Scorpion Control across Cape Town

Scorpions found around Cape Town and the Western Cape include burrowing scorpions (Opistophthalmus species), which have large, heavy pincers and fairly thin tails and are mostly harmless to people. Parabuthus species, including Parabuthus capensis, have thin pincers and a thick tail, and these are the ones to treat with real caution because their venom can cause serious symptoms. Lesser thick-tailed scorpions (Uroplectes species) are smaller and often found under bark, stones and in garden debris; their stings are painful but rarely serious in healthy adults. A rough rule of thumb in South Africa is that big pincers with a thin tail means less venom, and small pincers with a thick tail means more.

Scorpion control for creches, smallholdings and holiday homes

Most scorpion advice is written for a family home. Some situations need a different plan, because the people involved, the buildings and the risks are not the same.

Creches, schools and aftercare centres

Small children explore with their hands, and sandpits, jungle gyms and the bark chips under them are ideal places for scorpions to hide. Staff who unlock in the morning should walk the play area before the children go out, lift the sandpit cover with gloves on and check the outside cubbies where shoes and bags are left. Teach staff to photograph a scorpion and keep the children away from it, not to catch it.

Farms and smallholdings

On plots in the Boland, around Philippi and on the edges of Durbanville, the scorpions live in dry-stone walls, old brick heaps and the stacked crates in packing sheds. Workers' boots and gloves left outside overnight are the classic sting risk. Keep a boot rack under cover and off the ground, and move stored materials away from cottage walls.

Holiday lets and weekend houses

A house locked up for weeks is a quiet, undisturbed place, and scorpions move in. Guests from overseas or upcountry often do not know that shaking out a shoe is normal here. A short note in the welcome pack, and a check of the bedrooms and the outdoor shower before each arrival, is reasonable and kind.

After building or landscaping work

Breaking up a rockery, moving paving or dumping rubble on the side of the house disturbs established scorpions and sends them looking for new shelter. Ask your builder to remove rubble promptly instead of leaving it against the walls for weeks.

Where in Cape Town scorpions turn up most

In our experience, the pressure is highest where houses meet wild ground. That includes homes bordering Table Mountain National Park in Tokai, Noordhoek, Kommetjie and Scarborough, and the sandy fynbos along the West Coast around Melkbosstrand, Atlantis and Mamre, where burrowing scorpions dig easily into loose sand. The outer edges of Durbanville, Kraaifontein and Brackenfell, where gardens back onto veld, see them regularly, and so do the slopes above Somerset West and Gordon's Bay. Flats in the City Bowl and the inner Southern Suburbs rarely have them at all.

Security and golf estates built on former fynbos often keep strips of natural vegetation between the houses. That is good for wildlife and just as good for scorpions, so homes on the edge of those strips need the same attention as a farm boundary. Outdoor showers, braai areas and stacks of beach chairs in the garage are worth checking on any coastal property.

Catching one for identification

A good identification decides how seriously we approach the job, so it is worth doing properly:

1. Never pick up a scorpion with your hand, even a small one or one you believe is dead.
2. Place a glass jar over it and slide a stiff piece of card underneath, then turn the jar over and close it.
3. Take a photo from directly above and another from the side, so the shape of the pincers and the thickness of the tail are both clear.
4. Write down where you found it: inside or outside, which room and at what time.
5. Keep the jar somewhere cool and out of reach of children until we have seen the photo.

WhatsApp the photos and we will get back to you with what it is. Scorpions often follow insect food, so it is worth reading our cricket control page as well if your garden is noisy at night. The full treatment process is on our scorpion control page.

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Scorpion Control by suburb