A Mesa woman is taking action for her kids after claiming to notice an influx of scorpions at her apartment complex.
Kayla Balodis, her fiancé, and two young children moved into an apartment complex at the Lakeview at Superstition Springs in Mesa six months ago.
During the walk-through, she says she found scorpions in the apartment, but the management told her it was likely just because the unit had been vacant for so long. When the family moved in; however, Balodis says they kept coming across more and more scorpions.
"It's like a nightmare; we're living in a nightmare. This place is basically infested. It's not just one or two. They're everywhere," said Balodis.
She says she took her complaints to the front office, but didn't have much success.
"They kinda act like it's no big deal," she said.
The scorpions went away for the winter but have started to return now that the temperature is heating back up.
So to prove her point, Saturday night Balodis and her fiancé went out with a blacklight and fishbowl to capture as many as they could.
Balodis said they found them along the walls, on the roof, on the base of trees, and crawling up palm trees. She says within 20 minutes they had caught about 40 scorpions.
Scripps station KNXV in Phoenix reached out to the front office and was told because of the holiday management couldn't answer any questions until Monday, but assured reporters that they handle each concern promptly.
Within an hour of the call, Balodis says she got an email from the front office telling her they'll reach out to pest control again and the situation will be taken care of.
But Balodis says the only thing she wants is to get out for the safety of her kids.
"I can't live like this; I'm afraid of the summer because we moved in September and we had an issue. I don't want to see what the summer is gonna look like," said Balodis.
On Monday, KNXV returned to Balodis's apartment with a pest control expert for tips on how to insect-proof an apartment. Ryan Michel, with Defense Pest Control, says scorpions can fit through cracks the width of a credit card.
"Your first line of defense is to make sure all windows and doors are sealed well. If you can see light through a crack, a scorpion can most likely get in through there," said Michel.
Michel says the best thing to do to prevent scorpions are glue boards or “sticky boards” and to place them near entryways and near cracks where scorpions can enter.
