Original subtitles

Welcome to the Bloodworm Bite Table.

What I have in front of me here are five very large bloodworms.

No, these are not your granddad's nightcrawlers, folks.

These are natural born killers.

Armed with four venomous fangs and an appetite to match,

we have been told that these worms pack one heck of a bite.

Some people say that it's like a bee sting.

And locals have even told us that they've seen worm diggers

crawling out of the mudflats in near tears

from being bitten by these carnivorous worms.

But there is one key piece of information

that we learned from the original bloodworm video

to today.

And that is you can actually head a bloodworm.

Similar to how a herpetologist would head a venomous snake

to keep it from biting them, I will actually

attempt to grab the proboscis once it shoots out

and then intentionally inflict my first bite.

And yes, I said first bite.

There's going to be more than one.

Now what I'm going try to do is head the proboscis.

And while I'm attempting to do this,

let's review some of the most interesting facts

about this bizarre marine oddity.

The bloodworm

is a venomous segmented worm that hunts invertebrates

and other marine creatures.

Armed with four razor sharp fangs and a projectile mouth

called a proboscis, they are voracious predators

and are as aggressive as they are bizarre.

One of the most shocking things about these worms

is how normal they can appear, and then in a split second,

transform into one of the most alien looking life forms

you've ever seen.

And as if this wasn't creepy enough, things get even worse.

Once the bloodworm has its prey ensnared in those hook jaws,

it will inject it with a paralyzing venom that

incapacitates the victim, so it can be digested and eaten alive.

This venom is chemically similar to that of a scorpion

and is known to cause severe reactions in humans,

including burning, tissue damage, and anaphylactic shock.

Please do not attempt what you're about to see.

Oh.

Almost got it.

Ah, missed it.

Oh, oh, oh.

Come on.

All right.

I got it.

Oh, wants to bite me.

That is the proboscis of one of the biggest

bloodworms I have ever seen.

Holy moly.

That's over a foot, for sure.

OK, time to get bitten by one of the only venomous worms

on the planet, the bloodworm.

Got a good hold on it.

Here we go.

1, 2, 3.

Ah!

Oh god, he's on me.

Oh, look at that.

Ah, he won't let go.

He won't let go.

Oh, he's in.

Oh, he's really on there, guys.

I can't get him off.

Ah, he's biting me.

He's got me good.

Yeah, he got me.

Ah, man.

It didn't break the skin.

It was definitely latched into me, but its fangs I don't think

are long enough to break the skin of my finger.

I wonder if I try on a softer part.

Let's try my wrist.

It's a little bit thinner there.

A little bit softer, all right.

Here we go.

Let's go in for the second bite.

On three.

1, 2, 3.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, see him tug on the skin?

Oh, he's latched.

He's latched.

Ah!

Yeah.

I can't get him off.

Yeah, he's got me.

You see that?

Keep rolling, keep rolling.

I'm going to try to pry him off.

He's really latched on.

Come on, let go, let go.

He won't let go.

He won't let go.

Gotta get him off.

Oh yeah.

That was a full on bloodworm bite.

Boy, that burns.

Gosh, you get that shot?

Those fangs were all the way latched in.

Oh, that burns.

Ooh, man.

Yes.

You could see that there wasn't much blood produced

from the bite, but I've got blisters forming

and that's likely due to all the inflammation and swelling.

I feel it in the nervous system.

My wrist is screaming right now.

Super painful burning sensation.

A lot like a wasp or a bee sting.

It's those fangs are like little talons,

and it just grabbed right through the skin

and did not want to let go.

They were like barbs on a fishing hook.

They were just in there.

And really, I wasn't able to get the worm off

until it decided to relax a little bit and I pried it back.

But those fangs are definitely sharp enough.

Yikes, that hurt.

Now that we've witnessed what a single bloodworm is capable of,

let's see what happens when I submerge my hands

in over hundred of them.

Do bloodworms hunt in packs?

We're about to find out.

Before I attempt

to feed my hands to these four-fanged terrors,

let's take a look at what they did to some normal prey

from the wild.

While related and very similar looking to bloodworms,

the sandworm is not nearly as formidable.

And after a short time in a small aquarium, we can see they

are also very much their food.

The venomous bloodworms attacked and broke

down the sandworms quickly.

And what you're seeing now are signs of both chewing

and dismemberment.

A clear sign of active predation.

If you thought one bloodworm bite was bad, check this out.

Whoa.

Look at all these worms.

That is a container filled with over 100

bloodworms in this tank.

And I'm going to attempt to submerge my hands into this tank

of bloodworms for two minutes, all in an effort to figure out,

do bloodworms hunt in packs?

Ready?

On three.

1, 2, 3.

Oh.

Oh, that feels so weird.

Ah!

I just took my first bite.

Hit me on the pinky.

