Sealing starts with a gap survey, and it is done after the property has been treated, never before, so nothing is sealed inside. The technician goes around the house at ground level and at the roof line with a flashlight and a mirror: every weep hole in the stucco, the gap under each exterior door and the garage door, the garage to house door, the plumbing penetrations under every sink and tub and behind the washer, the AC line set where it enters the wall, the electrical and cable entries, dryer and bath vents, attic vents and gable vents, the gap where the tile roof meets the fascia, and the expansion joint along the garage slab. Each gap gets measured and matched to a material.
Arizona houses are built in a way that leaves scorpion sized gaps everywhere. Stucco over foam leaves weep holes every few feet at the base of the wall, and a bark scorpion needs a gap the thickness of a credit card. The AC line set on nearly every home enters through a hole larger than the lines, packed with foam that crumbles in 3 summers. Tile roofs on homes in Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Scottsdale and Tucson leave open channels at the eave that roof rats use. Garage doors on tract homes have a bottom seal that shrinks in the heat and lifts at the corners. Older block homes in central Phoenix, Tempe and Tucson have unscreened gable vents. Snowbird homes and vacation rentals sit empty with doors nobody checks. In Flagstaff and Prescott the sealing is aimed at mice and pack rats at the foundation and in crawl spaces rather than scorpions at the weep holes.
Exclusion uses materials that hold up in Arizona heat and that pests cannot chew through: stainless or aluminum weep hole screens that keep the weep hole draining while blocking scorpions, copper mesh packed into penetrations and covered with a sealant rated for the sun, hardware cloth over vents and eave gaps for rodents, brush or rubber door sweeps and threshold seals, new garage door bottom seals and side seals, and expanding foam only where it will be covered, because rats chew foam and UV breaks it down. Sealing is not a substitute for treatment and does not need a pesticide license to perform, but on a Green Ninja Pest Control job it is done by the same licensed technician who treated the house and knows where the activity was, so the sealing goes where the pests actually enter.
The edge cases are what make sealing succeed or fail. Sealing weep holes with caulk instead of a screen traps moisture in the wall and causes stucco damage, and it is the wrong fix. Sealing a house that has not been treated locks scorpions and rodents inside. Missing the garage to house door leaves the most common scorpion path into the living space open. A door sweep on the front door does nothing if the sliding patio door has a quarter inch gap at the track. Expanding foam on a roof line gap is chewed through by a roof rat in a week. A sealed house still needs its citrus and oleander trimmed off the roof, because a rat that cannot get in will look until it finds the spot that was missed. Sealing holds for years, and it is the part of a scorpion program that keeps working after the residual is gone.
Technician insight
The gap that lets more scorpions into an Arizona living room than any other is the door between the garage and the house. Homeowners seal the front door and the patio slider and never touch the garage door because it feels like an interior door. It has no sweep, the garage door bottom seal is shrunk, and the scorpion walks from the driveway to the kitchen without ever going outside.
Scorpions Still Inside After a Good Treatment
A single story stucco home that had been treated well but still had a scorpion inside every couple of weeks. The gap survey found 30 unscreened weep holes, a garage door bottom seal lifted 3/4 of an inch at one corner, no sweep on the garage to house door, and the AC line set entry open behind crumbled foam. All of it was sealed in one afternoon with screens, a new garage seal, a sweep and copper mesh with sealant. Interior sightings stopped and the exterior program continued monthly.
Home Sealing and Pest Exclusion Services We Offer
✓Weep Hole Screening
Installation of drainage preserving screens in every stucco weep hole so scorpions and spiders cannot use them as harborage or entry.
✓Door Sweep and Threshold Sealing
Brush or rubber sweeps and threshold seals on exterior doors, sliding patio doors and the garage to house door.
✓Plumbing and Utility Penetration Sealing
Copper mesh and UV rated sealant at pipe, drain, AC line set, electrical and cable entries inside and out.
✓Garage Door Seal Replacement
New bottom and side seals on the garage door and sealing of the garage slab expansion joint and corners.
✓Attic and Roof Line Rodent Exclusion
Hardware cloth over attic and gable vents and sealing of the gap between tile roof and fascia where roof rats enter.
✓Scorpion Sealing Package
The full set of weep hole screens, sweeps, penetration sealing and garage work as the exclusion half of a scorpion control program.
✓Crawl Space and Foundation Exclusion
Sealing of foundation vents, crawl space access and skirting gaps for mice and pack rats on high country and older homes.
How it works
- 1
Gap Survey
After treatment, the technician surveys every ground level and roof line gap with a flashlight and mirror, measures each one, and lists the material for it.
- 2
Sealing Plan and Price
You get a written list of the gaps found, what will be used on each, what you should handle yourself such as tree trimming, and the price.
- 3
Sealing Work
Weep hole screens, sweeps, copper mesh and sealant, vent screens, garage seals and roof line work are installed in one visit on most homes, usually 2 to 5 hours.
- 4
Check and Follow Up
Sealed points are checked at the next service visit, and any gap that opens up or was missed is added under the sealing warranty terms given at the start.
Pricing
Sealing is priced by the number and size of gaps, the linear feet of weep holes, how many doors need sweeps, whether roof line and vent work needs a ladder or a two story reach, and the materials. A single story home with 40 weep holes, 3 doors and 2 penetrations is a mid sized job. A two story home with a tile roof, 6 vents and a three car garage is larger. The survey produces the number before any work.