What the hell is this?
I get home today, and I find this damn thing buzzing about. So I stun it using chemical warfare (can of Raid), and, once it fell to the ground, I finished it off with more traditional weaponry (my shoe).
But what is it? It looks like a wasp, but the bulbous thing which I assume has its stinger is attached to the main body my some thin small tail. In its death spasms, that part was flailing around wildly like it was another limb.
I guess this weekend I’m going to take my Raid, a hose, and my bokken (wooden practice sword) and make sure there are no more wasp nests on my house. Better consult my previous conpendium of wasp knowledge first.
Wow, I’m first!!! cool
Anyway, that’s a big ole wasp. Be on the look out for more!
They have a nest on my porch (regular ones are building one in front of my garage – same place they tried last year).
Looks like what we cann a Mud Dauber here in Texas.
Sometimes a Mud Wasp.
http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/nathis/insects/mowasp/
Did the critter have a squeaaaakkkkky buzzzzzing voice imploring:
“SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
Before you so violently attacked that winged insect, Frank?
And BTW. Do you happen to have a Molecular Transmogrifier in your basement?
Imperial Wassailier: Red.
It”s a mutant
Cinomed is correct.
Chill out, please. That’s a mud dauber, known for building nests of mud. D’oh! It won’t hurt you…I’ve never been stung by a mud dauber. And they are beneficial wasps, eating such things as spiders that most people don’t want around. Don’t kill anymore; they’re harmless to you and are quite beneficial if you don’t mind their messy mud nests.
…Zander
Ah, Florida in the summertime– wasps and mosquitos. I’d rather take millions of swarming cicadas than 5 wasp nests outside the front door.
Hmm. I dunno Zander. That wasp has the markings of a South Beach diet, if you ask me…
Don’t worry, Frank. You probably put the little bugger out of his misery, what with the ketosis and all…
Actually, I think that’s a Tanzanian Death Beetle.
I think it looks more like one of those than a mud wasp.
But I could be wrong.
Hey, my dad’s a WASP. An he’s bigger’n your dad, too.
Eweee!! Kill it ! Get it away! get it awya! It’s scary! yucky pooh! ewe ewe ewe!!
Cinomed, Zander, and a few others have it right. That’s one of several subspecies of mud dauber. Its sting is considerably less powerful than that of a bee, so if you aren’t allergic the worst that can happen is a sore red lump for a day or so. At that, well, I’m 56 and have lived around mud daubers all my life. I’ve known precisely one, count ’em, ONE person who ever got stung by one — and she was in an enclosed room destroying the nests with a stick, and got one sting from a cloud of probably twenty of the things.
They’re solitary, or collect in very small groups, not more than three or four at a time, instead of a bundle of poison like standard wasps. They collect mud and build nests that look like bundles of worm casts, or perhaps organic harmonicas. Inside the tubes they put their larvae, usually several to the tube. MetalStorm wasp larvae. How cool is that?
They eat grubworms, cutworms, spider larvae and babies, and the larvae of most insects, including flies. That’s why they don’t need a powerful sting. It doesn’t take much poison to immobilize a maggot. And you don’t look (or, more importantly, smell) much like a cutworm or a maggot, so unlike wasps you don’t look like food, and they’re too stupid to notice that you’re a nestbreaking enemy, so they won’t attack for that, either.
The only thing they do that’s bad is zoom around your head. That’s because you’re damp. It’s especially bad if you just washed your hair or came out from swimming, because you smell like nest material. I have to admit that when a mud dauber zooms past your ear it can sound like you’re being attacked by Stukas in heat, which is a little disconcerting 🙂
Most insects are at least a little annoying, but let the mud daubers alone unless they start to attack you, which they won’t. Bat them away if they zoom around your head; they won’t sting you. And go ahead and destroy the nests if they’re in your way or damaging something, like the underside of a deck; the mud can rot the wood. But if you have mud daubers you will have fewer insect larvae, and it’s mostly insect larvae that damage crops and flowers.
Mud daubers are even kind of fun to watch if you have a nice mud puddle, a beer, and some free time. You can almost hear them gossiping: “Look, Madge, I found a nice soft sticky patch!” “Yes, Gert, I see. Much better than this #%#@!# pebble. Think I’ll buzz over there and check.”
Regards,
Ric
I actually was watching their nest as I smoked a stogie. Problem is, they built it on my covered porch which I hope to get enclosed soon. Sorry, daubers, and thanks for the info, people.
It’s a friggin’ monkey, a little freakin’ flying monkey. Damn their eyes!!!!!
stukas in heat…
what a fantastic metaphor!
I say it’s a wasp. I don’t have my zoology book on hand to verify that, though.
We had mud daubers in Central KY where I used to live, they were always a dark brown/maroon/black color. Yellow, orange, and magenta blossom are colors usually reserved for wasps and their kin. A few “in style” wasps have been seen sporting apple cinnamon.
Welcome to Florida Frank.
It’s a Wasp…
We used to get bunches of Wasp nests at my old house. As a kid, I used to take my baseball bat, knock them down and run.
ok… I admit, I still do it…
Yep, it’s a mud dauber, Frank. And you probably just made a whole lot of orphaned little ones too. Only thing you can do to keep your karma straight on this one is to find the nest, then collect some grubs and maggots, sort of pre-chew them so your saliva starts to digest ’em, then carefully hand feed all the little baby mud daubers so they don’t die from starvation.
Brute.
