While scorpions are not found in the Northeast, a woman was brought to an area hospital after being stung at Boston’s airport.
A woman was stung by a scorpion while retrieving luggage at Boston Logan International Airport on Sunday, according to police.
Massachusetts State Police said the 40-year-old woman was retrieving her luggage from the baggage claim area of customs around 7:30 p.m. Sunday when she was stung. She was taken to an area hospital for treatment but no update on her condition was available.
State police said they did not have any information on where the scorpion came from or what type of scorpion it was.
"Their intended targets are not humans," said Jessica Garb, an associate professor at UMass Lowell. "It's conceivable that the scorpion could have somehow got entangled in some luggage, unintentionally, and got transported."
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According to the Mayo Clinic, scorpion stings can be very painful but are rarely life-threatening, and healthy adults often don't even require treatment. Young children and older adults are at a higher risk of serious complications.
"Most of the time, people just get really bad pain," said Dr. Michael Simpson of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "It's been described as like a bee sting, and it's usually children that are more likely to actually get sick, to get really systemically sick."
Scorpions live on every continent except for Antarctica, but they are not common in the Northeast. There are over 2,500 different species.
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"Very unusual, I have never heard of this happening," Garb said of the Logan incident.
