Greetings, and happy 2015. I hope your holidays were safe, enjoyable, and restive. We left town for two weeks; first in Chicago visiting relatives and the second week in beautiful Telluride, Colorado. Fortunately we had relatively warm weather and beat the freeze Chicago is now experiencing. The snow conditions in Telluride were excellent and yours truly hit the slopes of the "Bunny Hill" where the ole bug guy showed the little kids a thing or two about skiing :-).

I want to talk about scorpions and before you slap your head and say "oh no, here he goes again" bear with me for a minute because you should find this historical information interesting... and no, it's not about the Kill Zone.

ISIS and Scorpions: Militants fighting for ISIS in the Middle East have unveiled their latest terror tactic: 2 foot canister bombs containing thousands of live poisonous scorpions launched from improvised devices that explode on impact. When the canister breaks open thousands of robust scorpions are ejected and scatter throughout the immediate area, typically a small village populated by innocent people. The bombs are not causing casualties, but poisonous scorpions have a profound psychological effect that creates fear and panic among the local population... and that's the goal.

The World's Oldest Biological Weapon: Deploying poisonous scorpion bombs is a tactic thousands of years old that was first used by Iraqis fighting against the Roman Empire, circa 198 AD. Roman Emperor Septimius Severus had held their Parthian city of Hatra under siege for 20 days before his troops were finally driven out by the 'live' bombs. Iraqi soldiers would pack ceramic pots full of live poisonous scorpions then hurl them at the Romans. The brute effectiveness of the Iraqi's defensive biological and chemical weapons finally overcame Roman morale, manpower and siege machines, and the terror effect resulted in the siege's end.

Although this is a relatively dormant time of year for local scorpions, stay alert because they're attracted to the heat a home provides and you cannot be too cautious with these nasty fellas.