I have not seen a wasp near my house in several years here in Alabama. I don’t think they like the climate here. Or they could be like the damn squirrels, and just stay away due to the high kill rates around my yard.
anything that can sting you and not die, kill it.
black & yellow mud dauber
http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg334.html
I don’t know Frank, looks kinda suspicious to me. It may well be a tiny robotic bug with a camera sent by your heinous enemies (or the monkeys) to gather dirt on you. Therein lies the evil genius of making it in the shape of a mud dauber, an insect know to gather dirt/mud to make a nest.
Another Kerry constituent bites it.
Good work Frank.
dirt dauber / mud dauber. they only attack if you attack them first, they’re quite harmless.
but if they’re on yer porch, well… destroy what you don’t understand.
Frank, Ma Nature is telling you to get rid of those nasty cigars and switch to the manly and chest hair-enchancing pipe.
I have 6 or 7 9mm filter pipes, Savinellis and Kirstens that permit me to enjoy a fine summer evening on my screen porch. I also recommend you visit a place like http://www.cupojoes.com and http://www.tobaccoreviews.com to get the most for your money.
I review under the name I post here.
“They eat grubworms, cutworms, spider larvae and babies”
AND BABIES thats horried! Kill them now before they eat your neighbors children.
Btw what did that wasp land in? It looks like rice.
I get those in Connecticut, see them during the summer, and they sting like crazy if they decide to build a nest in your way. I hope you used organophosphates on that wasp, nothing like using nervetoxin on small insects.
Wasps and mud daubers also eat caterpillars – which I hate worse than commies (if such a thing is possible).
This makes them good bugs.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist:
http://free.inkfrog.com/pix/Turkeyhead/mutant_waspsubway.jpg
DDT is your answer… if only the eco-terrorists hadn’t banned it.
KILL ‘EM ALL!!!!
As I like to say,”If they me alone, I will leave them alone” So to all the annoying, flying, biting, stinging bugs of this world, go build you nest elsewhere! Try a tree instead of my home or deck…
Using a can of Raid would be an example of Chemical Warfare, you doofus, not Biological Warfare. That is what the C stands for in the NBC WMD lexicon (Nuclear Biological Chemical).
Get the terminology right.
Fine. Whatever. Long as it dies.
The dinosuar in Dilbert had a good solution to your problem
“Whatever we don’t understand, we stomp to bits and evolve into birds that don’t care”
Very educational, Ric.. Thanks! Still, I’m going to side with Frank on this one.. If I’d seen that thing coming at me, I’d have reached for the 12 Ga. I hate bugs. Now where did I put that drum of Malathion… I got yer Silent Spring right here, Paly.
Mud daubers are solid black/brown. The clue that this is a yellow jacket is the yellow band up near what used to be its’ head. They actually build their nests in the ground. When there are 400 buzzing around and stinging you because you ran over their nest with a lawn mower, it’s real easy to remember what they look like.
What is the url that has all the poses of the IMAO girl? She is soooooooo much fun to look at!
Holy Moley, Frank, you just stomped a #4 Big-Tailed Yellow Thing to pieces! In other words, a fly fishing lure. Some stupid sucker was casting a lure onto your porch. Oh, well.
Joe from Kentucky,
Take a look at the link Colt pasted, then take a look at this link: http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insects/common/images/cd-43-c-txt/cimg351.html
When you’re not running in fear, it is easier to notice that the yellow jacket has a much larger, striped abdomen and the mud dauber has that narrow ‘wasp waist’ thing going for it. One yellow block does not a yellow jacket make.
The image that Frank posted matches the one that Colt linked to, not the one I found, nor the way I remember yellow jackets looking.
Actually cut and paste the links and take a dispassionate look. They won’t buzz out of the screen and sting you, I promise.
Oh, the humanity! What did the poor guy ever do to you Frank?
Think of the CHILDREN!!!
NEVER!
Spider babies, Kabasue, Spider babies. Things that eat spider babies are, generally, good things.
Frank, if the mud daubers have built their nest on your porch, as High Critter on the Food Chain you have a perfect right to engage in crittercide. They need to learn their place in the world, which is under the eaves of the shed and other out of the way places. You do have to be persistent; it takes a while to get through to them. A million years or so is probably about right. But you don’t need to invest in expensive stuff like sarin, er, Raid. Pure mechanics works fine — a putty knife to scrape the nest off, the heel of your boot to smash the grubs. [Oh, no, you killed Grubby! You bastard!]
The main thing here is not to panic. Mud daubers are the moonbat protesters of the insect world, loud and annoying but not a problem unless you let them get out of hand, and interesting to watch in an IMAO sort of way. Their wings are iridescent black for a Goth to die for, and the spastic jerk jerk jerk as they gather their mud balls is sort of endearing, I think.
But don’t mix them up with real wasps. Anything that the abdomen (the round bit with the stinger on it) up close to the mesothorax (where the wings attach) is a real wasp, meaning stay away until you can kill it, preferably by chemical warfare. Lasers should be reserved for the monkeys; using them on wasps is a waste of energy.
Regards,
Ric Locke
nice linolium dude
As IF there weren’t enough problems in the world
Now there is this to contend with. What Simon fails to mention is that it was heard screeching into the…
That’s my rug looking especially shiny from the camera flash, actually.
“…anything that can sting you and not die, kill it…”
Anything that can bleed for a week once a month and not die should be looked upon with suspicion as well…and should probably not be allowed to vote or serve in combat, either.
Come on Frank. You should know that a true samurai cuts small annoying insects in half with a single slice of his sword!