I was like, this is not the same. Like this is not it. So, yeah. All right. Well, I think we agree then.

• 1:06:37Mike Smith?

  You know what though? Trunk or treat's great if you do actually also get to go out trick or treating.

• 1:06:42Speaker 00

  Exactly. Like sure.

• 1:06:43Mike Smith?

  Doubling up.

• 1:06:44Speaker 00

  Do them both. That's amazing.

• 1:06:46Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:46Speaker 00

  But.

• 1:06:46Mike Smith?

  Let's go.

• 1:06:47Speaker 00

  I don't know. I, I think kids need to be able to like play around their neighborhoods and stuff, even if.

• 1:06:52Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:53Mike Smith?

  Eat a couple apples with razor blades.

• 1:06:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:06:56Mike Smith?

  It's part of growing up.

• 1:06:58Speaker 00

  All right. This is a new category. This category is called know your Jeffs. Uh, Jeff, give me a few facts on a Jeff out there. Teach us about a Jeff.

• 1:07:07Jeff Larson?

  A few. I just have one.

• 1:07:08Speaker 00

  No, just one Jeff and you can just do one fact if you want, but yeah. One Jeff at a time.

• 1:07:15Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, um, I'm gonna do a fact about Jeff Bezos.

• 1:07:20Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:07:21Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:22Jeff Larson?

  Um, so when he started Amazon, uh, he, Jeff Bezos owns Amazon. And when he started it, he actually used an actual door and he mounted it on legs and used that as his office desk because he was trying to save so much money. So he didn't buy a desk. He just used a door and made it into a desk. So he's just a real like, he doesn't need nice things. He doesn't need.

• 1:07:53Speaker 00

  Outside the box.

• 1:07:54Jeff Larson?

  He doesn't need much.

• 1:07:56Mike Smith?

  Real frugal.

• 1:07:57Jeff Larson?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, he's really stuck to that too.

• 1:08:00Jeff Larson?

  I was thinking about it. I wanna ask, because like Jeff's a pretty common name, right?

• 1:08:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:08:09Jeff Larson?

  But then like Mike has so much more with his name than Jeff does.

• 1:08:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:08:16Jeff Larson?

  Like name a good, like name a good athlete. It's like only Jeff Gordon. Name like.

• 1:08:22Speaker 00

  There's a lot more Mikes than there are Jeffs.

• 1:08:24Jeff Larson?

  In movies, in movies, it's like, no one, you can't think of, like you can think of Chanum, Channing Tatum saying, my name's Jeff. But his name isn't.

• 1:08:35Speaker 00

  A few Jeffs.

• 1:08:36Mike Smith?

  There's Jeff Rush.

• 1:08:37Speaker 00

  I just watched a movie last night where one of the characters was named Jeff.

• 1:08:41Jeff Larson?

  What?

• 1:08:42Speaker 00

  Uh, it's called The Ruins.

• 1:08:43Jeff Larson?

  Who is the, the main character?

• 1:08:45Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:08:46Jeff Larson?

  Really? And his name's Jeff. In Stranger Things, I think Sean Astin's name was Jeff.

• 1:08:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, I would say that, that's, that our names like Mike is the most common, then Jeff, then Wes.

• 1:08:59Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:59Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, but Mike's got way more like, people in pop culture too.

• 1:09:06Speaker 00

  Yeah. There's like probably 10,000 Mike Smiths out there. I mean, Mike's like got the most basic name ever.

• 1:09:13Jeff Larson?

  I looked up Jeff Larson. I'm not at the top.

• 1:09:16Speaker 00

  All right.

• 1:09:17Mike Smith?

  Uh-oh. Who's got you beat?

• 1:09:19Jeff Larson?

  The singer? And then a professor at BYU.

• 1:09:24Speaker 00

  Of Jeff Larson's? Oh yeah, I remember that professor there actually. Uh, all right. We're gonna do a few Halloween would you rathers. First one, would you rather grow fangs or fur?

• 1:09:36Mike Smith?

  Fangs.

