The Hornet or Wasp seem right for Oregon. That is for sure the biggest threat at my place. The wife and I have both been nailed by those guys in force. Several different times.
You laughed, I laughed, I'll bet we all laughed at that one. But, you're going to have an awfully difficult time getting me to believe that your wife thought it was as funny as the rest of us.
One time when I was 17 and fresh out of high school, I was working with my dad in Atlanta bricking up apartments and houses. We got our brick in great big bundles from Texas. One time I was grabbing some brick when I noticed a scorpion, from Texas, no doubt. You know how dumb kids can be. I coaxed him into an empty coke bottle. Did't have a bottle cap so I just left a piece of cardboard on top and returned to my job. I placed the bottle still with the cardboard on top between my legs on the floorboard. Got home and remembered the scorpion. Looked on the floorboard and saw an empty coke bottle rolling around on the floor. Crap, a normal person would have been alarmed but I just shrugged and entered the house we were renting. Man, I was pretty stupid when I was young. For God's sake, I volunteered to be a helicopter door gunner in combat in 1968. I think I've got you all beat for stupidity. Oh, and don't get me started on my ex wife.
Plenty of snakes around here. Seen them in the neighborhood often. Luckily we also have a lot of the garden snakes which are harmless to people but eat the rattlers. Worst was actually when we moved here, we rented for 1/2 a year until we found a house - and it was a brand new complex right next to a hill - one day my kid calls me "Dad, there is a strange bug on my wall" - went to look at it - a scorpion... Had swimming fins right next to me in that room - used them to get rid of that scorpion - and that's why these are always called in our house the scorpion killers. A week later found another one in the garage - captured it in a jar to show the office - and had the complex bring an exterminator to get rid of them.
I was gonna post that picture a couple weeks ago but then I remembered there's an even better one that I wasn't able to find.
I feel like you are leaving an important part of the story out. Did the scorpion get anybody in the house or not?
I am not sure exactly which kind - we tend to lump all the non problematic snakes into the "garden snake" variety - so maybe. I know we have them.
Ever since I was a little boy back in the early 50s us kids called snakes that were totally harmless and ate flies, beetles and ants and had no teeth. These snakes were typically anywhere betwee six inches and a foot long. When I found one, I would pick it up and put it in my shirt pocket. They would try to bite my tiny (oops, I should say massive) hands but I felt zero pain. I always thought it was kind of cute.
