As nights begin to cool in October and November, scorpions also disappear from view. Where these animals, seen in summer at the foot of stone walls, along garden edges or on footpaths, go in the cold months, and whether they hibernate, is one of the most common questions as the seasons change.
The short answer: scorpions do not hibernate in the way mammals do. As it gets colder they reduce their activity to a minimum and wait in a protected shelter for warmer weather. This article looks at the biological basis of this waiting period, where scorpions spend the winter and in which months they reappear.
How does a cold-blooded animal get through winter?
Scorpions are animals whose body temperature follows the temperature of their surroundings; in everyday language, they are cold-blooded. As the air warms, their muscles work quickly and they hunt and digest their food. When the temperature drops, all of these processes slow down: movement becomes sluggish, hunting becomes rare and digestion almost comes to a halt.
This slowdown is not a problem for the scorpion but an advantage. An animal whose metabolism is already low spends very little energy in a cool shelter and can go a long time without feeding. The design behind its ability to spend the winter without food is described in detail in the article on scorpion feeding.
Hibernation or winter dormancy?
In everyday language, hibernation brings bears or bats to mind. These mammals lower their body temperature in a regulated way, live through the winter on fat reserves built up in advance and wake at certain intervals. Scorpions have no such internal regulation; their body temperature rises and falls with the environment. This is why biologists more often use the terms overwintering or winter dormancy for scorpions.
| Property | Hibernation in mammals | Winter dormancy in scorpions |
|---|---|---|
| Body temperature | Lowered under the animal's own control | Follows the outside temperature |
| Energy source | Fat reserves stored in advance | An already low metabolism |
| Waking | By an internal rhythm, at set intervals | Becomes active on its own as the surroundings warm |
| Shelter | Den, hollow, cave | Under stones, burrows, rock and wall crevices |
This difference has a practical consequence: on a mild winter day or in a warming indoor space, a scorpion can become active again. Winter dormancy is not an uninterrupted sleep but a waiting period that depends on temperature.
Where do scorpions spend the winter?
The places where scorpions hide during the day in summer also serve as shelters in winter. What these places have in common is that they buffer the swings in outside temperature and humidity:
- Under flat stones and pieces of rock,
- Burrows they dig in the soil themselves or that were left by other animals,
- Crevices in rocks, stone walls and old buildings,
- Piles of wood and stones, loose tree bark,
- Little-used, secluded indoor spaces such as basements, storerooms and cellars.
The humidity of the shelter also matters. Even species from arid zones prefer deep crevices and the undersides of stones, which offer a more stable microclimate, to limit water loss. Scorpions can therefore be encountered in winter as well, around stone walls, woodpiles and basements; measures that reduce this likelihood at home and in the garden are collected in the article on protection from scorpions.
In which months are scorpions seen?
In the warm regions of Türkiye, the surface activity of scorpions increases in spring as the nights warm up, peaks in summer and declines in autumn as the nights cool. Most of this activity takes place at night; in the daytime heat the animals stay in their shelters.
This seasonality is also reflected in sting cases. A study conducted in Şanlıurfa between May and September 2003 reported that sting cases were concentrated in the hot summer months, particularly in August (Ozkan et al., Turkish Journal of Parasitology, 2006). The same province is also the area of origin of Androctonus turkiyensis, a species described in 2021.
In October, seeing scorpions on mild nights in the southern provinces is still common. From November onwards, as night-time temperatures fall, encounters become rarer; in midwinter scorpions are found only on mild days or in heated indoor spaces.
The season in a closed-cycle facility
In facilities practising closed-cycle breeding, the colony is not left at the mercy of the outside weather. Temperature and humidity are measured, recorded and kept within the range in which the animals can stay active. In this system the seasonal dormancy seen in nature gives way to a steadier rhythm; in winter the key task is keeping the heating running without interruption. The principles of this system are explained in the article on temperature and humidity control in the colony, and our facility's permit and licence information is on the Documents page.
Whatever the season, a scorpion should never be touched with bare hands. In the event of a sting, the right first step is to stay calm, keep the stung area still and call the emergency number (112 in Türkiye and the EU).
