A woman came back from a horse-riding trip to Kenya with one souvenir more than she bargained for: a scorpion.
The Fisher's Fat Tailed Scorpion hitchhiked its way back to Wicklow in Lorraine Dempsey's luggage.
Unbeknownst to her, the eight-legged guest spent 12 days in her bedroom before he was found.
Ms Dempsey told Lunchtime Live she couldn't believe her eyes.
"It's just not the kind of thing you expect to see on a Saturday morning in your nightie," she said.
"I picked up a basket of washing that was right by my bed and under the basket of washing... there was this peculiar looking insect that looked up at me.
"For a couple of seconds my brain melted and then I thought to myself, 'You're just back from Kenya - it is a scorpion'.
"I recognised it but in that moment you're not processing what you're seeing".
Lorraine's unwanted houseguest. Image: @LorDempsey/XMs Dempsey said the scorpion then scuttled under a couch next to her bed.
"I just scuttled backwards to the door of the room and just got hysterical giddy, I think would be how I would describe it.
"I needed to make sure this wasn't going to come out of my bedroom door, so I spent an hour and a half pacing around by my bedroom door.
"I did the most ridiculous Google search of, 'What to do when you find a scorpion in Ireland'; of course nothing came up."
Ms Dempsey said she ultimately rang her friend who is a botanist.
"That was the beginning of the phone calls, which then led me to the National Reptile Zoo in Kilkenny," she said.
"They said they wouldn't actually be able to come up and search in a private house, but they gave me instructions on how to search safely, and that they'd then help with the identification and take the scorpion off my hands".
Lorraine Dempsey and her scorpion search party. Image: @LorDempsey/XMs Dempsey said she had a real 'phone a friend' moment for people to help her track down the stowaway.
"I rallied five friends who came down in the afternoon," she said.
"I actually sealed the bottom of my bedroom door and closed it.
"I got my youngest out of the house because from the description that I had given, there was a concern that this was a Kenyan Death Stalker... and this would be fatal to children and older people.
"Once I secured kids, animals and everything... I waited for the crew to arrive and then we put a plan together".
Not sure how well I'll sleep tonight 😱 https://t.co/VrtJwpuD5v pic.twitter.com/7U1sVP0l6H
— Lorraine Dempsey (@LorDempsey) February 3, 2024
Ms Dempsey said she gave the scorpion a name to try and calm herself down: 'Kenny'.
"We took everything out of my bedroom bit by bit," she said.
"We had these two giant plastic containers that we shook clothes into carefully.
"Then the mattress has to be taken out of the room, and again we'd to check that.
"Finally we came to the conclusion it has to be under the bed.
"We basically had to move this bed foot-by-foot away from the wall and then kind of do a sweep check and move another foot.
"Eventually we found Kenny in under it, hunkered down," she added.
A Fisher's Fat Tailed Scorpion can grow as big as 2.5 inches in length and can live in extreme conditions.
