Just saw my first scorpion (Chandler, Marana: apartment, condo, house)

[themudpuppy]

And I am freaking out. I've lived in the area since last June, and have been in this house for 6 months, and never saw a scorpion. Until tonight. On my doorstep when I went to let the dog out. I was hoping I was going to be one of the lucky ones who didn't have scorpions, because my neighbor said they don't see them often around here and if they do, it's usually in the fall and I didn't have any in the fall so I thought I was in a safe zone. Wrong!

I assume where there's one, there are many. Is that correct?

I was surpised at how tiny it was. If one of those gets in the house it'll blend right into my carpet and I won't see it until I step on it or get stung.

[PoppySead]

Aw, that sucks! Well, where slippers around the house with hard soles. Do you live in an apartment or house? Has anyone next door just moved in or had landscaping done? Could have come in on something. I know a lot of them get transferred when people get rock put into their yards or new trees planted. The babies are really small and you can get a dozen dumped when you get your yard rocked.

You might only see a few a year. Doesn't sound like you're infested. Do you have an exterminator? If not, get one or spray yourself. Sprinkle some DD in your yard and around the doors.

[tumamoc]

Hey, calm down! I wouldn't worry about just one or two that you see on the outside of your house. Anyway, in my experience, they are most active in the hot months, especially around the time the rains bring out the crickets and such. I have seen scorpions in my house in the fall. I think as the weather cools, they like the warm temperatures inside.

[themudpuppy]

Thanks for putting up with my little panic "meltdown" last night. lol. Scorpions are the one thing I feared most about moving to Arizona. I've had a tarantula and I had a huge rattlesnake in the garage and didn't freak out as much as I did over this little scorpion. I guess because if a snake gets into my house, I'm gonna know it. With scorpions I'm gonna be nervous and want to do a black light check every night before I go to sleep.

I don't have any new neighbors, nothing new built on our street or the streets surrounding us. I did some minor trench digging just a few inches deep, but that was back in November. Also I've been digging up big rocks in my back yard and never once came across a scorpion under the rocks. Picked up rocks at night too and never saw a scorpion. But that was during cooler months. Haven't had any decorative rocks or mulch delivered. My neighbors did put down some dirt for their garden recently, but it was in bags, not trucked in. There's an empty lot between our homes.

I went crazy with the black light last night, checking all the rooms in the house. So far nothing in the house that I could find.

I don't have an exterminator yet. I had a spider problem but then a lizard moved in and became my natural exterminator. On Monday I will find a real exterminator.

[tom4416]

When we first got our house up in Marana, we had glue traps in the garage and would trap a small scorpion maybe once a month. Then we started having regular exterminating services outside the house, haven't seen one since. I was stung once in New Mexico many, many years ago and of course, have no clue which version of the critter it was. Remember it feeling like a really bad wasp sting, staying sore for a couple of days and then faded away. I know some are more poisonous than others so maybe I got stung by one of the more impotent ones but based on that one experience, not too worried about them, at least compared to a rattle snake.

The neighbor behind us has a Weber gas grill where the tank is inside the little cabinet area and like most of us, turns the gas on and off at the tank, not just the controls. He'd gotten in the habit of just reaching in blindly and turning on the gas. Went to do that a couple weeks ago and felt something scaly instead of the normal knob and quickly withdrew. A second later he heard the distinctive rattling. Fortunately, just left the cabinet open and Mr. Snake came writhing out a few seconds later, still in a bad mood but anxious to be gone.

[PoppySead]

Probably just a loner then. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. They don't travel in groups so sometimes you just see one lone scorpion.

[Foreverking]

Originally Posted by themudpuppy

Thanks for putting up with my little panic "meltdown" last night. lol. Scorpions are the one thing I feared most about moving to Arizona. I've had a tarantula and I had a huge rattlesnake in the garage and didn't freak out as much as I did over this little scorpion. I guess because if a snake gets into my house, I'm gonna know it. With scorpions I'm gonna be nervous and want to do a black light check every night before I go to sleep.

