Life in West Texas

One night when I was home with my 3 year old (many years ago in Odessa) I was about to go to bed and I walked into my bedroom and just as I turned off the light I thought I saw a flash of movement near the head of the bed.  I quickly turned the light back on and carefully looked where it had been and there was nothing.  I thought I was seeing things but decided to explore further.  I lifted up the corner of the mattress and right there laying flat at the top of the bed between the mattress and box springs I saw this:

Common Scorpion found in the Southwest

I quickly dropped the mattress back down into place and stood there paralyzed (and I had not even been stung!)  I did not know what to do, but of course I started to itch all over thinking that I was covered in scorpions.  I was alone in the house with my child so I knew I had to:

1. Go back in, find the scorpion and destroy it, or;
2. Find another place to live ---THAT NIGHT

Believe me, #2 was a viable option at that time, especially if I was unable to locate this thing quickly.  I went back into my room with a drinking glass, having no idea exactly what I was going to do and feeling pretty sure that when the mattress had slammed down on him earlier he took off, probably to burrow deep into my blankets.  Still, I pulled back the mattress and there he was!  He did not move.  He was laying flat and motionless and I began to think maybe I had killed him when the mattress fell back down during my hasty retreat.  By this time, my son had heard the commotion and wandered into the room to see what was going on.  He watched as I carefully placed the jar over the scorpion and we both jumped back as the scorpion came back to life and began thrashing against the jar.  I let the mattress fall back again, but luckily it fell back onto the jar and did not tip it, instead trapping the flailing scorpion inside glass between the mattress and box springs.  Several hours later when a more capable person with a clearer head finally extracted the critter from my house I was still wide awake and waiting for a call back from the exterminator.  Life in west Texas is not for the faint of heart!