Dirt Dobbers- I don't know if this applies to dirt dobbers but in the south we have a serious problem with red wasps and if they are building nests in your shed or work shop, an old fellow told me to fill 4 coke bottles or similar with diesel and hang them; one in each corner of the building....he says it makes wasps go away. I hope if any of you try it, you'll post the result for the rest of us. I just joined this morning and am proud to be able to converse an learn from you guys.
Mud Dobbers
- Thread starter bsparr
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Ken
Veteran Member
I take a small type cloth bag.used to be tobacco sacks put about 10 moth balls in sack and hang with nail along roof line of tractor shed. It works.
Now in inclosed shop this wouldn't work due to the smell.
I use a can of wasp stopper and cover any nest getting started .
They never give up and go else where.
For the large nests over head in roof line the wasp stopper is good.
The cabinet where I keep tools and engine and hudraulic fluids filters keep getting mud daubers inside. don't see the difference of a diesel or closed metal storage cabinet. Engine exhaust pipes are plugged .
Wonder what others use.
ken
ken
Now in inclosed shop this wouldn't work due to the smell.
I use a can of wasp stopper and cover any nest getting started .
They never give up and go else where.
For the large nests over head in roof line the wasp stopper is good.
The cabinet where I keep tools and engine and hudraulic fluids filters keep getting mud daubers inside. don't see the difference of a diesel or closed metal storage cabinet. Engine exhaust pipes are plugged .
Wonder what others use.
ken
ken
Ken, what is wasp "stopper"?. I've used Bengal wasp spray for spraying a nest to kill everything on it but never heard the term wasp stopper. I'l like to try the moth balls even in my shop. The walls are about 11' so I think they may be high enough so that the smell wouldn't bother me and yet they may be too high.
Pilot
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2004
- Messages
- 1,219
- Location
- Oregon
- Tractor
- JD 770, Yanmar 180D, JD 420 (not running), had a Kubota B6200
You guys must have a lot of spiders:
From Wikipedia: "...they stock their nests with spiders, which serve as food for their offspring". They paralyze them with their sting and stash them in their mud nests for the cute little babies to eat. And the blue mud daubers go after black widows! So pat them on their little backs when you can and encourage them to fill their nests with little black widows!
Not aggressive, but they will sting if provoked. But when I was a kid, they looked so nasty we stayed away from them.
I hardly ever see them around here, but I have found 3 or 4 nests in my airplane.
From Wikipedia: "...they stock their nests with spiders, which serve as food for their offspring". They paralyze them with their sting and stash them in their mud nests for the cute little babies to eat. And the blue mud daubers go after black widows! So pat them on their little backs when you can and encourage them to fill their nests with little black widows!
Not aggressive, but they will sting if provoked. But when I was a kid, they looked so nasty we stayed away from them.
I hardly ever see them around here, but I have found 3 or 4 nests in my airplane.
Ken
Veteran Member
You are correct "Wasp hornet killer sprays 20' " sold by several names at Wal-Mart or where ever hornet spray is sold. Wasp Stopper was like a Cola for a coke. And soda for all else types of cold drinks.
Also for personnal protection instead of the little one shot spray sold on fuel stops display counters. this can of spray would cause severe pain to a elephant.
Moth Balls give off some type of gas that I think causes loss of memory. Be carefull using in closed areas.
ken
sld
Veteran Member
I was always told that mud dobbers(?) don't sting. I see their nests all the time and just grab them or knock them off and throw them on the ground. I have never been stung but don't want to push it if someone knows different.
EE_Bota
Veteran Member
They sting, just usually not you. I have seen on my front porch, 8 little legs, like a spider ran his legs off. Apparently, a D. Dobber will bite the legs off of big spiders, so they will fit in the nest.
As a kid, I knew if the spider webs were prominent, and everywhere, it was time go go back to school in the fall. As it turns out, that was the DDobbers. They quit getting the spiders just before school starts, and the spiders proliferate.
What I haven't figured out, who is that following the Dirt Dobbers around. A dobber, when it is being trailed by the mysterious flying stranger, will make a circuitous trip to try to lose the tail. It is hard, since it takes time to get a spider into the nest, so when the stranger catches the dobber, the dobber flies away on another circuitous journey to try to lose the stranger following him.
Those of you who have not seen the following stranger, look closer, especially in central NC. It could be an enemy species, or it could be the male of the species, but I think it is a different species altogether.
General Lee
Veteran Member
I think what your referring to is what we (in my area) call horse hornets, but I think the correct name is the European Hornet. Huge hornets, that are attracted to light at night. One year I had nest nearby somewhere and at night with the porch light on they would swarm it. Sounded like someone knocking on the darn door they were so big.
zene55
Silver Member
My dad showed me you can use soapy water to kill wasp. It works great, and they seem to melt.
DwightD123
Silver Member
I got stung by a wasp this weekend and had heard about the soap and water so I tried it...I think I heard laughing in the nest after I sprayed them. Really what am I doing wrong cause they were not affected by the soapy water at all.