I don't have any new neighbors, nothing new built on our street or the streets surrounding us. I did some minor trench digging just a few inches deep, but that was back in November. Also I've been digging up big rocks in my back yard and never once came across a scorpion under the rocks. Picked up rocks at night too and never saw a scorpion. But that was during cooler months. Haven't had any decorative rocks or mulch delivered. My neighbors did put down some dirt for their garden recently, but it was in bags, not trucked in. There's an empty lot between our homes.

I went crazy with the black light last night, checking all the rooms in the house. So far nothing in the house that I could find.

I don't have an exterminator yet. I had a spider problem but then a lizard moved in and became my natural exterminator. On Monday I will find a real exterminator.

Yeah, they are not like those giant scorps from the original "Clash of the Titans" but Don't get stung by one. I did, and for some reason, my mouth swelled up, my heart started racing (maybe cause I was stressed). Watch out for the antidote, I think a woman was tricked into paying over 40K for the antidote in a local Chandler hospital. I have had exterminators offer to spray around my home for around 60 bucks every other month.

[Foreverking]

Originally Posted by tom4416

When we first got our house up in Marana, we had glue traps in the garage and would trap a small scorpion maybe once a month. Then we started having regular exterminating services outside the house, haven't seen one since. I was stung once in New Mexico many, many years ago and of course, have no clue which version of the critter it was. Remember it feeling like a really bad wasp sting, staying sore for a couple of days and then faded away. I know some are more poisonous than others so maybe I got stung by one of the more impotent ones but based on that one experience, not too worried about them, at least compared to a rattle snake.

The neighbor behind us has a Weber gas grill where the tank is inside the little cabinet area and like most of us, turns the gas on and off at the tank, not just the controls. He'd gotten in the habit of just reaching in blindly and turning on the gas. Went to do that a couple weeks ago and felt something scaly instead of the normal knob and quickly withdrew. A second later he heard the distinctive rattling. Fortunately, just left the cabinet open and Mr. Snake came writhing out a few seconds later, still in a bad mood but anxious to be gone.

[Marcy1210]

I live in a 2nd floor condo and I've had a couple of scorpions in my unit. One was in the kitchen on the rug at the sink, and the other was found after it stung my cat and she destroyed it...parts in various places. The cat was a little lethargic for a couple of days, and I took her to the vet to make sure she was okay, but otherwise she did better than I would have if I were stung. I have weatherstripped all the doors, and spray around all the windows and doors. Our complex uses a commercial exterminator, so I hope it's keeping most of the scorpions away.

[seedy]

I've been stung a few times. What works for me is tea tree oil rubbed vigorously on the sting right away. I soak some into a wad of TP and rub until it breaks the skin and bleeds back out, like some other kinds of bites. You need to have some TTO hand and do it within a few minutes, by the time you go buy some you're going for the full venom ride. The idea is to chemically neutralise and bleed the venom back out. The more quickly you respond the less pain, so do it now and weep about it later and then you won't weep at all.

The first sting I didn't know what to do and it hurt for days. The ones after that, treated immediately, little pain and forgettable after an hour. And one of those was on the face. It decided to climb in bed with me. :^)

I'll add that scorpions go where there are 3 things they really like; insects and spiders to eat, darkness, and dampness. I have read of people catching them by putting damp towel on the floor, they will crawl underneath and hang out.

So keep their food supply minimised, watch out when reaching into dark spaces (my first stinger was lurking under a cardboard box flap out in my shop in a dark back room) such as under sinks or cabinets or water heaters, and fix any leaks or drips in those same areas so they are bone dry. Either learn to look where you reach now or after you've had a couple of lessons.

Any animal with an exoskeleton will be killed by crawling through diatomaceous earth, you can find articles online about how to make a barrier around the perimeter of your house with it (takes a lot), or you could spread it in places where the scorpions might gravitate toward, as above.