We have a go at scorpion wrangling at former naval base

As part of our Have A Go Joe series reporter Joe Crossley tries out scorpion wrangling in Blue Town

Transcript

00:00I'm here at the Bluetown Criterion Museum in Sheerness which is looking for

00:04volunteers to become scorpion wranglers. Their job is to basically patrol the

00:09walls and find the scorpion colony which came here in the 1800s. I'm going to go today.

00:15Well you know in the Tower of London you have the Ravens and if the Ravens left the Tower of London what would happen?

00:23So what would happen if the scorpions left Bluetown? We don't know so we want to look after them.

00:29We want to cherish them. We want to do scientific studies but we also want people to come and come into Bluetown.

00:36As well as see us as well.

00:38Well it's kind of really difficult this time of the year because it's a little bit cold.

00:42So I would imagine if I was a scorpion I'd be in bed tucked up nice and warm.

00:48But during the summer the walls here at Sheerness Docks team with scorpions.

00:57And people tend to think that they're big and evil like they see in David Attenborough documentaries.

01:06But they're not. They're really tiny. They are titchy witchy things.

01:12You can just see it's little sort of clawy things.

01:16Oh fantastic.

01:20So I've just finished scorpion wrangling and while it took us a long time to find it

01:26we found one scorpion. A tiny little thing but it was brilliant.

01:30Great fun. Got the UV torches out with our helmets on for health and safety reasons.

01:35But brilliant. Great fun. You should volunteer.

01:38And also you should come down to the museum here.

01:41It's packed full of amazing different items from history.

01:45Showing the history of the island and Sheppey and really doing it justice.

01:49So come down to Bluetown. Volunteer to become a scorpion wrangler.