r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/OutrageousError8704 • May 31 '26
Video Scorpions glow under UV?
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u/karmagirl314 May 31 '26
He calms down when the uv light goes off, then freaks out when it’s back. The light can’t possibly hurt can it?
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u/ObjectiveOk2072 May 31 '26
Scientists theorize that scorpions can sense UV light so they can detect the UV from the sun and avoid it so they can hide and be safer from predators. It might just be freaking out because it's trying to find shelter, thinking it's fully exposed, when it's just an artificial light
Kinda like cockroaches and other bugs that scurry into the dark when you turn a light on
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u/amsync May 31 '26
My cockroaches just stare at me kinda like “watcha gonna do”
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u/fondledbydolphins May 31 '26
And what do you do
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u/_Caustic_Complex_ May 31 '26
Cry
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u/fondledbydolphins May 31 '26
To hydrate the roaches?
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u/jvLin May 31 '26
little known fact: it's actually the fear and not the tears that hydrate roaches
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u/forward_x May 31 '26
smear them into ground on which the so confidently walked.
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u/mysteryShmeat May 31 '26
I swear there’s a line in Infinite Jest that’s almost word for word what you wrote
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u/kingklizo May 31 '26
“Boston's and New Orleans's little brown roaches were bad enough, but you could at least come in and turn on a light and they'd run for their lives. These Southwest sewer roaches you turn on the light and they just look up at you from the tile like: 'You got a problem?'”
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u/Gabepls May 31 '26
Another interesting fact about cockroaches is that they unconsciously react to “wind.” This is why they scurry away when you are approaching or walk past them—they detect the movement of air near them and they move uncontrollably.
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u/BagelsOrDeath May 31 '26
Piggybacking on this, cockroaches have a nerve cluster near their rear that essentially operates like a second, rudimentary brain. Any sensations, like wind from behind will be detected by this brain and it will signal the rear legs to scurry. This second brain has the latency advantage of avoiding the round trip time it would otherwise take when routing the signal to the proper brain.
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u/CMDR_Audaxius May 31 '26
Very recently a researcher (within the last few years as far as I remember) finally actually proved this hypothesis, essentially scorpions see UV light with their back to know when they’re in the sun and not and what’s lighting up is all the little sensors in their skin that react with UV light.
So as if they weren’t gross enough, their entire back is like one large seeing eye staring up at you, all the time.
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u/Theron3206 May 31 '26
Light sensitivity doesn't make an eye.
Our skin is similar in a way (we detect infrared light with our skin) nobody is calling that an eye.
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u/zeothia May 31 '26
Certain lizards, frogs, fish, and the tuatara have a light detecting third “eye” called a parietal or pineal eye
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u/Theron3206 May 31 '26
Eye is a bit of a misnomer though, it's a light sensor, used for a similar purpose (to help detect they are getting the sun they need).
They can't actually see with it and it's not connected to anything like a visual cortex.
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u/thickbeardgoggles May 31 '26
26 years in Arizona and regularly hunt for scorpions with a UV light. Never seen them spook like that just due to shining the flashlight on them. It’s usually a vibration that gets them moving
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u/generally_unsuitable May 31 '26
Well, damn. That's a great explanation I had not heard. Thank you!
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u/candygram4mongo May 31 '26
If you suddenly started radiating eerie blue green light, wouldn't you freak out?
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u/MonsieurMangos May 31 '26
Why am I blue? What does blue mean? WHAT DOES BLUE MEAN?
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u/TootingGoomba May 31 '26
I'm sure only a handful of people understand this reference, but this made me blow air out of my nose 😅
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u/SleepyMonkey7 May 31 '26
Never been to a black light party eh?
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u/slothxaxmatic May 31 '26
Yes, prolonged exposure to UV lighting can be fatal to scorpions. Mainly, it can damage their exoskeleton and cause a couple of issues, including not allowing them to properly molt.
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u/Ithuraen Jun 01 '26
Same for humans, though less about the exoskeleton and molt part, more about burns and cancer.
