A California man staying at a Las Vegas Strip resort over the holiday season said he is considering legal action after he said his testicles were stung by a scorpion while he was asleep.
I mean… nature is nature and sometimes nature invades indoor spaces. Why is he blaming the resort? Unless he’s claiming the scorpion was allowed in his room through some sort of gross negligence or… I guess, intentionally… what were they supposed to do to stop it from crawling through an open window, up a drain, or through a gap in the door?
Like for real, I pay for a pest service that comes to spray around my home regularly, and I still had lady bugs mysteriously invading my bathroom all winter. If I had a guest stay over and get bitten by a spider in the middle of the night, am I legally liable for that? Should I be patrolling the halls 24/7 with a flashlight and a can of raid and doing hourly bed checks for arachnids? Is that the bare minimum he expects?
Don’t get me wrong. Getting woken up by a painful venomous sting to the nut would be fucking awful, no doubt. New nightmare unlocked. Fully justified at being pissed. But why at the resort? Be pissed at the scorpion. Be pissed at mother nature, God, life, bad luck, whatever. But the resort had about as much of a hand in your circumstances as you did, which is to say next to none. It would be like suing the owner of a parking lot because your Beemer got bird shit on it. They’re wild animals dude, and they’re fucking everywhere, what do you want me to do?!
Do scorpions infest a building like rats or cockroaches? I thought one might wander in but not that they’re setting up nests inside.
The Venetian is not in a rural area, so I would think it’s more likely it came in with this guy’s luggage or clothing after they had been out somewhere.
It doesn’t seem like you could pin it on the hotel’s negligence.
(Also seeing the picture of that guy and his lawyer does not make me more likely to support him.)
Edit: I was curious and googled around - lot of pest companies who want to help you with your scorpion problem, but sounds like it’s more often the lawn/pool and the house is an accident:
Scorpions are not drawn to your home more than any other place in your yard. In most places, it is rare to get scorpions in your home. Scorpions have poor eyesight and use touch as the main guide to finding habitats. They look for small cracks to crawl in. Usually, they are found in the home by accident unless you have another pest problem that is supplying food for the scorpions. If you are purchasing a vacant home there is a higher probability that scorpions are inside the home."
They are predators so they roam for food. Many times they roam into your house, or maybe into the 1st floor laundry room or shipping/receiving area where fresh laundry is delivered.
They also are pretty stout climbers and would have no problems getting aboard a basket or stack of fresh towels.
They also sit around during the day, so they would just ride around on the laundry cart until they get delivered to your room.
Lastly, they are small and barely noticeable. It’s not like a black ant that obviously sticks out on the floor or on a sheet.
Lastly they are dumb. They sting first, ask questions later.
If a singular rat had run in the alley door and bit a patron, abso-fucking-lutely. I expect places serving people food or shelter to be clean, not literally unenterable by vermin. They don’t make pest force fields.
The presence of one pest is not an infestation, it’s a call to action to make sure an infestation doesn’t happen. I’m not saying that the resort should do nothing now. They should have the place sprayed (or likely sprayed again, because they probably already are) at minimum, and probably have pest control do a targeted look for signs of an infestation just to be safe.
The only way that the resort should be liable to the presence of a single pest is if it had not done what could reasonably be expected to prevent infestations or did nothing to address it after the fact. Expecting that they keep literally every single bug out of the property is not reasonable. It’s impossible.
Now, if he had reason to believe or evidence to show that the resort had not done the minimum expected due diligence to prevent pests and that had resulted in his injury, then yes, by all means blame them. Maybe he does have that. Maybe he or other patrons have seen a lot of pests on the property. Or there may even have been others with scorpion injuries before. If it’s apparent that the resort did not take action when signs of infestation were obvious or reported to them, that’s negligence. They should be sued for that. But if a single random incident is all that he has… that’s not grounds for claiming they’re negligent.
I mean… nature is nature and sometimes nature invades indoor spaces. Why is he blaming the resort? Unless he’s claiming the scorpion was allowed in his room through some sort of gross negligence or… I guess, intentionally… what were they supposed to do to stop it from crawling through an open window, up a drain, or through a gap in the door?
Like for real, I pay for a pest service that comes to spray around my home regularly, and I still had lady bugs mysteriously invading my bathroom all winter. If I had a guest stay over and get bitten by a spider in the middle of the night, am I legally liable for that? Should I be patrolling the halls 24/7 with a flashlight and a can of raid and doing hourly bed checks for arachnids? Is that the bare minimum he expects?
Don’t get me wrong. Getting woken up by a painful venomous sting to the nut would be fucking awful, no doubt. New nightmare unlocked. Fully justified at being pissed. But why at the resort? Be pissed at the scorpion. Be pissed at mother nature, God, life, bad luck, whatever. But the resort had about as much of a hand in your circumstances as you did, which is to say next to none. It would be like suing the owner of a parking lot because your Beemer got bird shit on it. They’re wild animals dude, and they’re fucking everywhere, what do you want me to do?!
Would you make the same argument for restaurants allowing rats to infest their premises?
“Nature is nature”
Do scorpions infest a building like rats or cockroaches? I thought one might wander in but not that they’re setting up nests inside.
The Venetian is not in a rural area, so I would think it’s more likely it came in with this guy’s luggage or clothing after they had been out somewhere.
It doesn’t seem like you could pin it on the hotel’s negligence.
(Also seeing the picture of that guy and his lawyer does not make me more likely to support him.)
Edit: I was curious and googled around - lot of pest companies who want to help you with your scorpion problem, but sounds like it’s more often the lawn/pool and the house is an accident:
"Are Scorpions Attracted To The Inside Of My House?
Scorpions are not drawn to your home more than any other place in your yard. In most places, it is rare to get scorpions in your home. Scorpions have poor eyesight and use touch as the main guide to finding habitats. They look for small cracks to crawl in. Usually, they are found in the home by accident unless you have another pest problem that is supplying food for the scorpions. If you are purchasing a vacant home there is a higher probability that scorpions are inside the home."
They are predators so they roam for food. Many times they roam into your house, or maybe into the 1st floor laundry room or shipping/receiving area where fresh laundry is delivered.
They also are pretty stout climbers and would have no problems getting aboard a basket or stack of fresh towels.
They also sit around during the day, so they would just ride around on the laundry cart until they get delivered to your room.
Lastly, they are small and barely noticeable. It’s not like a black ant that obviously sticks out on the floor or on a sheet.
Lastly they are dumb. They sting first, ask questions later.
If a singular rat had run in the alley door and bit a patron, abso-fucking-lutely. I expect places serving people food or shelter to be clean, not literally unenterable by vermin. They don’t make pest force fields.
The presence of one pest is not an infestation, it’s a call to action to make sure an infestation doesn’t happen. I’m not saying that the resort should do nothing now. They should have the place sprayed (or likely sprayed again, because they probably already are) at minimum, and probably have pest control do a targeted look for signs of an infestation just to be safe.
The only way that the resort should be liable to the presence of a single pest is if it had not done what could reasonably be expected to prevent infestations or did nothing to address it after the fact. Expecting that they keep literally every single bug out of the property is not reasonable. It’s impossible.
Now, if he had reason to believe or evidence to show that the resort had not done the minimum expected due diligence to prevent pests and that had resulted in his injury, then yes, by all means blame them. Maybe he does have that. Maybe he or other patrons have seen a lot of pests on the property. Or there may even have been others with scorpion injuries before. If it’s apparent that the resort did not take action when signs of infestation were obvious or reported to them, that’s negligence. They should be sued for that. But if a single random incident is all that he has… that’s not grounds for claiming they’re negligent.