🦂 How to Set Up a Scorpion Habitat

A scorpion makes a striking, quiet display pet, and the key to keeping one well is a secure, burrow-friendly home with humidity matched to its species. Get those basics right and a scorpion is genuinely easy to care for.

Enclosure

A popular beginner species, the emperor scorpion, lives comfortably in a 10 gallon tank or bigger with a secure, tight-fitting lid. Scorpions are nocturnal burrowers, so floor space and substrate depth matter far more than height. A wide, low tank suits them much better than a tall one, and a snug lid keeps your scorpion safely where it belongs.

Substrate and hides

Give your scorpion a few inches of substrate to burrow into, along with a piece of cork bark as a hide. Burrowing and tucking away are natural, calming behaviors, so the more secure your scorpion feels, the more settled and relaxed it will be. Add a shallow water dish for drinking, and keep the layout simple so nothing can collapse into a burrow.

Heat and humidity

Humidity is the detail that depends most on your species, so research yours before you set up. Forest scorpions like the emperor want it warm and humid, around 75 to 80% humidity with damp substrate — but use a screened or vented lid, because damp substrate plus still air grows mold. Desert species are the opposite and need to be kept dry. Getting this wrong is one of the few real ways to make a scorpion unwell, so always match the conditions to where your species lives in the wild.

When it comes to warmth, heat gently from the side. A low-watt heat mat on the side of the tank is ideal. Avoid placing a heat source underneath, where it can overheat a burrow and trap your scorpion in dangerous heat with nowhere cooler to go.

Feeding

Feeding is simple: offer appropriately sized live insects such as crickets or roaches. Scorpions are slow, patient ambush hunters and will take prey in their own time, often eating less often than new keepers expect. Remove anything left uneaten so it doesn't stress your scorpion.

Handling and safety

Scorpions are strictly a hands-off pet. Emperor scorpions are famously docile, but it's important to remember that all scorpions can sting. For an emperor the sting is generally compared to a bee sting, but the effect varies a lot by species, and some are far stronger — so the safe rule is simple: never handle your scorpion. Watch and enjoy it instead of picking it up, and keep it well out of reach of young children's hands — a sting is harder on a child than on an adult. If anyone is ever stung, wash the spot with soap and water and call Poison Help on 1-800-222-1222 right away, or 911 if there's any trouble breathing.

One of the best parts of scorpion keeping is night viewing. Scorpions glow under a UV flashlight, which turns watching them after dark into a small piece of magic — and a perfect way to enjoy your pet without ever touching it. Slow-moving and long-lived, a scorpion is a rewarding display animal for anyone happy to look but not touch.

Quick setup checklist

• 10 gallon tank or bigger, with a secure, tight-fitting lid
• Wide, low layout with a few inches of substrate to burrow
• Cork-bark hide and a shallow water dish
• Humidity matched to your species (emperors ~75-80%, desert species dry)
• Low-watt heat mat on the side, never underneath
• Feed crickets or roaches
• A UV flashlight for night viewing
• Strictly hands-off — all scorpions can sting

If a look-don't-touch pet appeals to you, you might also like our tarantula enclosure guide or our roundup of low-maintenance pets. Not sure yet? take our free pet quiz.

🛒 Recommended supplies

Hand-picked gear for this guide. Affiliate links — we may earn a commission. The $/$$/$$$ badges are a rough budget guide, not live prices.

🧽 Cleaning & maintenance

Keep it simple and gentle. Remove uneaten food, dead feeders, and obvious waste every few days so mold and mites cannot take hold, and pull out any moldy substrate right away. Wipe the walls and rinse the water dish as needed, and do a full substrate change every few months (more often for humid setups). Skip chemical cleaners inside the enclosure — invertebrates are very sensitive to residues — and use just hot water, with a little vinegar for the glass. For humid species, good airflow and prompt waste removal are your best defense against mold.

Cleaning supplies for this habitat. Affiliate links — we may earn a commission. The $/$$/$$$ badges are a rough budget guide, not live prices.

⚠️ Common scorpion setup mistakes

Already have one and something feels off? Start here. These catch almost everybody — none of them mean you have done badly, and every one of them is fixable.

Why is my scorpion hiding and refusing food?

The mistake: Leaving crickets in with a molting scorpion.

A scorpion about to molt goes off food and shuts itself away, and for days afterwards its new shell is soft and it can't defend itself. Loose crickets will chew on it, and a scorpion nibbled during a molt often doesn't recover.

Try this: Offer one insect at a time and take out anything uneaten the same day. Then leave your scorpion completely alone — no food, no digging, no moving the tank — until it has darkened up and starts hunting again, usually a week or so.

Why isn't my scorpion digging a burrow?

The mistake: Substrate too shallow or sandy to tunnel in.

A burrow only holds its shape in a good depth of damp, packable bedding. In dry sand or a thin layer it caves in as fast as they dig, so the scorpion gives up and sits out in the open — which is why it looks restless and never settles.

Try this: Give an adult 4 to 6 inches of coconut fiber, or a coco-and-topsoil mix, damp enough that a squeezed handful holds its shape. One cheap brick of coco fiber expands to fill most of a tank, and scorpions usually dig in within a night or two.

Can two scorpions live in the same tank?

The mistake: Adding a second scorpion for company.

Emperors can sometimes share, but only with real space, several hides and plenty of food. In a 10-gallon tank there's one good burrow and one dinner, and the one that loses gets eaten. Most other species fight almost every time.

Try this: One scorpion per tank is the safe default — they don't get lonely. If two are already sharing, watch for missing legs or one that's always stuck out in the open, and separate them if you see either.

Is a UV light bad for my scorpion?

The mistake: Leaving a blacklight running over the tank.

The glow is a party trick, not something your scorpion needs. They're nocturnal and actively dislike light, so a blacklight left on keeps them pinned in their burrow — and long exposure slowly fades the very glow you were enjoying.

Try this: Use a UV flashlight for a minute or two at a time, then switch it off. The rest of the day, ordinary room light is plenty; they need no special lamp, and prefer the dimmer end of the room.

Does my scorpion's heat mat need a thermostat?

The mistake: Running the heat mat without a thermostat.

A mat plugged straight into the wall never stops heating. The glass against it can climb far past anything safe, and it bakes the substrate on that side into a dry crust — so the one warm corner becomes the one place your scorpion can't burrow.

Try this: Put the mat on a thermostat and tape the probe to the glass right where the mat sits, because that's the hottest surface. A basic on/off thermostat costs about the same as the mat, and it's the difference between gentle warmth and a hot spot.

❓ Common questions

📚 Where this comes from

We check our care advice against vets, animal charities, and government health guidance. Here is what this page is built on.

Vets, charities & official guidance

• Scorpion stings — Mayo Clinic
• Are scorpions venomous? — National Capital Poison Center
• Scorpions — Arizona Pest Management Center, University of Arizona

Keeper & species-community guides

• Emperor scorpion care — Tree of Life Exotic Pet Medical Center
• Emperor scorpion care sheet — The Bio Dude

Checked August 2026. These are other people’s websites, and none of it replaces your own vet — if a pet seems unwell, call one.