Scorpions in Arizona?! Eww!  Let’s get 5 tips to keep you scorpion free…

Hey everyone, welcome back! I’m Lindsay, with the Wise Move AZ Team at Realty ONE Group.  If you want to stay up to date on all things Anthem and Real Estate then you need subscribe to our YouTube Channel.  Pro Tip:  You’re also going to want to hit that little bell icon while you’re there so that you’re the first to know when our new videos are posted every single Thursday!

As your Anthem, Arizona REALTOR®, I work with a lot of people relocating from out of state, or even out of country, and I feel like it’s part of my job to help them settle into their new life in the desert.  And guess what!  Scorpions are a creepy, crawly, fact of life here in Arizona.

But do they really live up to all the hype? 

In this post, I’ll give you a little information on scorpions in Arizona as well as 5 tips to keep your home scorpion free!

Oh and at the end of this post I’ll also share a bonus tip of the one thing I personally do EVERY SINGLE DAY to prevent scorpion stings, so, stick around!

We get a lot of questions about bugs and other critters from people thinking about moving to Arizona, and we’ve even been asked to make a video on it.  To be clear, we don’t love bugs and we are NOT entomologists…we’re REALTORS®, but we love our subscribers SO MUCH that we didn’t want to disappoint.  I mean we had to research this stuff and there were pictures…eek!  So anyways, you asked for it, here’s your video on scorpions in Arizona and how to keep your home scorpion free.

The Facts:

Let’s kick this baby off with some facts about scorpions in Arizona:

• Scorpions don’t go hunting for people, but if they feel threatened, they’ll sting. How will you know if a scorpion feels threatened? Mmm, I don’t know, I’ve never stuck around long enough to ask one!
• There are 36 species of scorpions in Arizona.
• All species can sting, causing some immediate pain, with little or no local swelling or redness.
• Only one species of scorpions will cause further medical problems in the average healthy adult, and that is the Bark Scorpion.
• Scorpions’ prey are usually insects, although the larger kinds have been known to kill small lizards and mice. That sounds super scary, right?!  Just to put this in perspective, in all the time I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen a scorpion big enough to take on a lizard or mouse…
• All species of scorpions possess venom and use it to kill or paralyze their prey so that it can be eaten.
• Scorpions prefer to live in areas where the temperatures range from 68°F to 99°F, but they can survive freezing temperatures and the desert heat.
• They are nocturnal, and come out at night to hunt and feed.
• The gestation period can be from 3 to 8 months and scorpions are born alive….AWESOME!
• There may be anywhere from 1 to 100 scorplings born at a time and the lifespan for a scorpion in the wild is up to 10 years. I can’t decide if the fact that baby scorpions are called scorplings is cute or terrifying.
• Okay, and one last fun (or maybe just creepy) fact is that scorpions glow blue if you shine a black light on them. This can be helpful to know if you are going to be walking your dog at night.  You can carry a black light with you and help to keep your fur baby safe.

Keep your Home Scorpion Free

So, that was fun, right?  Okay, now that you have all these facts and you’re sufficiently freaked out, I bet you want to know how to keep them OUT of your home.  Truthfully, these facts make them seem a lot scarier and a lot more problematic than they really are.  If you follow these 5 tips you probably won’t see many, if any, scorpions in your home.

Hire a professional exterminator

There are many excellent pest control companies, just pick one and treat your home and yard monthly.

Seal your Home

It’s amazing just how many holes and spaces a home can have. There are cables, vents and outlets that often require a hole in the wall. Often, this leaves just enough space for an arachnid as skinny as a scorpion to get inside.  Holes in the foundation, siding, roof, windows, walls, or screens are also enough to allow a scorpion an easy way to access your home.  Although a scorpion in your house may seem huge, I mean, I’m pretty sure the last one I saw was THIS BIG, but truthfully they are pretty tiny and a small hole is enough for them to get in.

Check your Doors

When was the last time you checked for spaces beneath your doors? How often do you think about the bottom of your garage door? Or the bottom of your back door? Any door that leads directly outside can have just enough space between the bottom of the door and the ground for scorpions to get inside. Door sweeps can be added to garage doors and other doors leading outside to fill that gap, but also allow the doors to open and close easily. This is an easy physical barrier to prevent scorpions from getting inside.

Clear Away Debris in the yard

If you have firewood or other objects piled up against the house or even in your yard, you could be providing a very happy home for scorpions. Put on some heavy duty work gloves, clean it up and move on!

Cut back vegetation from the house

Like debris, vegetation provides a safe harbor for scorpions. Keep it trimmed away from your house, and you’re less likely to encounter a scorpion inside.

Bonus Tip

Alright, so I promised you my bonus tip for preventing scorpion stings, right?  I do this every day and sometimes multiple times a day, and guess what, knock on wood, I’ve never been stung.  So what is it?!  I bang out my shoes before I put them on.  We keep our shoes in our garage, and the garage is always a little more susceptible to scorpions and other bugs, so before I put my shoes on I bang them out to make sure a scorpion hasn’t decided to seek refuge in there.

So, there you have it!  I hope this has you feeling more prepared for life in beautiful Arizona.  We had some fun with this post but I want to be clear; scorpions are NOT a big deal.  Follow these easy steps and you’ll be in great shape.

If you have other questions about life in Arizona, let me know using the form below, it could be the topic of one of our future videos!

See YOU, next Thursday!