Not many places to buy scorpions?

Every pet store in town either has no scorpions or they have only emperors.

Looking around online I find Ken the bug guy (decent selection), Hatari inverts (poor selection), Swift inverts (decent selection) and bugs in cyberspace (VERY poor selection).

Is this really all there is to choose from or am I just not very good at google searching?

You've pretty much covered all the state side places for scorpions. What exactly are you looking for that you can't find? There are a good bit of scorpion species not in the us hobby for one reason or another. Sadly, your expectation of "decent selection" is probably the best selection you will get regarding scorpions.

Tarantula Inc. carries some scorpions.

Envyizm wrote:

You've pretty much covered all the state side places for scorpions. What exactly are you looking for that you can't find? There are a good bit of scorpion species not in the us hobby for one reason or another. Sadly, your expectation of "decent selection" is probably the best selection you will get regarding scorpions.

There isn't any one thing I am looking for that I can't find, but there have been several times that I have read about a certain species then I look around at the dealers and it is nowhere to be found. Seems odd that there are so many people talking about Androctonus Bicolar yet nobody has one for sale (last I checked). Thats just one example.

certain people are trying to breed these species to make them more available best scorps come from hobbyist best bet is to place a classified ad.

MRMB wrote:

There isn't any one thing I am looking for that I can't find, but there have been several times that I have read about a certain species then I look around at the dealers and it is nowhere to be found. Seems odd that there are so many people talking about Androctonus Bicolar yet nobody has one for sale (last I checked). Thats just one example.

You have to keep in mind that most of the scorpions in the hobby are either from captive breeding or from the very few imports we get with scorpions per year. I know plenty of people who have or have had bicolor, but unfortunately, it takes a relatively long amount of time for them to reach adulthood, not too many are skilled enough to produce them successfully and their gestation can take a relatively long amount of time. Scorpions will probably never be one of those readily available pet types. Hell, just last year I produced over 1k scorpions by myself and had a hard time getting them sold. Now, I rarely see people in possession of species I had produced. In other words, be patient and someone will either import them or produce them. I still have some time before my aeneas morph bicolor mature and make babies.

~Abyss~ wrote:

certain people are trying to breed these species to make them more available best scorps come from hobbyist best bet is to place a classified ad.

Exactly.

Envyizm wrote:

You have to keep in mind that most of the scorpions in the hobby are either from captive breeding or from the very few imports we get with scorpions per year. I know plenty of people who have or have had bicolor, but unfortunately, it takes a relatively long amount of time for them to reach adulthood, not too many are skilled enough to produce them successfully and their gestation can take a relatively long amount of time. Scorpions will probably never be one of those readily available pet types. Hell, just last year I produced over 1k scorpions by myself and had a hard time getting them sold. Now, I rarely see people in possession of species I had produced. In other words, be patient and someone will either import them or produce them. I still have some time before my aeneas morph bicolor mature and make babies.

Imports WE get each year? Who are "we" and how do I find out what gets imported and who it gets imported to?

And how do I research who breeds what that way I can deal directly with breeders and not "bug dealers"?

We is a term I've personally selected as the collective community of fellow hobbyist, dealers, etc. You do realize that this hobby isn't booming like the reptile hobby and such, right? In fact, most of these invert imports are merely addons to imports by reptile importers who allow invert dealers to cut the import cost and bundle with them. There is really no easy "cookie cutter" approach to getting the "answers to life" portion to invert buying and what is actually out there only due to the fact that the hobby just doesn't have the type of need for it.

With that said, this should make your quest for finding breeders quite easy. In fact, all it takes is a little bit of awareness and some reading as there are breeder tags associated with breeders on the forum *clears throat*.

Now I will state that most, if not all, scorpion breeders are fellow hobbyist, so don't get disappointed when they don't unveil this wally world sized collection of various different species at cut throat prices.

Just for fun, please share with the forum the species that you are looking for currently.

I did notice your "breeder" tag, but you are about the only one I have seen.

Not quite 100% decided on what to get, as I am still in the research phase, but I will likely get desert scorpions....Androctonus, Parabuthus, Hottentotta, Leiurus, Vaejovis.

MRMB wrote:

Androctonus, Parabuthus, Hottentotta, Leiurus, Vaejovis.

I can tell you, without a doubt that there are the following species from the genera in question available in the states somewhere:
Leiurus quinquestriatus quinquestriatus
Leiurus quinquestriatus hebraeus
Parabuthus transvaalicus
Parabuthus liosoma
Parabuthus villosus "black"
Parabuthus schlechteri
Androctonus australis
Androctonus bicolor "several morphs"
Androctonus "crassicauda"
Androctonus mauretanicus "as of a year or so ago"
Hottentotta hottentotta
Hottentotta judaicus
Hottentotta jayakari
Hottentotta trilineatus
Some of these may be harder to find than others.
Not too sure about the various species of vaejovis in the hobby as I'm a bit obsessed with buthids.
Also, there have allegedly been Androctonus crassicauda in the states although I haven't seen an example of this that wasn't merely a larger bicolor.

What species do you breed?

I'm getting back into breeding myself after a few set backs but I'm getting back into it. This hobby is hard to get out your blood once it gets in it. Lol. In the future I plan to breed P. Schlechteri,(once they mature) A. Bicolor. Those are my the ones that I will be working with so far.