In Your Yard

• 1). Clean up your yard. Scorpions love to hide in dark crevices, so eliminate as many of these as possible. Get rid of any trash piles, fallen leaves, and rotting wood. You may also need to consider redecorating your lawn, as decorative garden stones, landscape timbers, mulch, and flowerbed liners can also attract scorpions. While it may be sufficient to treat any must-keep items with pesticide, you should remove as many of these hiding spots as possible.
  
  
• 2). Prune any plants away from the house. Cut back tree limbs so that they do not provide a bridge to the roof or exterior of the house. Since scorpions climb well, they can easily reach tree branches and other high areas. You should also keep your grass mowed short.
  
  
• 3). Examine your house thoroughly for any possible scorpion entry points. These may include gaps in the siding, loose window screens, poorly installed doors and windows, holes around the plumbing, and spaces in the roof eaves. Be sure to include the basement, attic, and garage in this inspection. Use caulk or weather stripping to seal off these areas.
  
  
• 4). Store trash cans, recycling bins, and firewood on an elevated surface away from the house. Never store firewood inside the house. Always move it directly from the outdoors to the fire.
  
  
• 5). Treat your lawn with a pesticide designed to eliminate scorpions. Doyourownpestcontrol.com recommends Demon WP, Cyper WP, and Cyonara 9.7. If you cannot treat your entire lawn, at least apply the fertilizer in a ten foot perimeter surrounding the house. These pesticides do not pose a threat to children or pets, and can be safely applied to your whole lawn. Reapply pesticides at least four times a year.
  
  

Inside Your Home

• 1). Treat your home for roaches, ants, and grasshoppers. These insects are a main food supply for scorpions and scorpions rarely stay in your house if they cannot find food. However, be aware that scorpions can go up to six months without a meal, so this may not remedy the problem immediately.
  
  
• 2). Use a pesticide dust such as Dione Dust or Delta Dust in the basement, garage, and attic. Set up scorpion glue traps. Scorpions are active at night, so the glue traps are likely to catch them even if you rarely see them during the day.
  
  
• 3). Use a blacklight to spot scorpions. Many scorpion stings happen when a person unknowingly steps on one. You can keep this from happening by arming yourself with a blacklight flashlight any time you are walking in the dark. Since scorpions show up well under black light, it should be easy to avoid them.
  
  
• 4). Carry a handheld bug zapper for anytime you do stumble across a scorpion. These zappers deliver an electric shock that kills the scorpion without a mess. These devices work well for other household pests as well, so they will be good to have around long after your scorpion problem is solved.