Sudden 'lumps' appeared on tail

Recently (~3-4 days ago), I noticed an bit of a kink in the middle of my female Emp's tail that wasn't there the day before. When I looked at it a bit closer as she was out and about, I spotted a little lump between the two segments and so I took a picture of it since it was something I haven't seen before.




Then earlier today, I spotted four more bumps on the surface of her tail that, like the first bump, wasn't there the day before, almost like it just sprouted up overnight. I apologize for the quality on the next one since my hand was shaking a bit;




On the positive side, she's active and ate a cricket the day before yesterday so she's eating, but I'm still pretty worried since she's my baby. Maybe it's nothing to be worried about, but I couldn't find anything elsewhere online and nothing like this popped up on my male in the past (unfortunately he passed away last year) so I figured I'd toss something up here to see if someone had any ideas as to what could be up.

*The temp in the tank is around ~75-80 and the humidity's around 80-85% if that helps, too.

That injury was either always there and never notice or possibly a injury from a feeder left in too long. If you're worried about pathogens and such, you can always clean it with white vinegar to ease your mind. Otherwise, I'd just leave it alone.

Yeah looks like an injury but nothing to be concerned with.

I don't want to be a jerk but do you handle your emps? And if so do you pick them up by their tails? It kinda looks like a dislocation of sorts caused by picking up a heavy emp by it's tail or if it's holding onto something and resisting? I'm pretty sure emps shouldn't be tailed because of their general size.

Yames wrote:

I don't want to be a jerk but do you handle your emps? And if so do you pick them up by their tails? It kinda looks like a dislocation of sorts caused by picking up a heavy emp by it's tail or if it's holding onto something and resisting? I'm pretty sure emps shouldn't be tailed because of their general size.

Not too often, but I've never picked them up by the tail. I just nudge her into my hand with a soft paintbrush.

Could have been the previous owner.

Hey guys. Since we're talking about injuries here, I noticed that my newer scorpion has kind of a reddish mark on his carapace and was wondering if this should be a concern.

Probably nothing to worry about, but post a picture up so we can be sure.

+1 to Abyss.

It's almost certainly nothing, many scorps may seem to have some sort of odd coloration somewhere on them (particularly on the carapace) when viewed in the right lighting.

But post a pic to make sure.

This is my profile picture, you can see the red "crack" on the lower left half of the carapace where it meets the first segment of his body.

I appreciate your help guys.

Also, Scorpion19981000, I didn't know you were my age. How long have you been into scorps and inverts?

Lol, yeah I actually think I'm the youngest active user on the forum...I've always been interested in inverts...I grew up in Virginia surrounded by spiders. I've been keeping them since I was eight...so around 6½ years now.

Anyway, I'll be honest in saying that I can't see it all that clearly from the pic, but that might just be my 20/170 vision.

Is it an indentation or does it appear to be a crack? Is there an identical one on the other side?

Emps have an indentation in their carapace on both sides (left and right) near the bottom where the carapace meets the mesosomal segments.

Either way, if the scorp is behaving normally (eating ok, no lethargic behavior, etc.) then it's nothing to worry about.

Looks like scar tissue. Sometimes I see wc emps with "dents and scratches" should be fine.

Thats hella cool! Here in California we get lots off daddy longlegs and Black Widow spiders (BIG ONES), but nothing particularly 'extraordinary' like scorps. Just what you see in the pet stores .

And to Abyss: Thanks for checking it out. He's actually more active that the other ones. I actually haven't really seen my other male (Probably cause they're burrowing a lot).

Patcho wrote:

Here in California we get lots off daddy longlegs and Black Widow spiders (BIG ONES), but nothing particularly 'extraordinary' like scorps. Just what you see in the pet stores .

There are several scorpion species native to California.

Patcho wrote:

Thats hella cool! Here in California we get lots off daddy longlegs and Black Widow spiders (BIG ONES), but nothing particularly 'extraordinary' like scorps. Just what you see in the pet stores .

And to Abyss: Thanks for checking it out. He's actually more active that the other ones. I actually haven't really seen my other male (Probably cause they're burrowing a lot).

vespers wrote:

Patcho wrote:

Here in California we get lots off daddy longlegs and Black Widow spiders (BIG ONES), but nothing particularly 'extraordinary' like scorps. Just what you see in the pet stores .

There are several scorpion species native to California.

There absolutely is. Check out where I'm from !
There's no scorps here in L.A but a 20 minute drive out of the city, a blacklight, and some plastic cotainers and I'll easily come home with 15-20 scorps. We do have some interesting species here if you know where to look.

What I meant was, I haven't really seen any scorpions in San Jose or the bay area. I should have specified. You think if I took a hike to the mountains I can find some U Mordax specimens? Cause THAT would be cool

Patcho wrote:

You think if I took a hike to the mountains I can find some U Mordax specimens? Cause THAT would be cool

Paruroctonus silvestrii should be around your area as well.

Not to sure about U.mordax locations. But yeah there are plenty of P. silvestrii here. You should definitely go out and look and report back here. If you want tips on how to hunt for scorpions let me know. But I do suggest you get a blacklight off ebay. The cheap ones work fine but the range is usually very low.