Scorpions and Fruit Trees

[BlueLotus]

I heard that you're not supposed to plant fruit trees right next to your house because you'll end up with a scorpion infestation. Do you know if that is true or not? How far away does a fruit tree need to be from the house?

 

[Chuck]

I heard that you're not supposed to plant fruit trees right next to your house because you'll end up with a scorpion infestation. Do you know if that is true or not? How far away does a fruit tree need to be from the house?

I can't imagine what fruit trees have to do with scorpions as scorpions are carnivores. Scorpions will live in the bark of trees but prefer to live under things, like rocks, boards, stacked wood and their favorite habitat, underground.

 

[Beth_B]

Well certainly wouldn't happen here as we don't have scorpions in Michigan.
It would be helpful to know where you live...I'm not aware of any scorpions that eat fruit. Maybe wherever you live they might be attracted to some other sort of fruit-eating insect.

 

[Beverly]

Hello @BlueLotus are you sure it was scorpions? and not tarantulas? Tarantulas like to hang around banana palms and possibly other fruit trees as well.

 

[petesede]

Yeah, you definitely do not want banana trees near your house because of tarantulas, but I do not think the same applies for scorpions as they have different prey. The spiders love to eat baby birds from nests in the banana trees. Scorpions eat more things that are under rocks and things on the ground.

I would always want fruit trees away from the house just because of flies and other insects. I had mango trees, and there was so much fruit that dropped all at the same time that it was horrible with flies.

 

[BlueLotus]

Hello @BlueLotus are you sure it was scorpions? and not tarantulas? Tarantulas like to hang around banana palms and possibly other fruit trees as well.

It might not be everywhere but if you live in the desert or dry like Arizona or California. Because of the water requirements it takes for citrus trees to produce big sweet fruit, bugs and other things gravitate towards it. When you're in the desert it's usually scorpions and spiders. At least in my experiences, I haven't got something as big as a tarantula yet but that wouldn't surprise me. If you watch Property Wars: Million Dollar Baby, you can see an example of a scorpion infestation. It was really bad because it was a foreclosed and abandoned house. But part of the problem was because of how close the trees were to the house and the roof.

The water you use to water you plants, attract bugs which attracts the scorpions who also need water. So while it doesn't make sense that a scorpion would be attracted to a fruit tree, their prey are.