Hi Jonathan,
I was reading your article on the website about scorpions and I had some questions. I live in Tucson, Arizona and since I moved into my home in March of this year, I have found 4 scorpions. I believe they are bark scorpions. The first one was found in April and it was about 2 inches in size, found downstairs. The next two I found were in July (found two weeks apart) upstairs, and were tiny..definitely babies. And I just found one this morning downstairs in the kitchen…it must have come out maybe 10 minutes after I left the kitchen and when I came back there it was not moving. It was a young – only half inch big. Do I have an infestation? I don’t know if finding 4 in 5 months is a lot. It is the monsoon season here so it’s probably mating season. I don’t know but I am definitely worried that we have an infestation. Could you please provide me with your expertise? I intend to order Cy-Kick to treat the outside and inside of the house in the meantime. Thanks so much!
I think it’s safe to say you’ve got an active infestation. I’m also thinking you’ve got them in your attic if you’re finding any inside the home upstairs which you state is happening. Typically the babies don’t travel that far which tells me they must have come from close by and the attic would be a logical location.
It sounds like you’ve read through our SCORPION CONTROL article which explains in great detail what you should do. No doubt the CYKICK should be applied but don’t forget the DETAMETHRIN GRANULES on the outside. Especially in the mulch area. For the living spaces, be sure to get some SCORPION TRAPS set out and though you can use the Cykick concentrate inside, the CYKICK AEROSOL is usually the better way to go since it lets you treat all the cracks and crevices a lot better with it’s included injecting straw.
Lastly, I’m thinking the attic should be dusted with some DRIONE based on the little ones being seen upstairs. You could opt to hold off and wait to see if the inside treatments gets rid of all the activity and if you get them good outside with the liquid and granules, the attic might turn out to be a non issue. But it’s just too soon to tell for sure and only after a 1-2 month period will you know if the other treatments handled the problem completely. Good luck!
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
Scorpion Control Article: http://www.bugspray.com/article/scorpions.html
Cykick CS: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/pt-cykick-cs-16-oz
DeltaGuard Granules: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/granule/delta-guard-20-lb
Scorpion Traps: http://www.bugspraycart.com/traps/pheromone-and-food/scorpion-insect-lizard-15-pk
Cykick Aerosol: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/aerosol/pt-cykick-17-5-oz
Drione: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/dust/drione-dust
RR says
Thanks, Jonathon. FYI, I did spray the entire house (baseboards) with Ortho Home Defense prior to moving in and I also sprayed outside as well. Also, I found these young scorpions during the day, one was dead already I think as I found it on the baseboard and did not move when I poked it. Only the larger first one I found was found in the evening and it also was not moving. Doesn’t that mean they’re dying? If I have an active infestation, wouldn’t I have seen more in the house? I am extremely vigilant about looking at the floors and walls to see if there are any scorpions. I’m scared of looking in the attic and my husband is currently deployed. I just hate the thought of having an infestation and keep thinking that if I did have one then wouldn’t I have seen more by now?
Tech Support says
@RR: Actually it’s the one’s you don’t see that present the problem. Scorpions are mostly nocturnal and in general, you won’t see them during the day. Finding them out and about in that time frame would indicate that particular one isn’t doing well and in fact it sounds like they were on the way out if not dead when you found the ones you discovered. This makes sense. But since scorpions feed mostly at night and have a good ability to identify danger, they’re tough to see in action. That means you shouldn’t expect to be finding them all over; if they were around they’d flock as soon as you got near. Which brings us back to the traps mentioned above; installing some traps can really “open your eyes” to problems that otherwise may have been missed or overlooked. I’m not saying you have a worse than anticipated problem; I’m just saying it’s quite common to not see many if not any at all yet still have them nesting inside.