It's too hot in Phoenix...even for scorpions! :D

I have not seen a scorpion in Florida since 1985 when my friends car broke down in front of the F.I.T. campus and we hoofed it home. We saw a few on the sidewalk in front of a vacant field, I never saw another one again after that night.

Will I see them when I am in Phoenix? Are they prevalent or do you have to go looking for them?

How do you pick them up? I would be a little nervous about grabbing them with my hand.

I might haver to take the boys scorpion hunting when we are there, they would love that.

You can grab them from behind (on the tail, below the stinger). Or, for the squeamish, you can use ice tongs or forceps:

http://drsfostersmith.com/images/Cat...926_30425D.jpg

I prefer these:

http://boifromtroy.com/archives/lucc...oy%20boots.jpg

They come in for food. Stop the food chain and you will stop the scorpions. Do you have ANY crickets in your house? If yes, then that is what they are coming in to eat.

Move ANY wood away from the house, and spray around the house for bugs. That way the scorpions do not have anything to eat.

I have a blacklight and use it from time to time outside. Am as well on the edge of the desert, so should see them around but in 8 years here have seen less than 5 scorpions at my place.

Yeah, there are crickets. Pest-control comes once a month (I'm only here on occasion, so the house is rarely occupied). There's no debris around the house and I've plugged up every opening I could find. I imagine they could squeeze into pretty small spots. I'm not worried, but the girlfriend(s) tend to freak out. When the scorpions start affecting my sack-time, then we'll have a problem!

I got tagged in the armpit by a scorpion when I was about 10. Believe me, you WILL start worrying about it the first time you get nailed.

When I was about nine I was sleeping on my top bunk bed when I turned the light on and noticed a scorpion on ceiling just above my face. I carefully crawled down to get a glass to catch him with and, when I got back to the bed, could not find the damn thing. That was a long night.

The reason for tracking them down outside is so they don't make it inside or have a litter of pups in your yard. My wife was lounging in bed with our daughter when she was little... I heard a distressed scream when my wife discovered a scorpion had joined them. That was the day I bought the blacklight and started the hunting ritual.

When we first moved to Phoenix we would find 2-3 inside the house every week. Now we only find a few each year. They're actually pretty cool creatures, but I'd prefer to not share my home with them. I've read that if you can slip a credit card through a crack then a scorpion can pass through the same crack. We usually let them go out in the desert. If my daughter had her way we'd keep a few as pets.

I also remember my mom's blood-curdling scream that woke me up one night when she got stung between the toes. And my sister got stung on the ball of her ankle. They are painful stings. I once got stung in the arch of my foot by a bee (actually two) twice inside one hour. That wasn't as bad as a scorpion sting.

Guys,

Everywhere in Arizona is not like this. Scorpions are like snakes in that the area you live in either is going to have them or not. They do not move around in packs and infest housing units but if they are around where the builders build a house, then the homeowner is going to have to deal with them.

I have seen very few around my area, but 35 miles South Lee has them coming out of everywhere it seems. Lets not get everyone scared about something that is not everywhere.

BTW, it may not be a good idea to post alot about this on a public form. A scorpion and snake is a pest and you have to disclose if you have had these when selling a house. Considering todays housing market it might mean the difference between selling and sitting on the house for a year. We might want to settle down on this a bit but its up to you guys.

If one more rattler makes it inside my living room, I'll definitely be selling! Had one push open the french doors and invite him(her?)self in...

http://www.maxumowners.org/Images/Mi...ttlesnakes.jpg

Better make sure my realtor doesn't log in to Pelican and look me up!

Now THAT gave me a chuckle!

Rick - where did this happen?

It was in our house in Wylie, TX, way, way out in the sticks back then, now a booming metropolis.

Yep. Ahwatukee is a known hot spot for scorps. I'm thinking that if I skipped checking the scorpion box on the disclosure form for a house on a hillside lot in Ahwatukee, it would raise more red flags than if I was honest and checked it.

That's ok. I'll have a lot to disclose someday when we sell... scorpions, bats, snakes, cockroaches, antelope squirrels, grasshopper mice, termites, slab leak, and a whole house freshwater flood. This may be the house I die in.

Nuke 'em then use them for practical jokes. The posibilities are endless: under toilet lid, clustered ontop of someones favorite item, etc.
Or sell them to pet store.