Dealing with Mud daubers

[AlanB]

This new house I bought is just overrun with mud daubers. Somewhere, the temperature changed, and they are out there by the hundreds.

It is terrible, I don't think they bite, but man do they look scary as a wasp.

Anyone have ideas or suggestions on how to eradicate them?

 

[MrJimi]

Scrape their mud nest off real good and spray something like wd 40 where it was or anything that will smell for awhile and dry up their mud source then get a cold adult beverage and watch them circle around and leave
Jim

 

[davemhughes]

Usually they will not sting you unless you are messing with them. All sort of products out there to kill them. Any grocery, hardware, farm, store will carry the products, I think they are all a petroleum product. I usually once summer is done use my pressure washer to just wash the house and clean up their mess. Of course the time tested way is a little gasoline but I would rather leave them be than throw gas on something.

 

[vallyfarm]

I do not know if it is leagle, so i'll say my friend buys several cans of brake kleen to deal with all sorts of stinging buggers. Fairly cheap, has good range, and will drop a wasp in mid-flight...so I am told. Mike PS...if you are brave, or drunk, you can light the spray with a lighter and burn off a wasps nest the size of a beach ball in seconds, again, so I was told.

 

[Slamfire]

I do not know if it is leagle, so i'll say my friend buys several cans of brake kleen to deal with all sorts of stinging buggers. Fairly cheap, has good range, and will drop a wasp in mid-flight...so I am told. Mike PS...if you are brave, or drunk, you can light the spray with a lighter and burn off a wasps nest the size of a beach ball in seconds, again, so I was told.

My youngest tried that after comin' back from the hospital, decongestin' from hornet stingsl. He sprayed startin' fluid across a Zippo and melted the alumiinum sidin' on my campin' trailer. I told him the next time he got stung, I wasn't takin' him to the hospital.

 

[masphi]

Over the years I have found that a mud dauber can nest in every conceivable spot imaginable – most of them places that cause me grief. I once even force landed my airplane after a mud daubar nest broke loose and blocked my carburator.
I have found (as previously stated) that WD40 will prevent them from nesting.
Personally I spend a few minutes every 2-3 months spraying electrical outlets, air fittings, equipment etc. to prevent them from creating their mess.
I have not had any problems sicnce.
Mark

 

[Bird]

When I was a kid in southern Oklahoma, we occasionally had a few mud daubers, but then living in town for many years, I never saw any. I did know that many RV repairmen said the most frequent cause of air-conditioner problems, and sometimes furnace problems, on RVs was mud dauber nests. And then when I bought the place in the country 60 miles south of Dallas, I didn't know there were that many mud daubers in the whole world. I spent several days just removing all the nests from the walls and ceiling of the 40' x 60' shop building; never did get half of them removed from the barn. When the automatic choke quite working on my old '81 F250, I found it was a mud dauber nest on the linkage. I also found then inside the air cleaner housing on the old truck. Fortunately, we never had them get inside the house. So I sprayed Diazinon or Malathion under the eaves of the house and both inside and outside the shop a couple of times a year. It didn't get rid of them, but did slow them down a bit. I've heard that they can sting, but I've never personally known of anyone being stung by one.

 

[Soundguy]

My youngest tried that after comin' back from the hospital, decongestin' from hornet stingsl. He sprayed startin' fluid across a Zippo and melted the alumiinum sidin' on my campin' trailer. I told him the next time he got stung, I wasn't takin' him to the hospital.

I've found that starting fluid... ( no zippo! ) works fine by itself.. get one with a straw. At work i used it, and it makes hornets drop off a nest without ever trying to fly.. drops them outta mid air too.

Soundguy

 

[dooleysm]

I left my grill cover hanging over the rail on my deck overnight last summer. I didn't get back to recover the grill until the following evening and I found a mud dobber nest inside the grill cover. What the heck!

I covered more nests than I care to remember when I was drywalling our house 3 years ago. It disgusts me to no end when I knock a nest down and see all the dead spiders and bugs they've stashed in there. Yuck.

 

[KYErik]

When I was 10 or 11, I recall grabbing one by its folded wings with my fingers because I thought that they were unable to sting.

That little stinger on the end of its abdomen bent backwards and stung my finger! Yep they can sting, but just don't grab them and they will leave you alone.