The natural predators of scorpions include birds, lizards, bats, spiders, centipedes and some mammals, and scorpions also prey on one another. This article answers “what eats scorpions?” not with a single animal name but with the groups reported in the sources. For what scorpions themselves eat, see our article on what scorpions eat.
Which animals eat scorpions?
Scorpions wait in a shelter during the day and come out at night. So the animals that hunt them are either active at night or able to dig into daytime shelters. The groups that stand out in the sources are these:
| Group | Example | What the source says |
|---|---|---|
| Birds | Owls | Various birds eat scorpions; among birds that hunt by sight at night, owls are named |
| Lizards | The lizard group | Listed among the natural predators |
| Bats | Bat species | Listed among the natural predators |
| Spiders and centipedes | Large spiders, centipedes | Listed among the natural predators |
| Mammals | Foxes, mouse species; grasshopper mice in North American deserts | Named as scorpion-eating mammals in reviews |
| Other scorpions | The same or another scorpion species | Cannibalism and predation on another scorpion species are common in desert scorpions |
Scorpions eat one another too
A field study of desert scorpions reports that it is common for scorpions to prey on individuals of their own species and for one species to prey on another scorpion species (Polis et al. 1981). The Animal Diversity Web adds that in some cases a mother may eat her young if she cannot find food. For the care of the young, see our article on scorpion reproduction.
How do scorpions avoid predators?
A review states that scorpions stay underground during the hottest hours of the day and come out at night to feed and mate (Hofstetter et al. 2026). Waiting in a shelter by day and moving about briefly at night is the first way to avoid predators. We described shelter types in our article on where scorpions live and seasonal activity in our article on what scorpions do in winter.
Defence when caught also differs by species: large-clawed species put their claws forward, while those with weak claws put forward their stinger (Animal Diversity Web).
What happens if predators decline?
The same review reports that a decline in predators such as grasshopper mice may lead to unexpected increases in scorpion numbers. So the predators of scorpions are part of the natural balance. This information comes from US deserts and cannot be applied one-to-one to species in Türkiye. For precautions at home and in the garden, see our article on protection from scorpions.
What we could not verify
We found no reliable source for a specific pet or bird named in answer to the search “which animal are scorpions afraid of?”, so we did not write one. We also found no species-specific list of the predators of scorpions in Türkiye; the groups above come from general biology sources. For distribution, see our article on scorpion species in Türkiye.
Cover photo and sources
The cover photo shows a woodpecker of the species Melanerpes santacruzi carrying a scorpion in its beak in Belize; it was not taken in Türkiye. Photo: Denis Barthel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Cahal Pech, Belize, 2015). Sources: Polis, Sissom and McCormick (1981), “Predators of scorpions: field data and a review”, Journal of Arid Environments (abstract); Hofstetter et al. (2026), “Scorpions of the United States”, Journal of Integrated Pest Management 17(1); Animal Diversity Web, Scorpionidae (2019).
