Those darn mud daubers...

[MrWhoopee]

, but the big pest in recent years has been the European wasp, they also like meat and have a fondness for getting inside a beer or soda can when you put down. I haven't been stung by one yet, but apparently they sting something fierce.

This is what we call a meat bee. There are several species, including the western yellowjacket and German yellowjacket. They generally nest in an abandoned burrow in the ground. They can both sting and bite. Sting when angered or threatened, bite when hungry. They are attracted to sugar early in the season, then meat late in the summer. They can make a barbeque quite unpleasant.



This is one of my favorite videos on the subject

 

[hman]

I used to find frequent yellowjacket nests in my yard while I lived in Oregon - always in the ground. If you can identify one, it's very easy to get rid of. Wait until night, when they're inactive, and pour a full teakettle of boiling water down the hold. The end.

 

[Liljoebrshooter]

I found 8 yellow jacket nests in my field this summer when I was mowing with the brush hog. 3 were found the hard way after getting stung several times. The old 8N couldn't go fast enough.
Within a day or two the nests were all dug up by some type of animal. Still not positive what animal would do it. Here is the aftermath of one.

Joe

 

[Txturbo]

We just moved to the KC area (out a bit from all the crowds), and built a nice pole barn. I'm working on walling off a nice shop area.

I was about to hookup my compressor, when I noticed that the evil mud daubers had built some nests in the motor. I'll have to pull the cover off the motor and hope they didn't do any real damage.

For the most part, they haven't done too much damage - but I don't have a ton of equipment in the barn yet.

Seems as if they like the cooler steel on tools, but not the steel skin on the pole barn. Probably temperature related.

So WHAT are other people doing to protect their motors (and anything with a hollow cavity) from these critters?

-Tom

Easy fix. Go to a farm supply an buy a box of medicated ear tags. Hang them in your barn/shop. Keeps flying pests away.

 

[twraska]

Find some farmer to get you some permethrin and spray your place. Should have a label for fly control, use that rate.

 

[Buffalo21]

Keep a can of that 20' wasp killer spray in easy reach in the barn and kill the little devils whenever you see one! I have stalked them for a long time watching where they go then spraying the opening! I suppose they fill an important role in the ecosystem somewhere, but I haven't discovered it yet.

Best bee killer I ever found in the CRC red can brak-kleen, with the 1-1-1 trichloroethane, they drop mid flight when hit

 

[Twirpunky]

I have never heard of a mud dauber. Is that a bug or a bird? We have mud swallows that build nests out of mud under overpasses and bridges.

We have hornets and bees and such, just never seen a dauber.

D

 

[MrWhoopee]

I have never heard of a mud dauber. Is that a bug or a bird? We have mud swallows that build nests out of mud under overpasses and bridges.

We have hornets and bees and such, just never seen a dauber.

D

They are a solitary member of the wasp/hornet family. Their nests are a single gallery (one tube) made of mud.



Correction: the nests can be multiple side-by-side tubes of mud.

 

[hman]

Best bee killer I ever found in the CRC red can brak-kleen, with the 1-1-1 trichloroethane, they drop mid flight when hit

Any chlorinated solvent will do a great job on insects. But they're getting harder and harder to find. I'd be willing to bet our California members can't find ANY.

 

[Txturbo]

Any fast evaporating liquid will kill them. But with that method you have to be there to see them before they start building. The medicated ear tags keep them away 24/7 without you doing anything.