Making money by catching scorpions with bare hands
To earn a living, people in Bay Nui of the Mekong Delta province of An Giang are willing to do a dangerous job: catching scorpions, millipedes, spiders and snakes.
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| Bay Nui is the only place in the southwestern region that has many species of reptiles and insects with venom like scorpions, millipedes, tiger spiders, and snakes. |
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| Mr. Nguyen Van Cuong, a resident in the town of Nha Bang, Tinh Bien district, has been a scorpion catcher for nearly five years. |
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| Scorpions usually live in rock caves or the porous soil layer under rotten leaves. The best time for catching scorpions is a sunny day and in the early rainy season. During this time, one person can catch 100 to 150 scorpions a day. |
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| Every day, Cuong goes along the cassava fields or mounds in orchards to find scorpion caves. Cuong’s tools are a ladle and a small plastic bucket. |
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| Catching scorpions with bare hands is dangerous. Cuong can earn just VND3,000-VND5,000/scorpion. |
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| Scorpion catchers said only experts can find scorpion caves. |
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| According to Cuong, a cave usually has two scorpions, a male and a female but there are up to six to seven scorpions in some caves. “Scorpions are very fast and cruel at night but during the day they just stay at one place and do not bite. To catch scorpions, the catcher has to press the scorpion tails down not to be bitten,” Cuong said. |
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| Mr. Tran Van Thom, in O Lam commune, Tri Ton district, said in Bay Nui in the last 5 years this species has been declining because they have become a specialty at restaurants and a medicine. |
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| Tinh Bien insect market is the place for gathering and selling of these species. |