![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/a-scorpion-in-the-bathroom-of-an-auckland-family-5JHICTXPVFHLTATNL6AZMAUE3A.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Ministry of Primary Industries says it’s important when people spot a creature that that looks out of place “to pick up the phone” and let them know.<\/p>\n
It comes after a small scorpion was found in the bathroom of Auckland food and travel writer Anna King Shahab by her husband.<\/p>\n
She said that her husband’s first thought was that it looked like a “piece of fluff” on the bathroom floor, before he realised he had found something \u201cyou would never see in New Zealand\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat [scorpion] is not the first thing that came to my mind, that it had survived,” King Shahab said. <\/p>\n
She had recently been in Bali and Fiji. <\/p>\n
The family immediately took action by putting a jar over it and calling MPI, who advised them to wrap it in tin foil and put it in the freezer. <\/p>\n
Biosecurity staff later searched the bathroom with a black light, because scorpions glow under UV. <\/p>\n
However, there were no signs of any other scorpions.<\/p>\n
MPI’s Mike Inglis said the tiny scorpion was likely hijacked from Fiji.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A scorpion in the bathroom of an Auckland family (Source: Anna King Shahab)<\/p>\n
He said the creature was about 1.5cm long and in \u201cvery poor condition\u201d, which indicated it would not have survived much longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be dangerous in terms of the venom, it\u2019s different from the usual scorpion we have in New Zealand,” Inglis said. <\/p>\n
“Previously NZ has had 10 scorpions since 2018, and this one was a bit of a juvenile one,” he said. <\/p>\n
Most have been linked to overseas travel or imported goods, including luggage, clothing, produce and freight. <\/p>\n
MPI said most scorpion species need specific warm, dry conditions, so they are generally considered a low biosecurity risk here. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe system is so important, both offshore and at the border checks, and more importantly we have a community like Anna who when they see something that doesn\u2019t look right, to pick up the phone,” he said. <\/p>\n
Inglis said the call to the hotline will see the biosecurity team respond quickly like they do with other threats and diseases. <\/p>\n
“We don\u2019t want it impacting our industry, packed in our biodiversity, the horticulture and protecting exports in the corner at the same time. That\u2019s why we respond very quickly.\u201d <\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a wild lightning storm over Nelson, a miracle rescue and a new honour for a football legend.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ministry of Primary Industries says it’s important when people spot a creature that that looks out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[15415,111,139,69,104994,147,6445,406],"class_list":["post-461703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-information","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one-news-team","tag-science","tag-tvnz","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}