Most pest problems can wait a day or two. A handful cannot — and in those first minutes, what you do before a professional arrives matters more than anything we do afterward. This guide covers the Arizona scenarios we get called about most, in order of what to do first.
Two numbers worth saving now: Arizona Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222, free and staffed 24/7, and our same-day line at (480) 555-0199. The poison center handles thousands of scorpion sting calls a year and will tell you in minutes whether a trip to the ER is warranted.
Scorpion sting
Wash the site with soap and water, then apply a cool compress or wrapped ice pack in 10-minute intervals. An over-the-counter pain reliever is fine for most adults. Then call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 — they triage bark scorpion stings all day.
Most healthy adults ride out even a bark scorpion sting at home, with pain and tingling that fades over 24 to 72 hours. The exceptions are young children and the elderly. Go to the ER immediately for jerky muscle movements, roving eye movements, excessive drooling, or any trouble breathing or swallowing — these signal serious envenomation, and Arizona hospitals stock antivenom for exactly this.
Black widow bite
Western black widow bites often start as a pinprick you barely notice, then escalate over one to three hours: cramping that spreads to the abdomen and back, sweating, and nausea. Wash the bite, apply ice, and call Poison Control — do not cut, suck, or tourniquet anything.
Seek emergency care for severe or spreading muscle pain, or if the person bitten is a child, pregnant, or elderly. Afterward, remember where it happened: widows favor undisturbed clutter — garage corners, block wall voids, furniture undersides, meter boxes — and where there is one web, there are usually more.
Wasp nest at a door, or a bee swarm in the yard
A paper wasp nest over an entry is a stinging incident on a timer, but knocking it down at midday is the wrong move — the colony is home, alert, and defensive. Use a different door and have it treated at dawn or dusk, when the wasps are docile and clustered on the nest.
A bee swarm is the one to take seriously: do not spray it. Most feral honey bee colonies in the Phoenix metro carry Africanized genetics, and they answer an attack with mass defensive stinging that can pursue for hundreds of yards. A resting swarm with no comb often moves on within a day or two; bees entering a wall, eave, or irrigation box mean an establishing colony that needs professional removal. Keep kids and pets inside and call.
A rodent in the living space, or a roach flare before an event
A rodent loose in the house: close interior doors to shrink its territory, jam a towel under the door of the room it is in, and do not grab it by hand — bites turn a pest problem into an urgent care visit. Snap traps along walls work overnight; same-day service makes sense if you have seen droppings in the kitchen, because where one got in, others follow the same gap.
German roaches in the kitchen two days before you host? Do not set off a fogger — total-release foggers scatter roaches deeper into walls and make treatment harder. Vacuum the ones you see, degrease the stove, clear standing water, and call. Gel baiting plus a targeted flush knocks visible activity down before guests arrive and keeps working after they leave.
When same-day service makes sense
Same-day is the right call when there is a sting or bite risk to vulnerable people: bark scorpions in a home with babies or elderly residents, a widow population by the kids' play area, a wasp nest over a door you cannot avoid. It also fits any suspected Africanized colony, a rodent in the living space, or visible German roach activity in a kitchen.
What does not need an emergency visit: a lone cricket, ants on the patio, or a single stripe-tailed scorpion in the garage. Those are route-visit problems, and treating them as emergencies just costs you money. When you call (480) 555-0199, tell us what you saw, where, and who is in the home, and we will tell you honestly which kind of problem you have.