It's been a bad year for scorpions

[LVSteve]

About a week ago one of the news outlets here in Vegas had yet another scorpion infestation story. An apartment tenant had killed or trapped over 100 in a three month period INSIDE the dwelling. At least one person got stung in this period. A run outside with the blacklight showed that the whole neighborhood crawled.

The thing I noticed was that the landscaping was basically a huge bug condo. Lots of pretty looking layers of fist sized rock or what looked like railroad ties holding back the ground in planters. Good grief, talk about ideal scorpion habitat. After moving into my current home and finding scorpions in the yard, I paid a landscape guy to REMOVE all the big red rock at the front and adjacent to the home and replace it all with gravel. While in there he refurbed all the irrigation, too. That pretty much eliminated the buggers at the front.

At the rear of the property the planters still have the big rock and the beasties live in the joins of the block wall. I'm trying to decide if I should have my guy back to remove that rock and cap and stucco the yard walls.

In the meantime, my wife and I go and hunt a one or two times a week with the blacklight and Raid Scorpion Killer. This year the score has been steady at 2-3 a night. That's an improvement on last year's 5-7 per hunt. What I did not know until this year is just how late in the season these guys will keep coming out. I killed one just this Saturday, 3 November. The daytime temperature never reached 80° and there was still activity. Ah well, I'll just keep knocking them off in 1s and 2s.

 

[italiansport]

When the developed the 10 acres next to our subdivision a few years back we were overrun with scorpions. Since this took up the remaining undeveloped land in our area I guess they had no other place to go. I do have an effective repellent which I regularly use. I sprinkle DE(The stuff used in pool filters) completely around the foundation of our home. It's ground up coral and apparently irritates them when it gets into their exterior skeleton so they avoid it.
Jim

 

[BearBio]

Diatomaceous earth is good for many arthropod pests. Clogs up their "book lungs" and suffocates them.

 

[Steve912]

What do they eat? Can you focus on their food source,
and send em to 'greener pastures'?

 

[Rustyt1953]

From what I understand, a scorpion will eat about anything it can kill. They can go months without water so disrupting their food supply would be difficult.

I've been nailed by them in my younger days. Painful little buggers.

 

[LVSteve]

What do they eat? Can you focus on their food source,
and send em to 'greener pastures'?

I have done some of that, too. The first time I did a generalized spraying last year pretty much nothing moved in my yard for three weeks, including the scorpions.

I'm also of the opinion that when a neighbor has a guy in to "spray for scorpions" it does a better job of killing their food and driving them out looking for more. When that happens we step in with the black light and the spray mano a mano. I've had more than one bug guy tell me that hunting them this way is the best control method.

As for DE, it does discourage them and flat out kill them. The last two that made it into the house have been very sickly and dead on discovery.

 

[bigwheelzip]

In the meantime, my wife and I go and hunt a one or two times a week with the blacklight and Raid Scorpion Killer. This year the score has been steady at 2-3 a night. That's an improvement on last year's 5-7 per hunt.

Raid Scorpion Killer!!! Are you kidding?
Your wife is one heck of a woman to do that with you. I saw a scorpion once, in a holiday apartment in Agarone Switzerland, and screamed so loud the landlord came running from across the street. That was 20 years ago and still makes me shiver.


Good luck eliminating those nasty creatures.

 

[HorizontalMike]

Hey! Don't hurt "Mama"and her kids...

 

[islamoradamark]

I live in the fl keys we get them down here when it rains a lot they will move to high ground, that would be a home on stilts. Yes I have been stung a couple of times they like work boots . I had a tenant that moved in from up north and he saw one in the yard and was terrified he had called a pest company. They sprayed and then they were gone for awhile, then they came back after a long time

 

[Stevens]

In the early 1970s another guy and I were in Puerto Rico demonstrating some sugar cane harvesters our company made. We had been well warned to watch out for centipedes and scorpions which were plentiful in the cane fields. One morning as we walked into the hotel dining room for breakfast he dropped to the floor shouting SCORPION! he shook his boot off and tossed it across the room. he walked over to the boot and shook it upside down, ready to stomp the scorpion, was he ever embarrassed when the small twig that had poked his foot dropped out! The whole place had a good laugh.
Steve W

 

[Ranger514]

I lived and worked in the Grand Canyon for nine years. We had Desert Hairy and Arizona Bark Scorpions (centroides) to deal with. The large Desert Hairy scorps were less visible, and less of a threat, while the Arizona Bark Scorps sting was very painful, and traveled along the nervous system, rather than circulatory system. Amazingly, although I had several close encounters with them, I was never stung, though many of my fellow rangers and visitors weren't as lucky.

I kept sticky traps indoors around the bed in my ranger station. They routinely filled with AZ bark scorps, and had to be changed out about once a month. The scorps often fell from the attic, trapping themselves in the glass globes of the ceiling lights. When I emptied the globes onto the outside terrace, tree lizards came running and gobbled the scorps up greedily. The lizards were immune to the stinging of the scorps. From what I observed, lizards were the only species that preyed on the scorps, though snakes and birds may have also considered them prey.

 

[Ranger514]

Hey! Don't hurt "Mama"and her kids...

Seen that many times. That's a momma Arizona Bark Scorpion that I mentioned in my earlier post. Though they are only an inch or two long, they have an extremely painful sting that lasts hours. People who have a history of being stung by these critters are at risk of an increased reaction to subsequent stings, which can include anaphylaxis (sic.)

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

In the early 1970s another guy and I were in Puerto Rico demonstrating some sugar cane harvesters our company made. We had been well warned to watch out for centipedes and scorpions which were plentiful in the cane fields. One morning as we walked into the hotel dining room for breakfast he dropped to the floor shouting SCORPION! he shook his boot off and tossed it across the room. he walked over to the boot and shook it upside down, ready to stomp the scorpion, was he ever embarrassed when the small twig that had poked his foot dropped out! The whole place had a good laugh.
Steve W

Got a lot of twigs around here, too. Like the one-eyed hooker from Jacksonville, I'll keep an eye out for them.

 

[HorizontalMike]

Seen that many times. That's a momma Arizona Bark Scorpion that I mentioned in my earlier post. Though they are only an inch or two long, they have an extremely painful sting that lasts hours. People who have a history of being stung by these critters are at risk of an increased reaction to subsequent stings, which can include anaphylaxis (sic.)

Actually, this "mama" was maybe +2-1/2in long and the babies maybe 3/8in each, it was still interesting to find them on our garden wall next to the carport. They were hanging out on our cement block wall protecting our carport. They are VERY ski-dish, and would rather figure out how to get-the-H__l out of there/here when given the opportunity.

Had them drop on my shoulder/head when entering the stand-alone garage/shop (south Texas), and they work overtime to get away and not be harmed. Inside our home, yes, I have resorted to wearing flip-flops between the bathroom and bedroom in the middle of the night. Just waiting on when I FINALLY do get stung by these things so I can get over the lingering fear...

Other than that,...life is good...

 

[LVSteve]

Hey! Don't hurt "Mama"and her kids...

I go after the "short fat tailed" scorpions first as they are generally females. You always kill as many of the females of any population if you want to REALLY reduce the numbers. The male bark scorpion has a long, almost thread like tail.

 

[meaneyedcatz]

You obviously have never hunted with experts.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JySPZUt_6w[/ame]