Control Scorpions From Your Home
Here in the Scottsdale and Phoenix area Scorpion control is a constant necessity for homeowners and always a huge portion of what pest control companies deal with on a daily basis. We are always getting calls from frightened people finding scorpions in their homes. Sometimes these folks have been stung and can’t stand the idea of having that happen again.
Scorpions are the Al Capone of the Pest world. They are scary, hard to kill or catch and they can really put the hurt on you! Over the decade I have been involved in the industry I have developed a lot of ways of dealing with these nasty critters and in this article, I’m going to share some of my “Tricks of the Trade’ with you.
There are six main ways that I go about dealing with Scorpion infestations:
- Baiting to Eliminate Scorpion’s Food Source
- Flushing the Foundation
- Flushing Cracks and Crevices
- Treating Block Fence Columns
- Treating Around the Bases of Trees that Scorpions Like
- Rotating Products Used to Prevent Resistance
Let’s go over Each one Briefly.
Baiting to Eliminate Scorpion’s Food Source
Usually, the first thing I do after meeting with my customer to get all the information I can about the infestation and inspecting the property is to use a granular bait.
This has two effects. First, it eliminates the bugs that usually eat the bait, specifically Crickets, Ants and Roaches. Second, it eliminates the scorpion’s food source, specifically crickets and roaches.
Scorpions usually only eat live food so they won’t eat the bait themselves, but they eat the bugs that eat the bait and this can be effective too. If a scorpion eats a cricket or roach that has eaten the bait but hasn’t died yet that scorpion can be affected by the bait as well. This is why we call our strategy the “Bait First” approach.
Flushing the Foundation
Spraying or Flushing the foundation of the home is one of the most important parts of a scorpion service. The spray used is usually a repellent product so it so it makes approaching your home unpleasant. It also makes it a deadly place for a scorpion to hang out.
When flushing the foundation I always angle the nozzle of my sprayer up a bit in order to get as much as possible behind the weep screed. This gap is often hangout for crickets and since we know scorpions love to eat crickets, we know that we will kill a bunch of scorpions while we are at it.
Also, Scorpions that eat crickets or other critters that have spent time in a treated area will end up ingesting the product, killing them from the inside out, which will kill them a lot faster than waiting for it to kill them from the outside in.
Flushing Cracks and Crevices
Flushing cracks and crevices is a very important part of any scorpion control program. Scorpions love tight spaces that hold moisture and are protected from the sun and anything that might want to harm them, like us.
The most common cracks are racks between cement slabs like the one just outside your back door, cracks between bricks or pavers, crevices in damaged cement slabs, the natural crevice that sometimes occurs between a brick or cement slab and grass. These are usually flushed out with a liquid spray or aerosol but can be treated with dust also.
I usually flush or otherwise treat the columns of block fences. Specifically, the cracks that lead into the voids need to be treated in order to kill anything that would want to live in there.
Sometimes I flush it out with my sprayer, but periodically I may use an aerosol and I recommend using pesticide dust once a year in the fence columns because it makes the inside of the columns very inhospitable.
Bases of Trees
I like to spray around the bases of trees, especially trees that scorpions prefer, like Mesquites, Palo Verdes, Sycamores, Cottonwoods, and of course Palms. This makes getting onto or off of the tree a difficult task for a scorpion that wants to stay alive.
Like I always say, they don’t call them Bark Scorpions because they sound like a dog!
Product Rotation
I try to avoid using the same products to treat for scorpions over and over. This can accomplish two things.
First, It prevents the scorpions in your area from becoming resistant to the particular product. This can become a big problem for the so-called “Spray and Pray” approach to pest control where huge areas are sprayed with the same watered down pesticide month after month.
Second, it provides another mode of killing the scorpions. Different pesticides attack bug’s in totally different ways so it makes sense to have multiple methods of control. One pesticide may dehydrate the scorpion while another may shut down the sodium receptors in their cells.
If you’re having a problem with scorpions…or any other pest…or simply a question…call NaturZone Pest Control at 602-476-1088 and ask for me, Jeffrey West. I’ll be happy to speak with you anytime.
Till then, thanks for reading!
Here’s to helping YOU live Pest Free,
Jeffrey
PS. Call 602-476-1088 today for a FREE Consultation and FREE 58 Point Pest Analysis of your home or office!