Marine life: Sea urchins and jellyfish shouldbe avoided. And never sit, stand or touch any of the coral (unless it's sand, do not stand). It kills it and it takes decades to grow. Plus there is "fire coral" that you may not be familiar with and it has a certain sting.

Insects: Just wear repelleant, as they (mosquitos and sand flies) can be brutal to visitors (dunno why they leave locals alone and bite the tourists, but they do! When I first moved here I got eaten alive...a couple weeks later...nothing! Go figure).

Mammals: Nothing to avoid. If an iguana or mongoose doesn't want to be bothered, it will run away. You won't get near it. However, some iguanas are so tame that they beg for food. Throw the food to them instead of trying to have them eat it out of your hand. They have very bad aim and might get your finger. Doesn't hurt much, but it can bleed.

Mammals: Lok out for the livestock ni the middle of the roads. I had near run-ins with a herd of cattle, a bunch of goats, a pig, and the ever-present donkeys.

Ditto on the bugs: Take spray. One of our friends didn't wear it and he loked like a mess. His legs got devoured.

Look out for the land sharks!
Ronnie

Hello,

Look over our section on fauna:

https://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/flora_fauna/

--Islander

I can't believe you all forgot to mention centipedes! They are probably the most painful land critter to watch out for!

I've never met a centipede in STT. But, I've met a barracuda very close up!

in the 10 years I lived on St. Thomas I only saw one centipede, down at the stadium. It was about 2 feet long and had pincers the size of your thumb and index finger. One of the Frenchies selling fish ran over and chopped its head off with a machete. BTW, centipedes bite is deadly.

Too bad about that big centipede. It might have made an interesting aquarium pet.

I walked out my door this morning and found a terantula spider by my door. I heard they were on island but never saw one till this morning. I dont believe these terantulas are harmful?

Harmful or not...keep 'em away from me!!

So...with all the postings on *insects* on St Thomas, what is the best repellant I should bring along with me?

OFF with deet seems to work best. Like someone else said, tourists seem to get eaten alive. Mosquitos are the worst right after it rains here, especially when there is no breeze.

I always get bitten and locals look at my like Im crazy. Ive been here over two years and still get killed by the bugs. They say,"my blood must be too sweet."

Maybe there isn't enough blood in your alcohol system?

What about scorpions? Should we check our shoes in the morining? Are the scorpions there very poisonous? I know that it varies alot with the kind of scorpion.

Thanks

I am also eager to hear a response about scorpions.
We have found SEVERAL scorpions in our home since May and are growing concerned.
Someone told me VI scorpions are not poisonous. Can anyone confirm this? How do you know for sure? What, if anything, may result from a bite from a VI scorpion?
Thanks!

Scorpions!!!! Of my 17 years living in the VI I have never heard or seen any thing that deals with scorpions.

I have seen them, also but I was 'told' that they were like a bee sting. I didnt test the theory but I think bee stings arent cool. I do know of a person who got a nasty spider bite in the night by her eye and it left a scar.....I never saw anything like that though before.

In 7 years here, I have only seen dead scorpions...and they are tiy compared top Texas scorpions I've never checked my shoes. The worst peoblem I had was bugs when I first arrived. They don't bother me at all now. A friend was bitten by a recluse spider, and that was pretty nasty. Apparently one had some some babies in his house, because it was a couple week process to exterminate them. But, that's the only infestation that I've heard of here. Basically, for visitors, the only thing that you may deal with is mosquitos and "no seeums", but if you bring some OFF or Skin So Soft, you should be fine.

As a past (and hopefully future!) visitor to the VI, I enjoy this board, but don't often have anything to contribute... but... I can lend at least a little insight based on my experience.

I took a 15 day rafting trip on the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago. Among other things, scorpions are present in this environment. Early in the trip, we saw one, and the guide made a point of getting everyone over to observe, saying many trips never encountered one. The little lesson they provided was along the lines of three sizes in the Canyon, (small - less than an inch, medium, couple of inches, and large, ??). The sting of the smaller ones tended to be worse, based on their unscientific experience. Stings range from feeling like a bee sting, to total body numbness, to death (uncommon!), from a reaction that is comparable to a person who is allergic to a bee sting, anaphylactic (sp?) shock. But treatment can be different. Guides said if they would ever encounter one they were trained to perform a tracheotomy with a goal of keeping oxygen available, the time it would take to perform a helicopter evacuation would be too long to save someone who had this experience.

A day or two later, one of our guides, who had spent perhaps 10 years guiding and as much as half his year below the rim, was stung. He said he had only seen 1 or 2 stings per year on trips he was on (20-30 people each time, 10-15 two week trips a year), and this was his first one. Not a bad sting, as things go. Then, another day or two later, I was stung on the neck while asleep. It woke me up, I brushed it off, it was a medium one. Since it was about 4 am, I didn't get a guide up, which I later learned was what I should have done. If they administer some sort of sting stick quickly it can neutralize some of the poison. By a couple of hours later it was too late for it to help much. I took benadryl, and they kept a close eye on me for a couple of hours. It reminded me of a super dose of novocaine, spreading out from the bite to about half my face and neck, numbing as it spread, then staying for awhile, then retreating. That whole process lasted about a day. I was also very tired, sleeping that morning, which might have been a reaction to the benadryl as opposed to the sting.

Our guides indicated there seemed to be more scorpions present that year, and wondered if the dry conditions were having an impact.

A year or so later I read about a study where they had discovered that some scorpions actually have two levels of poison, a first one they use to knock out prey, and then a much stronger one if they are REALLY in danger. It was described as a relatively recent observation, and the scientists wondered if this could explain why some reactions are mild and some much more dangerous.

Well, I have now distributed the sum total of my scorpion knowledge and experience, hopefully someone finds it at least a little informative!

Looking forward to being back in the VI down the road at some point...

irbgolfin