By Jay Ramenirishman | The Rose City/Rose City Live

Citizens can sleep a little lighter knowing that the scorpion, an animal synonymous with the desert, is native to the Pacific Northwest, too. Members of Keizer-Roll’s fire department got up close to the arachnids Wednesday when someone dropped off four live scorpions at the station.

Keizer-Roll Fire District said in a news release that a member of the public brought in the scorpions “for safety” after finding them in a container at Keizer-Roll Rapids Park and being concerned that they were in an area where they might be dangerous to children.

The fire department named the four creatures — Harpo, Chico, Groucho and Zeppo — before turning them over to the State Department of Agriculture.

Though scorpions are usually associated with the desert, SDA said the species dropped off at the Keizer-Roll fire station are the Pacific Northwest forest scorpion — native to the region, and found throughout the Willamette Valley. They are nocturnal, and most often live under logs or rocks, on south or west-facing slopes.

According to the SDA, the state has three native species of scorpions, and more than 500 species of spiders, which are all part of the arachnid class. The SDA said all are venomous, but only one species of spider in the state, the Western black widow, is dangerous to humans.

Scorpion on White Background

By Stan Bernstein | The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live

A 39-year-old Track Town man pleaded guilty Monday to illegally importing and exporting hundreds of live scorpions, sending or receiving them from other states and Germany in U.S. postal packages in violation of federal law.

In one shipment, a package of the live creatures was misleadingly labeled as containing “chocolates.”

In another received Dec. 22, 2017, 200 live scorpions arrived via U.S. mail from Michigan, according to court records.

The illegal smuggling occurred between September 2017 and March 21, 2018, without a required import-export license from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Darren Dennis Danny Drake, described in court records as a “scorpion enthusiast” who bought, sold and traded the predatory arachnids, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to commit violations of the Lacey Act, which bans trafficking in illegal wildlife, in federal court in Jackson County.

If he stays out of trouble and continues to accept responsibility, prosecutors will recommend he be sentenced to two years of probation, pay a $5,000 fine and complete 250 hours of community service, according to court records.

Prosecutors will also recommend that Drake’s community service involve research and homework imposed under the direction of Meredith L. Gore, a conservation social scientist who teaches at the University of Maryland and holds a doctorate degree in natural resource policy and management from Cornell University.

Drake, who previously lived in southern part of the state, is scheduled to be sentenced June 22 before the U.S. District Judge.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for protecting America’s wildlife from poaching, illegal commercialization and other crimes, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, investigated the case.