Scorpion found in Home (Orange, Palm Springs: insurance, mobile home, contractor)

[dickie2022]

My wife and I now have a Winter Home in Desert Hot Springs;we came in last week and checked our cockroach traps..there were a few...however one trap had a small yellow colored Scorpion...dead of course,but was a chilling site.I have a small opening under our front door where this critter probably came in....I have now plugged the hole.We were told by a contractor that we do get small yellow scorpions in the Palm Springs.Desert Hot Springs area...we are in the desert!!

[Fontucky]

Just keep in mind they're nocturnal insect hunters and be sure to get in the habit of checking shoes before slipping your feet in. I never kill them when I see them outside. Or inside for that matter, but I do escort them out.

[Senno]

Yep, not unheard of.

Try being an insurance adjuster that gets to crawl under mobile homes on for size. Found no scorpions but did find rattler once. Not so much fun.

[Twinkle Toes]

Not to pee on anybody's parade but ... I had a scorpion in the makeup drawer in my bathroom!!! We have them all the time, regardless that we have pest control. The pest control guy said we can spray and spray and spray but a mature scorpion has a thick exoskeleton that takes forever to penetrate with a pesticide. These things crawl up the walls, on the ceiling, they blend in with the floor, they are in cabinets and drawers, they crawl up out of the drains in your sinks and bathtubs ... And of course, you ALWAYS want to shake out your shoes before you put them on!

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Cats killed a small one years ago but my son turned over a rock in the mts that had the biggest, gnarliest looking Scorpion I've ever seen, even at the zoo! Sucker was all black and if you extended his tail and pincers probably8- 10 inches long. I jumped straight back and grabbed him out of the way so fast it kind of freaked him out. We took a pic and then beat it outta there to let him find another place to hide.

It looked like an emporer but we aren't supposed to have them here in the US except pet shops. I thought someone may have turned loose a pregnant female so I emailed a few UCSD profs etc but never heard anything back.

I'm sure they probably thought I was a loon

[MamaRed]

Wow! I've been in PS 38 years and have never seen a scorpion inside. Spiders, cockroaches and crickets all the time, but scorpions only outside.

[Plantweed]

How bad is the cockroach problem in PS?

Let me state where I'm coming from with this question. Here in Upstate New York, the only residential housing with cockroaches are the run-down places that aren't taken care of, i.e. bad hygiene, no cleaning, etc. They're small and tend to swarm.

However when I lived in Raleigh, NC they were called "waterbugs" and everyone got them once in a while no matter how clean. They were big, usually found one at a time, and even flew around at night.

So which is closer to the PS situation?

[Twinkle Toes]

The HUGE, flying "waterbug" situation is closer to what we have here. Some people call them Palmetto Bugs, Waterbugs, Date Beetles, etc. But I call them Cockroaches!!! My house is, for the most part, spotless. I'm a cleaning fanatic, and we have pest control. I'm so paranoid about bugs that I have the guy come out twice a month, rather than the standard once a month!

These things are huge, they fly, they're fast, and like the scorpions, they will come up out of your drains, they crawl up walls, they crawl on ceilings and have no problem hanging upside down (). But, at least they are either a dark brown or black, so you can see these things on your floor or walls (unless, of course, your floor or walls are the same color as the roaches!).

Needless to say, every time I encounter either a scorpion or a roach in my home, I am freaked out for at least a week! I am scanning the floors, walls, ceilings, my bed, my shoes, etc. because I don't want to get into bed and have something crawl on me, or have something drop off the ceiling onto me while I'm in bed. And, like the scorpion situation, I shake my shoes out first just in case one of these lovely things are in there too.

Not that this has anything to do with the Coachella Valley but .....

When I was a kid, around 12 or 13 years old, we lived in Orange County. I was in a hurry to go out and ride bikes with my friends, so I quickly grabbed my sneakers and shoved my foot into the first shoe. Something "crunched". I took the shoe off and one of those huge roaches fell out!!! That just destroyed my whole day! In fact, it "scarred" me for life!!! My mom didn't know what the hell was wrong with me - I was screaming and crying and running around like a loony-tune, scrubbing my foot with soap and hot water! That was her opportunity to have me committed, but she blew it! She could have been rid of me once and for all, but she missed her chance! Again, we lived in a very clean house in a nice area. My mom was a clean freak too. If my brothers or I left anything lying around, she would take it and throw it in the trash. So we learned from an early age not to leave our things lying around and to clean up after ourselves.

Just thought I'd share!

[Senno]

Originally Posted by Twinkle Toes

The HUGE, flying "waterbug" situation is closer to what we have here. Some people call them Palmetto Bugs, Waterbugs, Date Beetles, etc. But I call them Cockroaches!!! My house is, for the most part, spotless. I'm a cleaning fanatic, and we have pest control. I'm so paranoid about bugs that I have the guy come out twice a month, rather than the standard once a month!

These things are huge, they fly, they're fast, and like the scorpions, they will come up out of your drains, they crawl up walls, they crawl on ceilings and have no problem hanging upside down (). But, at least they are either a dark brown or black, so you can see these things on your floor or walls (unless, of course, your floor or walls are the same color as the roaches!).

Needless to say, every time I encounter either a scorpion or a roach in my home, I am freaked out for at least a week! I am scanning the floors, walls, ceilings, my bed, my shoes, etc. because I don't want to get into bed and have something crawl on me, or have something drop off the ceiling onto me while I'm in bed. And, like the scorpion situation, I shake my shoes out first just in case one of these lovely things are in there too.

Not that this has anything to do with the Coachella Valley but .....

When I was a kid, around 12 or 13 years old, we lived in Orange County. I was in a hurry to go out and ride bikes with my friends, so I quickly grabbed my sneakers and shoved my foot into the first shoe. Something "crunched". I took the shoe off and one of those huge roaches fell out!!! That just destroyed my whole day! In fact, it "scarred" me for life!!! My mom didn't know what the hell was wrong with me - I was screaming and crying and running around like a loony-tune, scrubbing my foot with soap and hot water! That was her opportunity to have me committed, but she blew it! She could have been rid of me once and for all, but she missed her chance! Again, we lived in a very clean house in a nice area. My mom was a clean freak too. If my brothers or I left anything lying around, she would take it and throw it in the trash. So we learned from an early age not to leave our things lying around and to clean up after ourselves.

Just thought I'd share!

Were your toes ok? I'd hate to think of you as Twinkle (with damaged) Toes..

[Twinkle Toes]

Fortunately, all that scrubbing saved them! But it was a really, really, REALLY close call!!!