It was a bite and release.

Oh, I could feel him.

Yeah, I could feel more proboscis going.

It's like you could feel them tense up and then poof,

it fires out.

The anticipation is killing me.

If you could see them wriggling, they

have their little sensory tips, sensing

their environment for anything that they

can eat or get those jaws on.

I could see a lot of them are shooting their proboscis out

already.

They sense something foreign in their environment.

I gotta look away.

This is, like, too much anxiety just looking at this container.

This has got to be the creepiest thing I have

ever done in my entire life.

Just so disgusting, feeling all those worms

wriggling around my fingers.

One thing that we noticed earlier

is that as soon as one of them fires their proboscis,

it seems to create a rapid fire effect.

They all do it at the same time.

They're going crazy.

They are.

I feel them wriggling around my fingers.

Oh, man.

Oh yeah.

Ah!

Got another one.

Oh my goodness.

So creepy.

All right, how much time left?

30 seconds left.

All right.

This has got to be the longest two minutes of my life.

Two minutes feels like an eternity.

Oh, the bloodworm bite tank.

This is horrible!

Give me a countdown.

Five.

Ah, got me again!

That's 3, 2, 1.

Definitely got nailed on the pinky on this side.

And I got two nips between my fingers, here and here.

Definitely got nipped three times.

Well, I don't know if we can definitively say that bloodworms

like to hunt in packs.

But I'll tell you this.

They sure don't mind sharing a meal.

But man, that original bite, that

was a serious, serious chomp from a bloodworm.

It is absolutely swollen and very tender to the touch.

I have a feeling I'm going to be in pain

for quite a while on that one.

And I was absolutely correct.

The bite of a bloodworm was no joke

and ended up becoming one of the most painful experiences

I've endured so far.

Overnight, the swelling increased dramatically

and the burning around the bite spread through my hand

and up my arm, nearly locking my wrist.

Then, days after the initial pain subsided,

I had a secondary reaction where the bite zone flared up

with an aggressive rash and itched at least

twice as much as poison ivy.

In all, it took three weeks to heal from the bloodworm venom.

And I'm here to officially say, the scary rumors of bloodworms

are 100% true.

So while these creatures are an important part

of the intertidal ecosystem and a valued resource for fishing

towns across Maine, you absolutely want to avoid

their bite at all costs.

Ouch.

Exclamation point.

I just found the biggest scorpion.

I think we got to do a sting test.

Here we go, buddy.

Come here.

Oh.

Don't want to take a sting yet.

Here, I gotta corner him.

I gotta corner him.

Here we go. All right, here we go.

Ready? Got him.

You see a shot?

Got it.

1, 2, 3.

Yeah, they can pinch.

They can pinch really good.

He's pinching me.

When they pinch you, your first instinct

is to let go of that tail.

And that's exactly what the scorpion wants.

So it can wield that stinger and inflict a painful punch.

But you just got to fight through it.

Eventually, he'll relax and realize he's been caught.

But look at the size of that scorpion.

That is one serious arachnid.

Let's see just how painful the giant hairy scorpion really is.

Oh boy.

Would you take a look at that?

Look at the size of that scorpion.

And it is time for another sting test,

this time with America's largest scorpion,

the giant desert hairy.

Now we found this scorpion just feet away,

right here at our Airbnb in Tucson, Arizona.

In fact, check this out.

We have a live studio audience today.

Try to keep it down, guys.

The giant desert hairy scorpion earns its name

because it is truly giant.

Most scorpions out here are a fraction

of the size of this one.

This is a truly huge arachnid with a stinger

that is also giant.

And this is a species that you would come across.

If you lived in Arizona or you're out here adventuring,

this is certainly an animal that can end up inside your house.

I want to take a sting today to show

you just how severe the sting from this scorpion truly is.

And then we will know once and for all

whether or not we need to be afraid of this hairy arachnid.

We're also going to rank

the sting on three factors--

intimidation, pain, and aftermath,

scoring each from one to 10.

And then we will average the total

to see where this scorpion rates on the brand

new and official Brave Wilderness Bite Sting Index.

Boy, it is fired up and aggressive already.

Holy cow.

Look at those pinchers.

This scorpion is big enough to actually

give you a sizable pinch.

So when I first pick it up today,

I'm going to get walloped right off the bat.

Now before I get stung, let's talk about some of the things

I brought with me for the test today.

I brought with me some Sting Kill.

I have never used Sting Kill on any of my sting tests before.

So I thought, hey, it's in my pack.

Let's give it a shot with today's scorpion

sting to see if this sting antidote actually relieves

the pain from a scorpion.

And then, of course I always bring with me my first aid kit,

along with my EpiPen.

Just in case I have some sort of severe allergic reaction

to this venom, the EpiPen will save me in time

to get to emergency services.

So I always carry an EpiPen.

