Insect farms seem to come to stay. The European Union wants them to begin to be part of our diet and there are countries like Spain that are putting the batteries. An example is the Tebrio plant in Salamanca, which will be the largest flour worm farm. But, in addition to producing food, we also raise other unusual animals, such as scorpions.
In countries like Egypt, Mexico or China, scorpions have become a business. And not only do they raise them: they order them.
Life poison. Scorpion is an animal that cool. There are more than 2,000 species, they are all over the world, except in Antarctica, and have extraordinary characteristics. The sting and tweezers attract attention, but they have a very hard exoskeleton, they can regulate the amount of poison they inject at will, they have an excellent night vision, great control of metabolism and endure their breath almost a week.
Come on, they have been here for 400 million years and are older than dinosaurs, so they have had to force everything that has been preceded. Now, much less than we can think are dangerous for humans. The poison is designed for the hunt for their prey and, of those 2,000 species, only between 25 and 50 would be in danger (and the bites of many of them would not be lethal).
Farms. And it is precisely that poison that interests us as a species. The amount of poison that a few hundred copies have would be insufficient, so places are needed in which to house thousands of these arachnids. And when I talk about thousands … it’s thousands. Nigeria is a power in scorpion breeding, but also China, Thailand, Mexico or Egypt. In this country there are facilities with 80,000 copies. Eighty thousand scorpions, which is said soon.
These farms require specific conditions for parenting, with areas adapted to the species in which they have specialized and a number of specimens that varies depending on the objective. Thus, farms can be used to have copies to release and help us control pests. They can be part of an antivenene research laboratory or, directly, a farm in which we milked them.
Milking scorpions. Ordering animals has nothing strange, but we must recognize that ordering scorpions is something that comes out of the ordinary. What interests is his poison, and farmers like Metin Orenler give the key in Abs Science to do so: patience, pulse, courage and a game of tweezers with which to extract the poison.
The problem is that each of its scorpions (Androctonus turtiyensiswhere appropriate) only produces two milligrams of poison a day. It is very little and is the reason why these farms have tens of thousands of copies. In the case of Orenler, 20,000 scorpions.
Liquid gold. After milking it, they freeze it into liquid nitrogen, they make it powder and this Turkish farm sells it to Europe for medical research, but there are other countries (especially in Asia) that are also very interested in this scorpion poison dust. And this is where the key to the matter is: the scorpion poison is the most expensive liquid in the world. How much? Orender states that ten million liter. It is necessary to milked a lot to reach those amounts, it is evident, but still … Why is it paid so much?
Potential. For many reasons, really. We have already talked about the research, and in ABC, Volker Herzig, who is a professor at the University of Sunshine Coast, comments that peptides and proteins, very numerous in the scorpion venom, can be isolated and analyzed to create something beneficial for us. For example, for the biological control of insects and parasites in agriculture or veterinary, but also to treat human diseases.
Herzig explains that they are powerful and very specific compounds and that, if they manage to combine properly, they can be almost miraculous. “Let’s say that a protein is hyperactive in a disease, so if you find a poison toxin – scorpion – that manages to block it, a measure can be created to combat it.” The researcher points out that they have found components with potential to treat epilepsy, irritable colon and even strokes.
Dorothy Wai is a researcher at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Monash and also studies medical uses of the poison. And his research focuses on the treatment of autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, thanks to a protein called KV1.3 present in this substance.
Following the venom trace. The problem is that Herzig also comments that, although he has received offers from farms to Buy poison, he rarely buys because “you can never be sure of the origin.” That is, if he needs something very specific and contact him from India (something that has happened), he does not know if they really want to sell the poison because of how lucrative it is or because it is the concrete venom you need for your research.
“I think that several more toxinologists have received similar offers,” he says, adding that what he has decided to make samples is … traveling through Europe and manually milking scorpions raised by individuals. He assures that there is “a great movement in Europe of people who raise spiders and scorpions as pets”, and what really awakens my curiosity, and also a itching in the back, is the phrase of “visits to someone and has 200 copies in the basement.”
Cosmetic. Wait, how much money these researchers have? The answer is that it is not they who take the bulk of production, but the cosmetics industry, which adds scorpion or extracts to their products, as well as traditional medicine companies. Teams like Herzig’s no longer collect poison, because when they sequence DNA, they don’t need more, but to create traditional medicines not backed by scientific evidence or new cosmetics, you do need large quantities.
On this, the researcher comments that he does not know what they put to these products and that it would be cautious, since there is no clear scientific evidence on the effect of their components. Or if they have any effect. It is not the only one. Grupo Lifescozul has focused on investigating the medical properties of the poison of blue scorpion and states that, although the evidence supports the effectiveness of the poison for certain uses, social networks “promote supposed cosmetic products to improve the appearance of the skin”, ensuring that “there is no scientific evidence that this substance is safe and effective for its use in creams, sprays or ointments for the skin”
“In fact, there is not a single scientific article, published or not, that endorses the use of the blue scorpion poison in the skin” – Lifescozul Group.
It’s worth it? But, of course, a liter is worth dozens of millions of dollars, we can make ourselves fly to our lives and put ourselves to milking scorpions. Maybe it’s not a good idea. “I have heard of many scorpion farms that are emerging everywhere, but I don’t know if it is a viable business model,” says Herzig, who says he does not believe there is so much demand for everyone.
fluffy. And some experiences directly point to what Herzig points out. That possibility of winning a million selling scorpion poison is something that has seduced some in recent years. In France 24 they mention the case of Mohammad Fallah, a young Iranian who fell into the charm of scorpion breeding. He bought 1,500 and now has 3,000, investing in the process almost 2,000 euros when the Iranian minimum salary is less than 1,000 euros a year.
“I learned everything I know about Internet scorpion agriculture, how to raise them, how to feed them, how to milked the poison and store it in the right way,” he says. He continues to point out that he has made two grams of poison so far, worse has a problem: he has sent dozens of messages to laboratories and pharmaceutical companies, but nobody wants to buy. He has also tried inside Iran … and nothing.
And scams. “My situation is becoming difficult, so I am considering my options. If nothing changes, I will release some of the scorpions in nature, and I will sell the rest to anyone who may love them,” says Mohammad, and that is one of the big problems of all this: without exit, when those who bet on it see that they are constantly losing money, they release them, creating imbalances in nature.
And the reason why they embark on this uncertain adventure is because of the false advertising and mafias behind her. There are already those who profit by selling courses that teach how to raise these animals to get rich selling the poison without stopping to think that, if it were such a lucrative business, they would be the ones who give courses who would take advantage of their wisdom, they would not walk sharing the secret with others. This is common in many areas right now.
Because these farms are a reality, yes, but the market is not so great. From France 24 they contacted Venomtech, a United Kingdom company that orders scorpions and sells less than one gram per year, half of the Mohammad production. They claim that not only are reliable laboratories that have a simpler way out, but that exorbitant poison productions by those who think they will become rich with their sale “demonstrates that, really, they have no idea of the poison market.”
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