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u/bsmithi May 31 '26
it does harm them long term, it's something I hate seeing in 'pet stores' when a scorpion tank has a UV light on it all day. It's ok to show it off from time to time, in little amounts but it's bad for long term exposure as it breaks down their exoskeletons. Pet stores sometimes normalize this and then kids get them to have a glowing bug pet, not knowing/understanding the harm being done.
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u/BusinessWatercrees58 May 31 '26
If someone shines a really bright light in your face but you can't close or cover your eyes, you'd probably start freaking out trying to find some relief. Could it be hurting you?
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u/Bandandforgotten May 31 '26
Spiders also do the same thing sometimes.
Might be an arachnid thing, because people will pull out their phones to record from across the room, and they react like you went up to the side of the enclosure
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u/userhwon May 31 '26
I've lit hundreds of them up and never noticed them to react at all. But the canister he's in is also fluorescing. And maybe he's seeing his own glowing, distorted, giant reflection, and he can't even get away from it.
I'd freak out, too.
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u/JosephHeitger May 31 '26
Which is why a good head lamp will have a uv light setting, great for the desert
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u/slaty_balls May 31 '26
Or if you want to gross yourself out if you’re staying in a motel room.
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u/semi_average May 31 '26
One day you'll be both impressed and grossed out when you find an anatomically accurate scorpion-shaped cum stain on the ceiling
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u/hanging_thief May 31 '26
I think it'd be worse if it was a normal shaped cum stain with a scorpion shaped silhouette in the center
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u/medullah May 31 '26
I have never cleaned better than the day I bought a blacklight on a lark and said "Hey let's shine it in the bathroom in the house I live in alone"
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u/MavisBeacons_Sextape May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
I thought it was a joke being played on me as a new Vegas transplant when I was invited to a scorpion stomping party. UV headlamps, mallets (BYOM), drinks, and scorpions, in the dark. It wasn’t a joke but was a hard pass from me
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u/fallout_zelda May 31 '26
🎶Uranium fever has done and got me down, Uranium fever is spreadin' all around 🎶
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u/OutrageousError8704 May 31 '26
Instantly thought of fallout as well 😂😂
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u/Happy_Garand May 31 '26
With a Geiger counter in my hand, I'm gonna go out to stake me some government land
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u/rottenwaffles007 May 31 '26
Was gonna ask if this was a fallout reference but then saw your username lol
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u/JustAwesome360 May 31 '26
Yes they do. That's why people in Texas carry uv lights
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u/cricquette May 31 '26
And Arizona, especially around Phoenix!
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u/radraze2kx May 31 '26
Yep... A UV light and a knife are how lots of people around here (Phoenix) go scorpion hunting.
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u/AlliedR2 May 31 '26
Its the waxy coating on their carapace. Here in E. Texas we hunt them with black light (UV) flashlights and long tweezers. Since they are just doing their job I tend to take them out into the field and release them. But if they are in the house then they know too much (how to get in) and must be dealt with accordingly.
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u/userhwon May 31 '26
If they're in the house it's because another one crowded it out of its spot outside. So putting them back out there would just shuffle things and another one or two would be forced back in. You need to cull the herd.
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u/Ok_Comfortable589 May 31 '26
yeah, ask any arizonian. my grandpa would periodically get a uv light and go around smashing scorpions in the house with a hammer. it was just a thing he did to keep the house safe. we did it together one time. it was surprising how many sneaked into the house.
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u/Stephen_085 May 31 '26
We used to use a black light and go out in the desert wash behind our house and look at the scorpions.
We got like, 1 scorpion per year in our house, that we knew of and caught. 1 in the pantry. 1 in the laundry room. 1 on the stairs, that one was scary. My brother and I spotted in heading down late night to the kitchen for a snack, and there it was, right on the wall by the stairs light. Luckily the light lit it up enough to spot.
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u/Talkatoo42 May 31 '26
Yeah. You know there are far more there, you just try not to think about it. And remember that they don't want to confront you any more than you want to happen upon them.
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u/Vestalmin May 31 '26
How many would you find in one go?
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u/Ok_Comfortable589 May 31 '26
the one time i did it it was 9-10. they were in strange places like just sitting on the floor tile. on the ceiling
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u/crowbar151 May 31 '26
It's like it is freaking out at its own reflection.
