scorpions bath

Name: _______________________ Hitchhikers in the Bathroom by Liana Mahoney Imagine this. You step up to the sink, wet Pseudoscorpions your toothbrush, and begin cleaning your usually live outside in pearly whites. Out of the corner of your eye, mulch, under tree you see something moving on the wall. bark, and in leaf litter. Suddenly, you realize you’re not alone in the So how do they end bathroom. Your heart pounding, you turn up in the bathroom? toward the tiny intruder to get a better look. They use those pincer- like claws to hitch a You’re horrified to see that it has eight legs, ride on other bugs, and a pair of oversized pincers on its front such as flies and end. Is it some kind of miniature octopus, or beetles. When these insects come in, so do a bizarre crab? Is it going to sting you? the pseudoscorpions - attached to their legs! Actually, it’s a bug, and it’s no more harmful These tiny arachnids prefer moist places. to you than a housefly. This tiny bathroom Since the bathroom tends to be humid after bug is called a pseudoscorpion (SOO-doh- bathing and showering, it’s a likely place to SCOR-pee-uhn). But don’t be fooled by its find them. But they are easily overlooked. name. It’s not really a scorpion; it’s just a Most pseudoscorpions are only about two to relative. The pseudoscorpion is a kind of eight millimeters long. arachnid (uh-RAK-nid), which means it is closely related to spiders, scorpions, and Pseudoscorpions don’t bite or sting humans, mites. Like scorpions, pseudoscorpions have and they can even be helpful. These bugs a segmented body and two enormous feed on common household pests, such as pincers. But pseudoscorpions lack the carpet beetle larvae, ants, mites, and small curved stinger that all true scorpions have. flies. Welcoming this hitchhiker into your home may mean there are fewer household pests to “bug” you! Super Teacher Worksheets - www.superteacherworksheets.com

Name: _______________________ Hitchhikers in the Bathroom by Liana Mahoney 1. If you wanted to find a pseudoscorpion outdoors, where would you look? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 2. Use the Venn diagram to show how pseudoscorpions and real scorpions are alike and how they're different. pseudoscorpions real scorpions both 3. How can pseudoscorpions be helpful to humans? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ Super Teacher Worksheets - www.superteacherworksheets.com

Name: _______________________ Hitchhikers in the Bathroom by Liana Mahoney Match each vocabulary word from the article with the correct definition. _______ 1. bizarre a. the immature forms of an insect _______ 2. moist b. having a very small size _______ 3. enormous c. strange, unusual _______ 4. miniature d. extremely scared or shocked _______ 5. larvae e. somewhat wet or damp _______ 6. intruder f. divided into sections _______ 7. segmented g. very large in size; huge _______ 8. horrified h. invader Super Teacher Worksheets - www.superteacherworksheets.com