PHOENIX -- Triple-degree heat hit the Valley early this year.

Because it's the perfect weather for deadly scorpions, CBS 5 wanted to find out how the creatures live, why they attack and the one thing that will stop them in their tracks.

"On a dark night, you can sweep your light across rocks like this and count 15 or 20 of 'em," said retired professor Joe Bigelow.

Under the moon, armed with black lights, CBS 5 went scorpion hunting with Bigelow on South Mountain.

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"Since they're nocturnal, I'm nocturnal," Bigelow said.

Bigelow has hunted scorpions for more than 30 years and has discovered more than two dozen different species.

"From British Columbia to Central Mexico, from east coast to west coast," Bigelow said.

In the desert, we live in their habitat. But location in the Valley could be more important than landscaping when these delicate, deadly predators choose your home over your neighbor's.

"Scorpions evolved about 450 million years ago, and they're still here," Bigelow said.

The latest research from Arizona State University found the most scorpion stings in the Valley concentrated in Guadalupe, Scottsdale, north Phoenix and the Ahwatukee Foothills.

Bigelow said these hot spots can be traced to ancient waterways and native immigration canals that paved the first paths of scorpions in the Valley.

"For scorpions, they're like highways to travel along," Bigelow said.

"I would completely agree. I think that that explains a great deal, both historically and what we even see today," said Dawn Gouge, an urban entomologist with the University of Arizona.

Gouge has studied chronic scorpion infestations along canals and farmlands, but even in those neighborhoods, there's another phenomenon.

Homes backing up against irrigation or rocky preserves will almost always have scorpions tracking down just that one row of homes.

"Literally just across the blacktop, the homes on the other side of the road will never see a scorpion," Gouge said.

The pavement stops them in their tracks.

"There's just no incentive for them to make that trek across the road. It's a short distance for us but it's a long, long way for a scorpion," Gouge said.

Another thing many homeowners might not know is that scorpions like to make their way from yard to yard inside hollow cinderblock walls.

"These are just multi-story homes for bark scorpions," Gouge said. "There's cracks and crevices between every single cinderblock."

Gouge said more scorpions can be found inside neighborhoods than in the desert.

They can live inside walls and can go for more than a year without food or water.

"I had one female desert scorpion that I kept in captivity for nine months without food and water. I gave her a cricket and she delivered 13 young," Bigelow said.

Most homeowners don't even know the scorpions are there until they put their hands or feet too close and get stung.

"They hurt, and it's just really their way of communicating to us that we're doing something that they don't want us to do," Gouge said. "They're very effective communicators."

Experts say that since most pesticides don't work on scorpions, one of the best ways to get rid of them is to grab a black light, a bucket and some barbecue tongs, and start collecting. Do this a few times a week and grab as many as you can. You'll find them in the same spot. Some of the homes studied never had a problem again.

For more information and further scorpion resources, click here.