Pest control company talks scorpions, bed bugs and beetles in Southeastern Idaho

You might expect to occasionally see ants or even spiders in your home in Southeastern Idaho, but what about a scorpion?

That is exactly what reporter Erin O’Shaughnessy found in a home in Pocatello.

After viewers asked us how common it is to find scorpions in Idaho and what other types of creepy crawlies live in the area we decided to sit down with a pest control company and find out.

“The top five bugs in Southeast Idaho the last few years has been of course hobo spiders, then you have bed bugs, which is really really up there. Tent caterpillars are terrible. You also have the earwigs and billbugs which are also terrible,” commented Tim Colling, the owner of Colling Pest Solutions.

Colling said bed bugs are a huge concern and treatments to get rid of the nasty insects can cost up to $7,000.

“They [bed bugs] will get into the cuffs of your pants, the soles of your shoes, jackets are a big common thing,” said Colling.

Boxelder bugs also cause issues in the area. Colling said they get so bad, sides of building can get covered in them. He said the best way to eliminate these guys is to spray the trees around homes or businesses.

“The way to treat those is to have your trees treated early in the year with an oil that will actually smother those eggs out so when it is time for them to come out they cannot breathe and it kind of kills them right inside their home,” added Colling.

And while scorpions did not make the list of one of the top critters you might find in your home…occasionally it does happen. Colling said scorpions are attracted to heat which can be one of the reasons they end up places we do not want them to.

“You will see them more on hillsides. Now they will crawl out of hillsides on a warm day. So if you live next to a hillside or a rock pile or something. Because rocks stay warm, if the heat hits the rock in the summertime it’s going to warm that rock up,” said Colling. “And that rock will stay warm well after night. So what happens more than likely is it will crawl off of that rock and it will get just a little bit too far away from that rock and so it will sense heat coming from an open window or an open door, something in a residential or business home and it will say ‘ah there is some heat’ and they will high tail it to that.”

Colling said if you do hire a pest control company, make sure they are licensed and insured.