THERE was a sting in the tale for a mother and her baby son whenthey settled down for a night in front of the telly and wereconfronted by a 5cm long scorpion.
Carolyn was relaxing on Friday night in her Cavehill Road home,when she suddenly discovered she was sharing her sofa with a creepycrawly.
Her fearless husband Joe heard her screams and quickly leapt intoaction.
He ran downstairs and killed the creature which was believed tobe the first one of its kind found in Northern Ireland.
Joe said: "She ran upstairs to me, screaming that she was scaredbecause there was a scorpion on the sofa. I said she was talkingrubbish, that it was probably just a big spider.
"It wasn't that big but was a scary looking thing. We have ayoung baby who had been on that sofa just half an hour before. Whoknows what a sting from a scorpion could do to a child of fourmonths?"
A quick internet search identified it as possibly being aEuropean yellow tailed scorpion. It's not deadly, but its stingcould be lethal for a very young child.
The yellow tailed scorpion is indigenous to Europe and some partsof southern England but is not native to Northern Ireland.
Carolyn is so shaken that she and baby Connor are staying withher mother. Until the scorpion is identified they are unsure whetherthey are safe to return home.
"It's totally bizarre," said Joe. "The only thing we can think ofis the fact we had a friend from London staying recently so it couldhave crawled into her luggage and escaped while she was here."
Belfast City Council said: "Scorpions are not considered asvermin or a pest and therefore could not be dealt with by pestcontrol."
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