Most people recognize scorpions from their stingers. And a lot of people want to know, can a scorpion sting can kill you! But many scorpions rely on their pincers as much as their stingers for predation. What is predation? Do scorpion pincers hurt? That’s a great question. The easiest answer is, not really. Their pincers, or claws, are strong for an arthropod. They use their pincers to hold their prey down while they eat it because usually they start eating while the insect is still alive! Some scorpions, like the emperor scorpion, has pincers strong enough to rip soft prey like termites completely apart!
As scary as that sounds, human skin is much tougher than the skin of a termite. A pinch from an emperor scorpion might make you say, ow! But it isn’t likely to cause much damage. It will hurt a lot more to play with a puppy with sharp puppy teeth than to get pinched by a scorpion. You can also check out these other cool scorpion features.