• 1:09:37Speaker 00

  Fangs for me too.

• 1:09:38Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, fangs.

• 1:09:40Speaker 00

  All right.

• 1:09:41Jeff Larson?

  Fangs is cool. Fur isn't cool.

• 1:09:43Mike Smith?

  I kinda have a little bit of fur.

• 1:09:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's true. Would you rather spend the night in an abandoned prison or an abandoned hospital?

• 1:09:50Jeff Larson?

  I kinda have a little bit of fangs.

• 1:09:52Mike Smith?

  You do have some fangs a little.

• 1:09:54Speaker 00

  I did too until I nephew broke one of them.

• 1:09:57Mike Smith?

  You got owned.

• 1:09:57Speaker 00

  Uh, spend the night in an abandoned prison or abandoned hospital?

• 1:10:03Mike Smith?

  Hospital.

• 1:10:04Speaker 00

  I think it's prison for me. Uh. Like needles and stuff. I don't like that. I don't know.

• 1:10:10Mike Smith?

  Hmm.

• 1:10:10Speaker 00

  Hospitals have always just kinda freaked me out.

• 1:10:13Mike Smith?

  I feel like you get a lot more comfortable bedding and stuff in a hospital though.

• 1:10:16Speaker 00

  That's probably true.

• 1:10:17Jeff Larson?

  Some snacks.

• 1:10:19Mike Smith?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:10:20Mike Smith?

  You can put one of those little smocks on where it leaves your, your bum hanging out.

• 1:10:25Jeff Larson?

  Yeah, I'd probably do, hospital.

• 1:10:29Speaker 00

  All right. Would you rather be the only one in a costume at a Halloween party or the only one without a costume at a Halloween party?

• 1:10:38Mike Smith?

  Without.

• 1:10:39Speaker 00

  I thought that's what you would say.

• 1:10:41Mike Smith?

  I wouldn't be self-conscious really even about it at all.

• 1:10:44Speaker 00

  I think for me it's with.

• 1:10:46Jeff Larson?

  The only one with a costume sounds like hell to me.

• 1:10:49Speaker 00

  It's kinda funny though.

• 1:10:50Mike Smith?

  Get accosted.

• 1:10:50Speaker 00

  Yeah. Have you ever seen that meme where like, there's this meme where it's like, you can see all these people sitting and watching like TV or something. And then there's one person in like a full Babadook costume. And she's like, yeah, my friend failed to tell me this was more of like a, drink wine and watch movies Halloween party than a costume party. It's just like a really funny photo. Um, but yeah.

• 1:11:15Mike Smith?

  You should retweet that.

• 1:11:16Speaker 00

  I should.

• 1:11:18Speaker 00

  I kinda did just now.

• 1:11:20Mike Smith?

  That's true. Yeah.

• 1:11:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:11:21Jeff Larson?

  No, yeah. I mean, if you're the only one with a costume, then you gotta get new friends, I feel like.

• 1:11:27Speaker 00

  Yeah. Cause they either tricked you or they're lame. Yeah.

• 1:11:31Jeff Larson?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:32Speaker 00

  Okay. Uh, would you rather have a friendly ghost in your house or a talking black cat?

• 1:11:41Jeff Larson?

  Friendly ghost? I don't ever want a pet to talk to me.

• 1:11:47Speaker 00

  That's kinda think, I think that's how I feel too.

• 1:11:49Jeff Larson?

  It's just gonna be like, give me food.

• 1:11:51Mike Smith?

  Yeah, it's not supposing they have a human's level of intelligence.

• 1:11:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:11:57Mike Smith?

  It probably just doesn't have very much interesting to talk about, maybe ever really.

• 1:12:02Speaker 00

  Okay. All right.

• 1:12:03Mike Smith?

  Let's go friendly ghost.

• 1:12:04Speaker 00

  I'll go friendly ghost as well.

