A SPECIAL REPORT: PESTS

HITCHHIKER: Our most exotic vermin arrived from Mexico last decade concealed in some camping gear: a small, straw-colored scorpion with a punch like Mike Tyson. . . . “It’s a mean one,” says a pest control officer. “It can put you in the hospital, can be life threatening.” . . . Centruoides exicaulda (above) now lives in Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Irvine and Mission Viejo. Two years ago one stung a Mission Viejo woman while she lay in bed.