Is that a….?! Dutch woman finds a scorpion in her shed

The sight of a skittery insect sends many of us running for the door (though we’d much rather get a flamethrower 👀🔥), as one Dutch woman was recently reminded.

The Nunspeet native had wandered into her storage shed when she spotted something terrifying, reports the NOS.

The shocking discovery

When Ezra van Olst rifled through a cabinet in her shed for another pack of baby wipes, she was horrified to see a small, black shape with far too many legs skitter under the pack of wipes.

Scared to death of skittery things, she dispatched an investigative team of one: her boyfriend.

Van Olst’s boyfriend, however, had an entirely different reaction.

Shouting, “Wow, a scorpion!”, it was love at first sight. (At the time of the interview, van Olst’s boyfriend had scurried off to a pet store to find a terrarium for his new critter.)

It was a well-travelled scorpion

Putting on her detective cap, van Olst determined that the scorpion was likely a European black scorpion.

As black scorpions are normally found in southern Europe, she deduced that it must have snuck into the package of baby wipes and gone on a cross-continental voyage.

Fabrice Ottburg, an ecologist from Wageningen University and Research, confirmed van Olst’s suspicions to the NOS.

What do you think of finding a skittery scorpion in your home? Tell us all about it in the comments below!

Feature image:Depositphotos

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Liana Risseeuw 🇱🇰
Liana Risseeuw 🇱🇰
Liana juggles her role as an Editor with wrapping up a degree in cognitive linguistics and assisting with DutchReview's affiliate portfolio. Since arriving in the Netherlands for her studies in 2018, she's thrilled to have the 'write' opportunity to help other internationals feel more at home here — whether that's by penning an article on the best SIMs to buy in NL, the latest banking features, or important things to know about Dutch health insurance.

3 COMMENTS

  1. I live in Phoenix, AZ; scorpions are fascinating, but unwelcome. The varieties we have glow under blacklight. Hunting for them with a blacklight in the evening, on the desert is quite fun. Without a blacklight, you have no idea how numerous they are, practically right under your feet.

  2. We live in Queensland Australia. We recently had the roof on the house replaced and found a snake skin about 1.8 meters long between the ceiling and roof. No sign of the owner was found. We never knew we shared the house with a snake.

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