• 1:12:07Speaker 00

  Okay. And then we'll wrap up with a quick conservation corner. Uh, they aren't evaluated for their conservation status, death stalker scorpions, which means they're probably least concerned, but I do imagine, um, there's a big insect die-off that's going on across the world and that's their main prey is insects. So I do imagine that they're probably not at the numbers they used to be and declining. But, um, I can't really speak to that with any authority because there's no real monitoring on this, on this scorpion. They are traded in the pet trade a bit too, and those, those, uh, those specimens are sometimes collected in the field. Okay, uh, let's give them a claw rating since this is a new animal for the show.

• 1:12:51Speaker 00

  Uh, death stalker scorpion claw rating.

• 1:12:54Mike Smith?

  Ooh, I like scorpions.

• 1:12:57Jeff Larson?

  I'm gonna say five. I like my scorpions big and black. Just like my coffees.

• 1:13:06Mike Smith?

  If you like your coffee.

• 1:13:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:13:09Mike Smith?

  I'll go six.

• 1:13:11Speaker 00

  Seven.

• 1:13:12Mike Smith?

  Six, seven.

• 1:13:14Speaker 00

  All right. I'm gonna go six and just stay at six. Uh, I think this is one of the scorpions I'd be most excited to see out in the wild. But I am kind of like, they're not.

• 1:13:26Jeff Larson?

  Like how long would you be excited?

• 1:13:28Speaker 00

  Exactly. That's why it's a six.

• 1:13:31Jeff Larson?

  Like if you saw it, you'd be like, oh wow, this is.

• 1:13:33Speaker 00

  I would definitely like take a photo of it and I would be like, that's cool. We saw like the most potent scorpion in the world maybe. But I, I, it wouldn't be like a thing that I, when I lay down at night, I think about that experience.

• 1:13:49Jeff Larson?

  Maybe, yeah, and maybe it'd surprise you and be super cool, but.

• 1:13:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:13:53Jeff Larson?

  That's just, you know, I was just asking.

• 1:13:56Mike Smith?

  If one of your options was a talking scorpion, it'd probably be like, get over here.

• 1:14:01Jeff Larson?

  Oh yeah, let's hold hands.

• 1:14:03Mike Smith?

  I'd go over there. Yeah.

• 1:14:05Speaker 00

  All right. Well, that's it. That's all I got. Happy Halloween, everyone. It's been fun.

• 1:14:10Jeff Larson?

  It could probably describe the stars to you at least.

• 1:14:13Speaker 00

  That'd be cool.

• 1:14:14Mike Smith?

  Describe them, Jeff?

• 1:14:18Mike Smith?

  Describe.

• 1:14:21Speaker 00

  Discover them. Yeah. All right. Happy Halloween, everyone. We hope you've enjoyed our, our spooky theme for the last few weeks. And we'll be back real soon with another episode. I think we have a week off after this one, but after that, we'll be back. If you're itching for more content, check out our Patreon. Uh, we've had some real fun episodes lately. Mike talked about the Hellfire Club and the huge black cat in Ireland. I did one about a black bear slasher and we do have those, uh, no pants.

• 1:14:52Mike Smith?

  Episode we've ever done.

• 1:14:53Speaker 00

  No pants allowed, uh, horror movie episodes on there too.

• 1:14:56Jeff Larson?

  I was, I was just speaking with Lucinda and she was saying, I just joined your Patreon and I'm so surprised how much content you guys have on there. It's such a good deal. I said, agree to disagree.

• 1:15:18Jeff Larson?

  But I'm glad she's happy, you know?

• 1:15:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's a steal. It's worth more than like a drop of scorpion venom.

• 1:15:24Jeff Larson?

  Yeah. More, more than gasoline.

• 1:15:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:15:28Mike Smith?

  Right.

• 1:15:28Speaker 00

  All right. Love you guys.

• 1:15:30Mike Smith?

  Tastes better.

• 1:15:30Jeff Larson?

  Love you.

• 1:15:32Speaker 00

  Bye.

• 1:15:32Mike Smith?

  See ya.

• 1:15:37Jeff Larson?

  Woo, good job Wesley.

• 1:15:39Mike Smith?

  Thanks.