JAKARTA - Thousands of scorpions, housed in transparent plastic boxes, 'lined' against the walls of a breeding laboratory in Turkey's southeastern Sanliurfa province, waiting for personnel to milk their expensive venom used to manufacture drugs.
Using a pair of tweezers and tongs, laboratory employees removed the scorpion from the box, waiting as they squeezed a tiny drop of venom from their needle into the container.
The poison is then frozen and turned into a powder before being sold. Even if it's a little, the poison is expensive.
A scorpion produces about two milligrams of venom, with laboratories able to obtain about two grams of venom each day, said Metin Orenler, owner of the scorpion farm.
Orenler Ranch, which opened in 2020, now has about 20.000 scorpions of the species Androctonus Turkiyensis.
The scorpion was identified as a distinct species in an article published in the journal Scorpioology in 2021.
"We breed scorpions while also flushing out the venom," Orenler said.
"We freeze the poison we get from the milking we do, then we turn it into powder and sell it to Europe," he said.
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The venom, which is exported to France, Britain, Germany, and Switzerland, is used to manufacture cosmetics, painkillers, and antibiotics, Orenler said, adding that a liter of the poison is worth $10 million.
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