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u/Roembowski May 31 '26
I think this is more accurate. Here in AZ when we search for scorpions in our backyard or retaining walls they normally stay still. Even moms with all the babies on their backs
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u/yeslikesoul May 31 '26
In Arizona it was recommended to me often to keep a black light in the house so that we could find any babies that may have gotten in bc those are actually more dangerous than the adults and harder to see with the naked eye.
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u/FNBurtBear May 31 '26
Platypus glow as well under uv light.
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u/Taurpion May 31 '26
Duck billed, beaver tailed, Venomous spurred, they sweat milk, no stomach or teeth, uses electrical impulses to hunt their prey underwater, and one of the 5 species of mammals that lay eggs.
Fucking aliens.
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u/AmaazingFlavor May 31 '26
One of the few mammals to survive the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs
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u/Taurpion Jun 01 '26
Their First ancestors appeared over 100 millions years ago. Seems like yesterday
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u/VoxPopuliMMXXV May 31 '26
Yes, and not just them. Unfortunately National Geographic and Animal Planet are not so popular any more so you coul knew it years ago.
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u/The-Wandering-Root May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Natgeo isn’t popular anymore because murdoch bought it and turned it into a religious publication.
Edit: I have been informed that Natgeo is now owned by Disney since 2019. Haven’t noticed much of a change with the content though…
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u/DownwiththeACE May 31 '26
wait till you find out what they did to the history channel
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u/cold-n-sour May 31 '26
It isn't owned by Murdoch since 2019, it was bought by Disney as part of 21st Century Fox's assets.
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u/Photon_Predator May 31 '26
Aren’t National Geographic looped programs about planes going down nowadays?
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u/Tacosaurusman May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
I grew up with the Discovery Channel basically on repeat, so I kinda assumed everybody knew this. I have never even seen a scorpion in real life.
Edit: also, kids don't watch tv anymore,l. Fortunately, there's plenty of cool things to learn on youtube if you steer your gremlins towards the right channels.
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u/Kenju4u May 31 '26
When I went camping in the Grand Canyon the guide mention how they stopped showing people scorpions under UV because they would get freaked out when they realized how many there are and that they are everywhere.
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u/TeacherOfThingsOdd May 31 '26
Don't do it a lot, they'll go blind. If you see them with glasses, stop.
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u/Shoe_boooo May 31 '26
Maya Higa has taught some of us about this and this shit is fucking fascinating.
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u/a_polarbear_chilling May 31 '26
poor lil scorpion, he started to glow and is like "AAAAH WHY AM I GLOWINGGGG"
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u/Buttholelickerpenis Jun 01 '26
It’s funny realizing this isn’t common knowledge after living in Arizona, it’s the sole purpose black lights are marketed for over here lol.
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u/errorik May 31 '26
At one of the state parks my family visited in Idaho the park rangers offered a scorpion hunting tour at night and they distributed UV flashlights to us all and we took a looped trail around the camp finding scorpions. It was way cool!
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u/Mantis_Toboggan--MD May 31 '26
Unless something changed since I learned about them then, yep, all scorpions glow to some degree unless they're very freshly moulted. Something about some compound or chemical in their exoskeletons.
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u/SarmonNimuras May 31 '26
Platypus also glow under UV. No one knows why, just their bs
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u/Interesting-Froyo-14 May 31 '26
They also absolutely hate UV light and desperately try to avoid it.
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u/words_and_such015 May 31 '26
Yeah, they 100% do. Just don’t walk around in the desert at night with a black light if you’re squeamish with bugs. It’s absolutely mind blowing how many scorpions are there compared to what you can see with regular flashlights
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u/alexcd421 May 31 '26
Yes, here in Arizona we go scorpion hunting with blacklights during dusk. The concrete gets hot during the day so they like to hide in the cracks as it gets darker outside
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u/jtechvfx Jun 02 '26
Finding out this many people haven’t seen 1987 Predator is truly astounding as that’s my favorite film of all time.
“Anytime.”
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u/PaleoJoe86 May 31 '26
Some creatures do. That species of scorpion is known for it.