After 7, scorpions come out to play. These little predators are fast! If you aren’t careful, you’ll get stung and sent back to your house. Or back to the dock after Wilbur saves you, when you are on a mystery island.

They come out only after 7 PM, and since they are black and quick moving, are often hard to see. They spawn fairly irregularly, and are easy to miss. I’ve seen them spawn on my front porch and have been stung just walking out of my front door! (I blame Graham…) If they see you and you startle them, they will chase you – and they won’t quit! (Pro-tip, if they are chasing you, you can escape if you make it into your museum or the airport, as both buildings don’t have a door, so you don’t waste seconds opening the door!)

Catching a scorpion will get you an easy 8,000 bells if you sell it, or 12,000 if you hold onto it for the next time Flick comes into town. Trouble is, if you aren’t careful and you just whip your net out – they will attack you!

So how do you catch them without getting stung? Easy! Play a little red-light-green-light!

As you’ll see in the above video, the trick is simple: when you see a scorpion raise its tail and pincers, stop all movement. If you move or swing your net when they are in this state, they will attack you.

When they relax again, make sure you get your net out (if it isn’t already!) and hold it out by pressing the A button, and holding it down. This will keep your net up and ready – and you’ll now move slowly rather than running. Move towards the scorpion very slowly – but if it raises its tail and pincers again – STOP. Like I said, red-light-green-light!

You’ll repeat this slow and steady movement towards the scorpion, holding your net, until you are close enough to swing. That’s it! Then you’ve got yourself a little buddy!

If you happen to land on scorpion (or tarantula, depending on the time of year!) island, you can keep using the same technique – just be careful if you see a group of them. You can only catch one at a time, so if you get more than one focused on you, the others may still sting you!

Happy hunting!