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industrius little pests
Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:33 pm
by bearandoldman
Wasps, industrious little devils. Some time back had some wasp problems in my basement, blocked a hole around the gas pipe coming in and they were still there. Found a gap around the same pipe on the outside and they were getting in there and going up through the spaces in the cement blocks and getting in there. Wiped them out with bug spray and no more problems. This morning had service done on the furnace as it is 3 years since installed and this is what the service man found in the flue pipe. Mud dauber ne, how many trips does it take to build a mud nest tthat big?
Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:40 pm
by charlesb
Hundreds and hundreds of trips - and each internal cell has to have a paralyzed spider and an egg or two in it, as they go.
Busy, busy!
When I was growing up in north Texas, we called then "dirt-daubers" and considered them to be fairly benign because you really had to mess with one, to get it to sting you.
The nests can be a problem - but they do keep the spiders down.
Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 11:07 pm
by greener
I've found them all over the place, but not quite that size.
Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 8:24 am
by bearandoldman
greener wrote:I've found them all over the place, but not quite that size.
That one was condo sized. Don't see many of them around here. mostly the ones that build the paper nests.
Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 3:28 pm
by blue68f100
Wasp and dirt daubers are big problem here in east TX. I wiped out about 300+ earlier this month. My dad did not have his shotgun hulls in a sealed container and every one of the 200+ 20ga had a nest and about 60% of the 400 12 ga hulls. What a mess to clean up. As far as wasp I find it's best to spray them at night when the are all on the nest. This kills the queen and they just don't move on some where else.
Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 10:31 pm
by greener
You know your car has been sitting too long when you open the hood and there are dauber nests on the engine.
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 2:21 pm
by blue68f100
Around here that's only 4-5 days.
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 6:51 pm
by greener
About the same here, 7-8 months
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 8:44 pm
by Hakaman
I bet OM could plink them with his AR22!
Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:32 am
by Guntoter
While I detest the mess they make, down here in S. Texas it's not uncommon to break open a nest and find it full of Black Widows. Spiders don't bother me much but the BW and Brown Recluse are two you don't want to tangle with. Since we seem to have at least one mutual enemy I try to let them be.
Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 1:06 pm
by Tigerbeetle
In the general group of dirt daubers, there was also the organ-pipe wasp. The dirt structures built on flat surfaces looked like church organ pipes.
TB