Scorpion-Proof Your Home: A Room-by-Room Checklist

Bark scorpions climb, squeeze and wander, and University of Arizona Extension says they can reach interior rooms through a wall void once inside it. A checklist cannot replace scorpion control, but it does cover the things only you can do. Work from outside in, because a sealed perimeter makes the rest of the list easier.

How to scorpion proof your home, starting outside

Do the outside first. A scorpion stopped at the wall never reaches the bedroom.

• Doors: stand inside in daylight. If you can see light around a door, fit a sweep or weather-stripping.
• Garage door: check the seal along the whole bottom edge. Extension prefers brush or rubber over vinyl.
• Sliding doors: line the bottom track with foam weather stripping.
• Windows: repair screens and make sure they fit the frame.
• Weep holes and weep screed: screen them with coarse steel mesh. Never plug them.
• Pipes and wires: caulk around hose bibs, AC lines and cable entries.
• Roof eaves: caulk gaps. Extension lists these among entry points.
• Trees and shrubs: trim for about 24 inches of clearance from walls, and cut anything overhanging the roof.
• Block walls: cap and stucco hollow block where you can.
• Debris: move rocks, boards and wood away from the house, and store wood six inches off the ground.
• Trash cans: rest them on a frame above ground level.

In research cited by Extension, 95 percent of bark scorpions chose hollow block walls over other refuges around buildings, so that wall deserves your attention.

Weep holes: screen them, never plug them

This is the one item people get backward. A weep hole looks like a gap to fill, and scorpions do use them. Extension names weep holes in the weep screed among the ways they get into wall spaces. But those openings let water out of the wall and ventilate it, and Extension says they should not be plugged or sealed.

The fix is a screen. Fit coarse steel mesh over the weep holes in stucco weep screed or brick veneer, so air and water still pass and a scorpion does not. Keep caulk, foam and mortar away from that line. Check it again after any stucco or paint work, and keep gravel from building up against it.

Keeping scorpions out of the bedroom

Bedrooms come first indoors, because that is where bare skin meets a scorpion in the dark. Extension notes that they cross floors, climb textured walls and can fall from ceilings, landing in beds.

• Pull beds a few inches from the wall.
• Keep blankets and bed skirts off the floor.
• Clear floors of clothes, bags and shoes.
• Shake out anything that sat on the floor overnight.
• Keep slippers by the bed, and check them before use.
• Seal around electrical plates and pipe collars on outside walls.
• Check with a black light before bedtime in summer.

Scorpion-proof crib and kids' rooms

Children deserve extra steps. The Arizona Department of Health Services calls small kids the highest risk group for severe reactions.

• Stand each crib leg in a clean, wide-mouthed glass jar.
• Pull the crib away from the wall.
• Keep blankets from touching the floor.
• Store toys off the floor in lidded bins.
• Hang pool towels and swimsuits on hooks.
• Teach kids not to touch scorpions and to tell an adult.

Know the warning signs. CDC lists restlessness, roving eyes, staggering, a thick tongue or slurred speech, drooling, muscle twitches and trouble breathing, and it says bark scorpion stings can be life-threatening. If a child may have been stung, call 911 or Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 right away.

Bathrooms, kitchen and laundry

Scorpions drink from small pools and look for moisture, so wet rooms get a lot of visits.

Garage, attic and storage

These rooms are where scorpions wait out the day. In cool months they can also gather in undisturbed, enclosed spots.

• Store shoes and boots on shelves, not on the floor, and never outside overnight.
• Replace cardboard boxes with sealed plastic bins.
• Keep stored items off the floor and off the walls.
• Bring in firewood only when it is going straight on the fire.
• Wear leather gloves when you move anything that has sat for a while.
• Look along the top of the slab and behind shelves with a black light.
• Check the pool and spa. Extension warns that a scorpion in the water may still be alive and able to sting.

If you only have one weekend

The list is long, so here is a sensible order, with the cheapest protection for sleeping people at the top.

1. Beds and cribs first. Moving them costs nothing and protects sleeping people tonight.
2. Exterior doors next, since a sweep is cheap and a door gap is a straight path inside.
3. Weep holes, with mesh along the most shaded walls first.
4. Pipe and wire entries at the kitchen, bathrooms and AC lines.
5. Yard cover: rocks, boards and wood stacked near the house.
6. Block wall caps, the slowest and most expensive job on the page.

Timing helps as well. Extension says most movement happens from 7 to 11 p.m. and from 3 a.m. to sunrise, so those are the hours a black light check pays off. Around buildings, tagged scorpions usually traveled under 35 yards a night, which means the ones reaching your house mostly live close by. Irrigation and monsoon rain can flood them out of a refuge, so walk the wall line after a soaking.

How Kai would use this checklist

A list like this works best alongside regular service, not instead of it. Extension says scorpions are hard to manage with pesticides alone, and pest-proofing does more for you than anything sprayed. So on a visit the useful conversation is about where your house is still open, and Kai explains what he is doing and how to prevent problems.

Sealing itself depends on the property. Some of this list is easy weekend work, while weep screed and block wall jobs take longer. The honest limit is that a sealed house still sits next to walls, gravel and a neighbor's yard, and one missed pipe gap can undo a good day's caulking, so the list lowers contact without ending it. Read about scorpion proofing and ask Kai on the phone whether it is work he takes on for your home.

After a sting, CDC says to contact a qualified health care provider or poison control center. Poison Help is 1-800-222-1222. CDC adds ice on the site, without submerging it in ice water, no sedatives, and capturing the scorpion for identification only if that is safe. Call 911 for breathing trouble.

This list works for homes in Tempe as well as quieter streets in Sun Lakes. Older homes tend to need more door and pipe work, and newer ones more attention at the block wall.

Worked through the list and still finding them? Call (209) 563-1650 and Kai will tell you what he would check next.