diff --git a/R/causact-package.R b/R/causact-package.R
index 0894a33..c5a5b14 100644
--- a/R/causact-package.R
+++ b/R/causact-package.R
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
       # Above code for if successful , continue
     }, error = function(e) {# Display an error message
       packageStartupMessage("An error occurred:", conditionMessage(e))
-      packageStartupMessage(". To make causact's required connection to Python, restart R, then load the causact package with library(causact).\n")
+      packageStartupMessage(". To make causact's required connection to Python, restart R, then install causact's dependencies with causact::install_causact_deps().\n")
     })
   } # end else
 } #end .onAttach function
diff --git a/R/install_causact_deps.R b/R/install_causact_deps.R
index 4b4ab9d..b98dc7d 100644
--- a/R/install_causact_deps.R
+++ b/R/install_causact_deps.R
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ install_causact_deps <-
     ## guaranteed to work together with python 3.11
     packages = c("numpyro[cpu]==0.13.2",
                  "arviz==0.16.1",
-                 "pandas==2.1.3")
+                 "pandas==2.1.3",
+                 "scipy==1.12")
     python_version = "3.11"
     pip = TRUE
     new_env = TRUE
@@ -90,6 +91,9 @@ install_causact_deps <-
       reticulate::install_miniconda()
     })
 
+    #start fresh
+    try(reticulate::conda_remove(envname))
+
     reticulate::py_install(
       packages       = packages,
       envname        = envname,