The venom of one of the most dangerous scorpions on the planet is the most valuable liquid in the world as it's got so many more uses than just killing someone.
Pretty much everything is getting more expensive these days so it's always handy to keep your eye on a list of potential side hustles you could try to make some extra money.
It probably wouldn't be the first idea that came to your mind but given how valuable their venom can be, you might want to consider 'deadly scorpion farm' among your list of options.
They might be scary little so-and-so's but if you can work up the courage to capture enough of them and milk their venom out then it could be a pretty lucrative money spinner, what with the venom of one particular kind of scorpion being the most expensive liquid in the world.
Advert
Never mind trying to dig for oil or obtaining vast quantities of surprisingly expensive printer ink, scorpion venom could be the next big thing.
It turns out that the venom of the deathstalker scorpion is a very profitable commodity and according to Insider a gallon of the stuff would net you a whopping $39 million.
You wouldn't be able to sell it in such large amounts, however, because it only goes for absolutely minuscule volumes which would still set you back a small fortune.
Advert
Found in the deserts and scrublands of North Africa and the Middle East, the deathstalker lives up to its name by producing one of the deadliest venoms known to man.
To pump the brakes and put that in context a bit, getting stung by a deathstalker would probably not kill you and would just be an incredibly painful and unpleasant experience.
That's because scorpion stings are rarely life threatening anyway, though young children and the elderly are more at risk, so while you'd be wishing you'd never been stung in the first place, you'd probably still be alive.
There are certainly other venomous creatures you'd like to come into contact with even less, but their venoms don't have the properties which makes the deathstalker so valuable.
Advert
You might be wondering just why everybody wants to get their hands on the venom of these scorpions, and there's a very good reason why it's so prized.
Inside the deathstalker venom is something called chlorotoxin, a peptide which has a potential use in a number of medical breakthroughs including treating certain types of cancer and some diseases.
Chlorotoxin has been used to identify the size and location of cancer tumours while experiments with it on mosquitoes have been able to eliminate malaria, there are hopes that similar results could be produced in humans.
Advert
A future of marvellous medical discoveries riding a wave made of scorpion venom all sounds great, but sadly there is a catch both for medical science and anyone hoping to turn a tidy profit off this valuable liquid.
If you wanted to get a gallon of the stuff, which we remind you would fetch $39 million, then you'd have to milk 2.64 million scorpions, or one scorpion 2.64 million times if you don't want to open a giant scorpion farm.
Joe Harker