Pulling Androctonus australis out of hiding...

As many of you know, A. australis can be a rather reclusive species, to say the least. Mine was no different for a long time. I recently made a change to his enclosure and it seems to have helped. I have noticed him out of his hide every night (and most days) since I made the change about a week ago. Maybe this will help you guys that want to see yours a bit more often since they are, indeed, an incredible species when they aren't in hiding.

I have been using FlexWatt for a long time. As you guys saw in some of my older pictures of my desert enclosures, I have one long strip of FlexWatt running along the back wall of my tank. Now, for some reason, the strip on my smaller species enclosure (the one divided into 5 units) wasn't putting out much heat. The temps in the units on the sides of the enclosure were only getting up around 83-85F (23-24C). I wanted it warmer. Closer to what the scorps would experience in their natural habitats. So, I took the long strip of FlexWatt and piggy-backed another strip on either side of it. The extra strips I attached to the sides of the enclosure so that heating would come from not only the back, but also the side. I installed them right at the substrate line, so they also provide a little bit of a wall so that the light from outside the enclosure doesn't completely come through. This boosted the temps up significantly. I am now getting temperatures in the low 90's, generally around 93F (33.89C). I am more comfortable with temps in this range and apparently so are my scorpions. Like I said earlier... The night after I did this modification, my A. australis came out of hiding and has been out every night and many of the days since. Hopefully you guys have similar luck. If you aren't good at electrical work or if you aren't comfortable with FlexWatt, I would imagine you can get similar results from using a couple heat mats in the same positions. Here are some pics:


Really rough schematic of how I wired the FlexWatt for those of you that know what you're doing with a soldering iron. I suck at computer graphics. Lol. Main back strip is actually made out of two strips installed together.




Here's what it looks like in the enclosure so you can see how I installed it. He even came out for me as I was taking the picture.

So is it bad that when I read the title I thought you were going to show us a viseo of you pulling him out barehanded?

Hahaha... I'm not quite that hardcore.

I don't think anyone is. Except maybe someone like Steve Erwin or Evel Knieval...

I hope not. And if someone is, I would hope they would be kind enough to not post it here and inspire other Darwin Award nominees. Haha. I'm really good at hand grabbing. I've been handling C. vits since I was 9 and have only gotten tagged twice. I've handled my H. arizonensis and my B. leptochelys by handling the metasoma. They're only 3's on the venom scale, though. I probably would be able to grab my A. australis if I really wanted to, but he's fast. I do not plan on risking it. I probably wouldn't die if something went wrong but the pain is not something I'm really longing to experience. Lol.