Never attempt to do what I'm about to do.

This is not a good idea.

Yes, I think this is going to hurt very badly.

Please, do not attempt to do what you're about to see.

I am definitely nervous.

I am always nervous before I take a sting from a species

for the first time.

Because until you take the venom firsthand,

you never really know how bad it's going to be.

So with that, I think it's time to get

hands on and release the beast.

You guys ready?

You got the shot?

OK.

Careful.

Oh.

Now I have to grab the scorpion without taking--

man, he's fast.

Trying to use this platform to keep him on the table.

All right, so the object here is to not

get stung before I'm ready.

But in order to tail the scorpion,

I need to grab the segment right behind the telson,

which is the stinger.

And this is a one shot deal.

You do this wrong, you are getting stung almost instantly.

All right, ready?

1, 2, 3.

Got him.

And then he's going to try to pinch

me with those big pinchers.

Yeah, he's got his pincher on me there, right under my skin.

Now I have a good grip.

And we can talk about how the scorpion feels.

Its exoskeleton is very rigid and hard.

Almost as hard and tough as a crab or a lobster.

So I am by no means going to squish or hurt the scorpion

by holding it like this.

And yes, those pinchers can give you a wallop of a pinch.

Yeah.

One more time for good measure.

Now another kind of interesting thing

is the face of the scorpion.

You can see it has some eyes right here at the sides.

And it has eyes right there in the center, similar to a spider.

It gets its name, the giant desert hairy, not only

because it's giant in size, but because it's also hairy.

You can see the hairs off of all of the appendages.

And you can really see the hairs coming off

the tip of the stinger there.

You see that?

And those hairs help the scorpion sense its environment.

This is an arachnid having eight legs related to spiders.

But of course, it has a much different defense

mechanism than a spider.

Spiders use fangs to inject venom.

Scorpions inject venom with the stinger on their tail.

OK, I think it's time to talk about the business

end of the scorpion.

The sting of the giant desert hairy

is delivered by the tip of the stinger, the telson, which

has a venom gland within it that delivers its venom

like a hypodermic needle.

And this animal uses its sting as a means

of defense and predation.

This scorpion will be out hunting at night

once it finds a prey item which would

be other small insects, arachnids,

or even a small lizard.

It would grapple it with those large pinchers

and then inflict a painful sting,

subduing its prey so they could be eaten alive.

But in this sting test, it will be using its stinger

as a defense mechanism against my hand,

just like any would-be predator.

OK, it's time to go hand to stinger with America's

largest species of scorpion.

You guys ready?

We're ready, Mark.

So here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to cover the scorpion with my hand, my left hand.

And I'm going to release the stinger.

When I do that, this scorpion is going

to instantly go into defense mode

and rapidly sting me with that tail.

And I can tell you right now, this scorpion is fired up.

It is ready to go.

It's pinched me multiple times, and it means business.

You guys ready for this?

I'm looking at the tip of that stinger right now.

On three.

1, 2, 3.

He's pinching me.

Ah!

Oh my god.

The venom sprayed.

Did you see that?

It's stuck there.

I had to pull the stinger out.

It was stuck under my skin.

And I got sprayed by venom.

Did you guys see that pool of venom?

Oh my gosh.

All right, here.

I gotta put this back.

Oh yeah, that was a full burst.

I definitely got dosed.

And it burns.

You see, it's already starting to get red around my knuckle.

It's starting to burn really bad.

Hang on.

Oh yeah.

I cannot believe how much venom just sprayed

out of the tail like that.

I didn't know it could spray.

And it does burn.

Holy smokes.

Yeah, this whole area is a little inferno right there.

All around my knuckle.

Man.

That is so much different than I expected it to be.

I expected the stinger to just pop, like whap me.

It, like, scooped up underneath my skin.

And I had to literally pull the stinger out.

Oh man, that burns.

Yeah, that burns real good.

OK.

It's been about five minutes, and you

can see that I'm definitely getting some swelling going.

We're going to continue to monitor this sting.

But now, it's time

to officially rank this sting.

For an intimidation factor, seeing that huge tail jab me

over and over and all that venom spraying out

was super intimidating.

So I give it an eight out of 10.

The pain was somewhere between a hornet and a bee sting.

I'd rate it a four out of 10.

For the aftermath, it wasn't so bad.

The pain afterwards is very manageable, especially

after applying some Sting kill.

So I give it only a three out of 10.

Combined, this scorpion rates at a 4.3

on the brand new official Brave Wilderness Bite Sting Index.

That is easily the gnarliest sting

I have ever taken in terms of seeing the stinger go

in and get stuck.

I've never had to pull a stinger out like that before.

That was wild.

But in terms of should we be afraid of this animal,

I don't think we should be any more

afraid of the giant desert hairy scorpion

than we are of your common bee or wasp.