Scorpions are fascinating creatures that appear everywhere from the zodiac to Greek mythology. However, as interesting as they are, scorpions are also a pest that you don’t want to deal with. That’s why Bulwark Exterminating has developed a signature scorpion control method that will provide residual control for scorpion infestations so you can keep them out of your home.
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What Are Scorpions?
Scorpions are a type of arachnid related to spiders and ticks. They vary in size and color, but all have a distinctive shape, pinchers at the front of the body, and a stinger-tipped tail at the end. Scorpions are carnivorous and hunt at night. Smaller scorpions typically feed on pests like insects, but larger scorpions can eat mice, lizards, snakes, and other scorpions. Scorpions like to set up territories. They are solitary creatures that do not enjoy living with other scorpions. Scorpions typically live three to five years, but some have lived up to 25 years.
What Do Scorpions Look Like?
Scorpions are most easily identified by their segmented tails, which are tipped with venomous stingers. They have eight legs and two pinchers on their long slender bodies and usually measure between two and four inches long. Scorpions can be black, yellow, rusty brown, and blue. On the underside of a scorpion, you’ll find sense organs that lightly brush the ground. These allow the scorpion to detect the texture of the ground and anything causing the ground to vibrate.
Where Do Scorpions Live?
In the United States, scorpions are typically found in the southwest. Texas, Arizona, California, and New Mexico are all home to these pests. Though they’re often associated with desert climates, scorpions can also live in forests, savannahs, grasslands, and caves. Scorpions are nocturnal and will hide during the day. They may seek refuge in rock piles, woodpiles, beneath tree bark, or inside the cracks in masonry. They might also seek shelter in cool, dark parts of your home, such as the attic or crawl space.
Scorpions don’t invade homes as often as other pests, like ants. They prefer to live outside in their natural habitat. However, if that habitat is disrupted by construction, logging, or other similar activities, the scorpions may seek shelter elsewhere and find a way into your home. If scorpions can’t find food and water outside, they will begin looking for these things in buildings. If your home provides a source of water and live prey, it will become even more enticing to a scorpion.
Problems With Scorpions
Scorpions can be a painful pest. The pain received from their stings is similar to that of a bee or wasp. Most scorpions are not severely poisonous. However, the Arizona bark scorpion is poisonous. If you’re stung by this scorpion, you should seek medical attention immediately. The sting is not only excruciating, but it may also cause convulsions, frothing at the mouth, and difficulty breathing. These stings can even be fatal.
Scorpions don’t typically infest the home in large numbers, as they prefer to live alone. If you find a large number of small scorpions, you may be dealing with the offspring of a solitary female scorpion that was dwelling in your area. Female scorpions give birth to between 25 and 35 live offspring. They will stay with their mother, riding on her back for about three weeks until they have their first molt. After this time, the young leave to live on their own.
Scorpion Control Solutions
You can keep scorpions out of your home by eliminating areas that may harbor these creatures. Landscaping stones and timbers may create attractive resting places for scorpions during the day. Keep firewood at least 20 feet from the house and five feet off the ground to discourage scorpions from hiding there.
Inspect your home for spaces where scorpions might enter, such as cracks or holes in the structure and openings in your screens, windows, and doors. Make sure your garage door closes tightly to the ground. Outfit your doors and windows with weather stripping. Use door sweeps for added protection along the bottom of the door. These steps will help you create a well-sealed space where scorpions can’t easily enter.
An exterminator can help you with your scorpion solutions efforts. Knowledgeable pest control professionals can help you identify areas around the home where scorpions are likely to hide. They can also assist with other pest infestations, which might ultimately feed your scorpion control problem. If you keep finding scorpions in the home, an exterminator may reveal that you have mice, beetles, spiders, and other creatures in your house. Getting rid of these will discourage scorpions from creating a home in your space.
Scorpion Facts
Around the world, there are more than 1,750 species of scorpion. Roughly 70 of these reside in the United States. Only around 25 scorpion species are venomous enough to be fatal to humans. Scorpions have a fluorescent chemical in their exoskeleton, which causes them to glow under a black light.
When scorpions feed, they can consume a massive amount of food. The rural desert habitat that scorpions often live in doesn’t always provide a steady source of food, so a scorpion can go anywhere from 6 to 12 months without eating. When food is scarce, a scorpion will slow down its metabolism to compensate.
Scorpions are also extremely resilient in the face of temperature fluctuations. Scorpions frozen overnight have been known to thaw out and walk away unharmed the next day.
If you’ve had problems with scorpions in your home, one of the best things you can do is take measures to prevent them from returning. Since you’ll typically have only one or two scorpions in your home at a time, you can easily get rid of the live creatures when you find them. More important is using a science-backed solution to create a barrier to prevent scorpions from coming back.