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There is no pest quite as feared by Valley homeowners as the Arizona Bark Scorpion. Carrying with them a threatening appearance and a venomous sting, bark scorpions invade homes throughout Phoenix and Casa Grande every summer.
Dealing with bark scorpions effectively requires understanding them. That’s our mission here at Arizona’s Best Choice Pest & Termite Services: educate homeowners so that you can make the right decisions and know when to seek professional scorpion control services.
We’ve been serving the Phoenix metro area and Casa Grande for years, and our team has the experience and equipment you want when facing down a bark scorpion problem. Here’s our process:
If you’ve noticed a bark scorpion in your home, it’s time to call us for an inspection and free quote. Our technicians are scorpion experts who know where to look for scorpions, either at night when they’re hunting or during the day when they’re resting.
If you do have scorpions, our technician will recommend a treatment plan that fully addresses the problem. Keeping scorpions at bay requires more than just pesticide: we’ll build a strategy for denying them food, water, and shelter so that they’ll move on.
Your home’s safetyAt Arizona’s Best Choice Pest & Termite Services, we use an insecticide—Demand CS—that is much more resistant to the sun and the rain than store-bought chemicals.
After the product has dried, it’s safe for your family and pets to be around. We also offer home sealing, an effective, non-insecticide form of pest treatment.
The Arizona Bark Scorpion can squeeze through spaces as thin as a credit card. Our home sealing service works to cut off their access to your home by closing small gaps, pinholes, or other points of entry. Best of all, home sealing works without the use of insecticides.
There’s an old adage: “Know your enemy.” When it comes to the Arizona Bark Scorpion, we do.
We want to cut through the myths surrounding this pest and cut-to-the-chase: what are bark scorpions, and why are they in your home?
WHAT IS THE ARIZONA BARK SCORPION?
The Arizona Bark Scorpion (scientific name: centruroides sculpturatus) is native to the Sonoran Desert, and can be found in areas ranging from the Mexican state of Sonora up to Las Vegas. Colonies of scorpions have even started to show up in Albuquerque!
However, as the name implies, it has made a name for itself here in Arizona, specifically in Phoenix.
WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?
Throw out that picture of the large, imposing, dark scorpion seen in old Hollywood horror movies.
The Arizona Bark Scorpion is small: about the size of a dollar coin. It’s also tan or light brown in color. When at rest, the tail and stinger are often flat against the body of the scorpion.
WHY ARE THEY IN MY HOME?
The Arizona Bark Scorpion is a predator. It uses its potent venom to disable prey such as crickets, roaches, and other insects. Scorpions often make their way into Valley homes looking for three things: food, water, and shelter.
If you have other pests, you’re at risk of scorpions following the buffet line into your home.
HOW DO I KNOW I HAVE SCORPIONS?
The Arizona Bark Scorpion, like all other scorpions, has a unique quirk to its biochemistry. Thanks to the presence of certain chemicals, they glow bright when exposed to UV light (also known as “blacklight”).
Get a UV flashlight from your local hardware store and shine it at night against a dark wall. If scorpions are active around your home, they should glow bright against the otherwise dark exterior.
Of course, the best way to know whether or not your home has scorpions is to call our team for a free scorpion inspection. One of our techs will come to your home and do a comprehensive check for this pest.
WHEN ARE THEY ACTIVE?
Bark scorpions are most active in the summer (As if you needed another reason to hate summers here in Phoenix!). Warming temperatures take them out of hibernation and into their hunting and mating season.
It’s not impossible to see a scorpion in the winter, but it is less likely.
This species is also nocturnal, resting during the summer heat of the day and then going on the hunt at night. Most homeowners report seeing scorpions on the move at night, not during the day.
ARE THEY DANGEROUS?
That depends how you define “dangerous.”
The Arizona Bark Scorpion has a potent, venomous sting. In fact, it’s the most venomous scorpion on the continent. The venom causes great pain in the area, with numbness, tingling, and other side-effects.
However, bark scorpions are very (very) rarely lethal. Since statistics began being tracked in the 1960s, only two fatalities have ever been reported from scorpion stings here in Arizona. That’s out of the thousands of people who are stung annually.
WHAT LEADS TO PEOPLE BEING STUNG?
Bark scorpions are not inherently aggressive. They’ll seek to avoid humans and pets if possible. Most stings occur when homeowners accidentally brush up against or step on a scorpion.
Other stings occur when scorpions fall from the ceiling onto a bed or couch, leading to a sting.
HOW DO THEY GET IN MY HOME?
The hint is actually in their name: bark scorpions evolved to climb trees. Doing so required the ability to not only to climb, but also to hang and squeeze in tight places for shelter.
Those tree adaptations translate to invading your home: they can climb exterior and interior walls and squeeze between cracks no wider than a credit card. Denying them access is difficult, and will likely require professional home sealing service.
WHERE CAN I FIND THEM IN MY HOME?
At night, bark scorpions hunt. Their eyesight is poor, so they tend to avoid open spaces in favor of baseboards along walls.
Here’s what makes the Arizona Bark Scorpion unique, though: their same ability to climb and hang from tree limbs translates to walls and ceilings. Bark scorpions are the only type of scorpion able to climb walls and, in fact, crawl across ceilings of rooms.
WHERE DO THEY HIDE?
Bark scorpions have some favorite spots. They need to stay out of the sun and heat during the day, so they often will settle in piled wood, bricks, or rocks around your home. If possible, they can also hide in your home’s exterior walls, or in your block wall fence.
At Arizona’s Best Choice Pest & Termite Services, we’re proud to be the Valley’s trusted team for local bark scorpion removal and control services.
From Sun City to Casa Grande, we help local homeowners eliminate scorpion populations and prevent them from coming back in future summers.
From Mesa to Surprise and from Anthem to Ahwatukee, AZ Best Choice offers pest control services to the Phoenix metropolitan area. Give us a call today to schedule your free inspection.
Unlike other pest control companies, AZ Best Choice employs pest control professionals who live and work in Casa Grande, meaning they can provide you and your family with quick assistance.
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