Scorpions are scary and venomous. If you can see them, you can avoid them. But what happens when you don’t see them?
Here are some of their preferred hiding spots in and around your home:
- Dark Places. Like other crawly things, scorpions prefer to hide in dark places – it keeps them safe from predators, sunlight and heat. If you have a basement or garage, that’s where to look for them. Otherwise, a dark corner of a kitchen cabinet, bathroom, or clothes closet is a perfect place to hide. But beware – check your shoes before placing your feet in them!
- When it’s hot, scorpions will hide under large rocks, piles of wood or debris, tree bark or other sheltered areas in your yard. Exercise caution when moving rocks, garden ornaments or outdoor furniture. Avoid using redwood bark as mulch in flowerbeds – that’s a prefect hiding place! And when gardening, be sure to wear thick gardening gloves in case one rears its head – or stinger – at you.
- Block Fences. These basically check all the scorpion boxes for necessities: the block columns provide a tight protected space to live in, plenty of shade and protection from the weather, and a food source of other bugs in there to eat.
- Inside Your Home. Scorpions usually become an indoor problem when they choose to leave their outdoor habitats in search of a better place to live where more food sources are found. They can sneak into your home via loose weather stripping and other small cracks and crevices, then hide in laundry piles, pantries, and other quiet and dark places. Once inside, scorpions can live for months without food or water. It’s crucial to find them before they become too invested in your place. To make sure there aren’t scorpions in the house, check if the pipes entering the home are properly sealed. Remember that scorpions can enter even in the tiniest cracks or openings; reports state they can slide through spaces the width of a credit card. You may want to replace old seals on your windows, doors and pipes to ensure invasion.
The easiest way to find hidden scorpions is by searching them out with an ultraviolet (UV) blacklight. Turn off the lights in the house after dark or check your yard at night by shining the blacklight on any dark and quiet places you suspect scorpions may be hiding. A scorpion’s exoskeleton will glow under the light, making them easier to detect and carefully get rid of before they have a chance to sting.
Arizona’s temperate climate is a positive feature for the most feared and venomous scorpion – the bark scorpion – who stays around all year. If you are stung, expect to experience a good deal of pain, not just at the site but in other areas of your body as well. A bark scorpion sting has the ability to produce symptoms as serious as difficulty breathing, muscle twitches, rapid head and neck movements, sweating, nausea and vomiting. Those with allergies to insect stings, babies and the elderly should seek immediate medical attention.
Do what you can to minimize the appearance of scorpions on your property. If they become a problem in your home, a licensed pest control company can offer treatment solutions to eliminate scorpions.
