Public health problems resulting from scorpion stings have shown an alarming increase in recent years in various tropical and subtropical countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Tunisia and Morocco. In some regions of Brazil, particularly in the States of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo, Bahia, Goias and Federal District, more than 6000 scorpion stings with over 100 cases of death have been reported over a 3-4 year period. In this contribution we attempt to demonstrate the effects of human activities on the environment and their consequences on the distribution of dangerous species of scorpions. This phenomenon is interpreted in terms of evolutionary ecology, life history strategies and asexual reproduction, i.e. parthenogenesis.