Yellow wasps enjoy a sweet treat on the fruit of a prickly pear cactus. Photo by Nathaniel Lopez
By Nathaniel A. Lopez
It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark …
No, it’s not the thriller, but something that can strike fear into the hearts of Arizona’s desert dwellers.
On the evening of Friday, Oct. 11, Pinal County Open Space and Trails hosted a nighttime “Creepy Crawlers” Hike on the Arizona Trail. There were 10 people who participated in the hike, including event leader and Pinal County employee Steve Taylor and another Pinal County employee, Kelly Fox.
The group met up at the Tiger Mine Trailhead near Mammoth, where Steve told the group about the expectations for the hike. The group would be looking for scorpions and their nemesis the werewolf or grasshopper mouse. They would also be “spider-sniffing”, which is when you use a flashlight to catch the reflection from the spider’s eyes to locate it.
On the one-mile hike, the group found quite a few scorpions: striped-tail scorpions and a few bark scorpions. The group also found plenty of spiders and even a pack rat nesting in some cactus and some wasps enjoying the sweetness of the fruit of a prickly pear cactus.
It was a nice event that gave some education on the creepy crawlers that lurk in the backyards of Pinal County.
Be sure to check out Pinal County’s website to keep up to date on events that are near you.
Steve Taylor from Pinal County’s Open Space and Trails talks about the desert creepy crawlers expected to be found on a night hike at the Tiger Trailhead. Photo by Nathaniel Lopez