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Today I used a brush on an extensible handle to clean away cobwebs and dirt from Qiao's porch ceiling, in preparation for putting up Halloween lights.
There are two mud dauber wasp nests by the edges of the porch ceiling. I wondered if the wasps had already left the nest, so that I could knock down the mud clumps before putting up the lights. I wouldn't want to knock down the nests if there were still wasps inside.
So I looked up whether mud daubers leave the nests before winter or not. The top results are usually from insect control companies advising you how to get rid of insects, not how to avoid harming them. But I finally found the info I was looking for. Reading about insects is almost always horrifying in some ways, but also fascinating if one can remain detached about it.
Per what I read (links below), mud daubers lay eggs in the nest. They catch spiders, paralyze them, and put them in the nest for the baby wasps to eat when they emerge from the eggs. The adult wasp seals off the entrances to the nest with more mud. After eating the spiders, the baby wasps pupate and remain in the nest overwinter. In the spring or summer they chew holes out of the nest and leave it.
So the nests on the porch probably are not empty. One of them has a visible hole so I'm not sure about it. I know it's not still from last year, as it wasn't there last October (per photographic evidence). I'll leave both nests up til next summer I guess. Per my notes, I last knocked down mud dauber nests from the porch in Feb 2020... at the time I thought they were empty.
Why mud daubers are on spider patrol
Life Cycle of Mud Daubers
Mud Daubers | Three genera: Sceliphron, Trypoxylon, and Chalybion
I don't understand this part: All Missouri mud daubers pass the winter as immature individuals in the nests. The black and yellow mud dauber has two generations each summer.
How can you have 2 generations in a summer, if the immature ones always overwinter in the nests? Is it only the 2nd generation that stays in the nest over the winter?
Mud Dauber Guide
Common name: black and yellow mud dauber | Scientific name: Sceliphron caementarium (Drury, 1773) (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Sphecidae)
Diversity in the Nesting Behavior of Mud-Daubers (Trypoxylon politum Say; Sphecidae)
Potter and Mason Wasps (similar but different from mud daubers)
There are two mud dauber wasp nests by the edges of the porch ceiling. I wondered if the wasps had already left the nest, so that I could knock down the mud clumps before putting up the lights. I wouldn't want to knock down the nests if there were still wasps inside.
So I looked up whether mud daubers leave the nests before winter or not. The top results are usually from insect control companies advising you how to get rid of insects, not how to avoid harming them. But I finally found the info I was looking for. Reading about insects is almost always horrifying in some ways, but also fascinating if one can remain detached about it.
Per what I read (links below), mud daubers lay eggs in the nest. They catch spiders, paralyze them, and put them in the nest for the baby wasps to eat when they emerge from the eggs. The adult wasp seals off the entrances to the nest with more mud. After eating the spiders, the baby wasps pupate and remain in the nest overwinter. In the spring or summer they chew holes out of the nest and leave it.
So the nests on the porch probably are not empty. One of them has a visible hole so I'm not sure about it. I know it's not still from last year, as it wasn't there last October (per photographic evidence). I'll leave both nests up til next summer I guess. Per my notes, I last knocked down mud dauber nests from the porch in Feb 2020... at the time I thought they were empty.
Why mud daubers are on spider patrol
Life Cycle of Mud Daubers
Mud Daubers | Three genera: Sceliphron, Trypoxylon, and Chalybion
I don't understand this part: All Missouri mud daubers pass the winter as immature individuals in the nests. The black and yellow mud dauber has two generations each summer.
How can you have 2 generations in a summer, if the immature ones always overwinter in the nests? Is it only the 2nd generation that stays in the nest over the winter?
Mud Dauber Guide
Common name: black and yellow mud dauber | Scientific name: Sceliphron caementarium (Drury, 1773) (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Sphecidae)
Diversity in the Nesting Behavior of Mud-Daubers (Trypoxylon politum Say; Sphecidae)
Potter and Mason Wasps (similar but different from mud daubers)
no subject
Date: 2022-10-12 03:46 pm (UTC)From: