Scorpion Fundamentals

By Georgia Clubb, Seal Out Scorpions

Reviewed by Georgia A. Clubb, Advanced Scorpion Specialist. Updated July 2026.

Before I could effectively fight my own scorpion problem, I had to learn the fundamentals. My scorpion obsession pushed me to learn everything I could, and it eventually made me an expert. This page covers the basics so you can understand what you’re up against in your own home.

Scorpion Basics

Scorpions are predatory arthropods. They have eight legs, a pair of grasping pedipalps (the arms), and a narrow, segmented tail carried in that unmistakable forward curve over the back, ending in a venomous stinger.

They’re found on every continent except Antarctica, and Arizona is home to dozens of species. Only one of them, the Arizona bark scorpion, is considered medically significant in the United States.

One more oddity: an outer layer of a scorpion’s body fluoresces blue-green under ultraviolet light, and scientists still don’t fully understand why. That quirk is the basis of the black-light searches we use to survey properties at night, a method the University of Arizona’s Community IPM program also endorses for scorpion control.

“I’ve lived here for 28 years and I’ve learned more about scorpions within one conversation with the great people at this company. What you think you know about scorpions is not true. Call them and they’ll explain everything.”

Eric P., five-star Yelp review

Life Cycle

Scorpions live a long time for something this small: 2 to 8 years on average, and often longer. They’re nocturnal, sheltering through the heat of the day in underground holes, under rocks, or inside the man-made caves of our block fences and the walls of our homes. Arboreal species like the bark scorpion also shelter in trees and vegetation. At night they come out to hunt.

Birth And Offspring

Scorpions don’t hatch from eggs. They’re born live, and the newborns climb onto their mother’s back within days and ride there until their first molt, usually 3 to 14 days.

A few more reproductive facts worth knowing:

• The average litter is around 20, but litters can range from 7 to 42.
• Gestation is believed to run roughly 2 to 5 months, give or take.
• Births can happen year-round, but they’re most common May through October.
• Females will readily court again even while carrying young on their back.

Do the math on that litter size and you’ll understand why one pregnant female in a block wall matters. Population control, not squashing individuals, is the real solution.

Hunting Habits

Scorpions are opportunistic predators of small arthropods and insects. They grab prey with their pincers first, then either crush it or sting it, depending on the strength of their claws and the toxicity of their venom. Smaller-bodied species like the bark scorpion carry stronger venom to compensate for their physical weakness against larger species.

They’re fierce hunters, yet they can survive many months without eating thanks to an extremely low metabolic rate. They’re also cannibalistic, they can catch flying insects, and around a residential property they almost never face a food shortage. That last point is why pest control that only targets their food source disappoints so many homeowners.

Scorpion Activity: When You’ll See Them

Scorpions are nocturnal “time minimizers” with low levels of surface movement. The hidden, subsurface population is quite large. For every scorpion out moving where you can see it, many more are sheltered and still.

Activity rises and falls with conditions:

Activity Increases With:

• Higher temperatures
• Spring and fall
• The new moon (dark nights)
• Higher humidity
• The first few hours after dark

Activity Decreases With:

• Low temperatures
• Winter and the peak of mid-summer
• The full moon
• Lower humidity
• Daytime

This is why a quiet January tells you almost nothing about your property, a point we cover in bark scorpion control in the winter and in our guide to scorpion season in Arizona.

If I’m not seeing scorpions, does that mean they’re gone? Not necessarily. Low surface activity is normal in cold months, on bright moonlit nights, and in dry stretches. The hidden population is still there. A nighttime black-light search is the honest way to answer the question for your property.

Scorpion Senses

Scorpions see poorly. What they have instead is an acute sense of touch: body hairs that detect the slightest air and ground vibrations, and comb-like sensory organs on their underside that read the ground as they move. They feel you coming long before they see you.

Danger To Humans

Most scorpion species are relatively harmless to people. Their stings produce local effects like pain, numbness, or swelling. A few species are genuinely dangerous, and in Arizona that means the bark scorpion, the only scorpion in the United States whose sting is considered medically significant. Stings are most serious for young children, which is why we wrote a separate guide on what to do if a child is stung in the home.

Bark scorpions have adapted well to the urban environment as the Valley has grown. Look for them in:

• Trees and vegetation
• Cinder block walls
• Wood, block, and brick frame homes and other structures

Two behaviors set bark scorpions apart. They aggregate instead of defending territory the way other species do, and they follow the pheromones of other scorpions. So where you find one, you tend to find more, and our scorpion heat map shows exactly how that clustering plays out across Valley neighborhoods.

“They are definitely the scorpion experts here and have helped us tremendously - we had hundreds of scorpions within a few months time and because of the advice from Georgia, we never got bit.”

Misty Hurley, five-star Google review

Get Scorpions Out And Keep Them Out

If you’re dealing with scorpions in your home in Scottsdale, Gilbert, Chandler, or anywhere else in Arizona, learn the basics, then bring in an expert for interior and exterior scorpion control. Call or text 480-820-7325 or request a quote. We can help you get scorpions out and keep them out.

Georgia Clubb is the owner of Seal Out Scorpions in Tempe, Arizona. ROC 287016, OPM 9658. Licensed, bonded, and insured.