I've seen this Question a hundred times and without in depth research I would conclude that UV is harmful, for the simple fact that UV is damaging to humans.

But that is not good enough, I did some research and put together this post to discuss the topic of UV and scorps. Feel free to add your insight and observations. Below is mine.

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From Wiki-pedia I came up with a break down of the electromagnetic spectrum...

UV is divided into 3 ranges Near (400 nm - 200 nm), Far (200 nm - 10 nm), and Extreme (31 nm - 1 nm) Ultraviolet. Then subdivided, between Near and Far you have UVA (400 nm - 320 nm), UVB (320 nm - 280 nm) & UVC (Below 280 nm).

UVA is a longwave UV and typically produced by the 'black light' lightbulb (party bulb) and is generally considered the safest to humans.

UVB and UVC can cause DNA damage. UVA is capable of causing damage to collagen fibers.

Below are excerpt scans from "The Biology of Scorpion" edited by Gary A Polis, which detail how intricate and delicate the scorpions eyes are, just one feature of the scorpion exposed to UV.




So if overexposure to UVA can cause sunburn, cell damage, in a human it can cause cell damage in a scorpion. What wavelength is your UV bulb or flashlight? I know I reflected my UV flashlight into my eyes and had a mild eye burn, from less than a second of exposure.

So just be mindful when using blacklight on your scorps...

I agree with your tought but there is a slight question that came to mind just now. How is it that roaches and scorpion would be able to survive high intensities of radiation such a nuclear bomb and not be able to handle uv light? Is it just because it's long use that would cause any problems.
-Eddy

Radiation exposure, though survivable by these guys, does not necessarily mean cellularly unaltered mutated DNA. That is my thought on it, I'm gonna hit Google to see if any thing quotable comes up.

From my knowledge of biochemistry, it's a wavelength of 253.7 nanometers that causes thymine dimers (damage to DNA). Based on this, I would not suspect that a regular UV flashlight has the capacity to cause significant harm to any organism other than mild discomfort.

The blacklight flashlight I use has peak emmision of 390 nanometers, which is barely into the UV spectrum at all.

Roaches died when hit with 100,000 rads of radiactivity on mythbusters

i will find my Jan Ove Rien quote again then

From the research kindly provided. I would have to concur the "you just shouldn't do it" idea of keeping continuous UV light on your inverts.

Continuous, I agree -- but I see no harm in the occasional display for visitors or checking on scorps nocturnally.

I had a hard time explaining this to someone on the Venomlist

Which part?

That's why shallow UV is so great -- virtually harmless, but you still get the fluorescent effect.

Deep UV is the scary stuff. I did an environmental design competition and we were using deep UV to destroy bacteria -- we had to get quartz pipes so it wouldn't break them down or get absorbed, and we always had to keep the lamp covered to avoid giving ourselves skin cancer.

Speaking on blacklights i found a heat bulb that is not UVA/UVB but still gives the scorp and nice green colour. It's called a night glow and it is made by exo-terra. So if you want to run heat and make your scorp look cool then get one of these, they are fantastic.