Mud Dobbers

[bsparr]

Our house is about 100yds from our pond, the mud dobbers are always buzzing around the house making it somewhat uncomfortable to just sit on the porch. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to repel these little pests ?

 

[RobS]

Not sure if this is the optimal solution but I'm starting to carry a can of hornet/wasp spray in my toolbelt. Ran into a big nest at our temporary power post the other day. Got surprised yesterday with a nest in the bumper of our camper then several on a pile of scrap lumber I was moving around. Fortunately, I haven't been stung yet this summer, but I suppose my days are numbered. If anyone does have a preventative solution, I'm all ears /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Chuck52]

I've had pretty good luck this year by just breaking up their nests. They were building all over my house, but they have slowed down considerably since I did a little search and destroy with a long stick.

Chuck

 

[GlennT]

Move to Alaska and trade them for mosquitoes. We have mud dobbers everywhere! Since we moved on our place I've been caulking every opening I can spot and it still doesn't seem to keep them out. The biggest problem I've had with them is when they go inside the cases of the motors on my shop tools. I'll turn one on and there will be a shower of mud out of the ventilation holes. Hopefully that will take care of it. In a few cases the mud has thrown the armature off balance and I've had to open the case and carefully chip off the mud to eliminate vibration. Wasp spray works, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life walking around with a spray can in my hand.

 

[Mosey]

We had a real problem with them the first summer we lived at our house. Apparently the previous owner didn't care and didn't try to get rid of them. I found out if I'm persistent, I can reduce their numbers. First, keep a close eye out for their nests and destroy them. Wait until after dark so they'll be inside and kind of dormant, then smash the nest and everything inside and scrape all the dirt off the wall or whatever they built their nest on. During the day I keep some old tennis or badminton rackets handy and kill them in mid air with one swipe. I also spray periodically with those fogger canisters (Lowes sells them). Nothing will stop them completely, but if you stay after them they'll move to the woods.

 

[heehaw]

the nest seems to stain the wall, so even after removing the nest, there is still a slight tell tell sign showing the location..at least on our board an bat house....we painted last year and mixed some insecticide with the paint, that seems to have really slowed them down a lot...as soon as i see a nest started, i have started spraying it with insecticide, hoping it will not only deter, but will kill the ones making the nest..the other possibility, i have read that they fill the nest with spiders, so maybe keeping the webs swept down will help too?
heehaw

 

[OkieNCognito]

<font color=blue>Fortunately, I haven't been stung yet this summer, but I suppose my days are numbered.[blue/]

<font color=black>I didn't think mudd dobbers even had stingers (at least I use to catch them as a kid and never had one sting me). A mudd dobber is fairly easy to distinquish between a wasp by the slender tube that separates their tale from their body.

 

[JoeR]

I want to know how to get rid of those stains! I knock down the nest, but the stain remains. What is the best way to clean it off?

Thanks,

Joe

 

[ScottAR]

I've found that soapy water in a garden sprayer (1-2 gallon, pump in lid) works better than any wasp spray I've used. The sprayer shoots farther than any can I've tried plus its only soap so I can spray it on anything without worry. The soap clogs up their little breathing holes and they drop right out of the sky.

 

[TresCrows]

I have fought those buggers for years and know of no cure. They can literally ruin an airplane filling it full of mud. They ruin tools and generally make a mess of everything. I have never seen a mud dubber, dobber, dirt dobber sting a human but they do have a stinger which is used to kill their insect victims. Soapy water may knock a dirt dobber down but don't try that on a "Red" wasp. These bright orange very large and aggresive wasps with jet black wings like to build large open nests of paper inside walls and eves and holes in logs and inside barn eves and other partially enclosed spaces. They are bad news. There is a smaller varient that is nearly as bad, some of these have a white face. The standard dull brown paper wasp is no where near as aggresive as these nor is the yellow striped paper wasp. Now, yellow jackets, especially the Southern variety can ruin your whole week but none of them save for the Red wasps compare to the aggresiveness of the Black face hornet or relatively rare Bald face hornet. These will kill small animals and I have seen them fly and patrol and attack at night. I have seen them lift a mouse. The Black face hornet I have seen are very large, mostly black occasionally with some faint yellow markings along the side of the thorax and the Bald face hornet has a whitish face, black wings and more visible yellow markings, sometimes almost like stripes. The Hornet has a much thicker body than common paper wasp--a flying tank---and like I said, the only open nest paper wasp that can compare in sting and size is the big Red wasp. These will fly down when you are near a nest and whack you on top of the head as a warning much like the mocking bird does, you don't get a second warning. Yellow jackets nest in the ground, stumps and hollow logs and their enclosed nest sometimes protrudes above the ground or stump. Hornets have paper cylinder or hanging type enclosed nest and like Yellow jackets there could be hundreds, again of the open nest paper wasps, only the Red wasp have numbers of individules in that number range. In warm areas such as the Deep South and areas around Houston, the Red wasps/hornets and some others may not die off in the winter but the nests just go semi dormant, I have seen a gigantic Red wasp nest that filled the entire master closet spilling into the bathroom in an abandoned home in Houston--the house had been abandoned for several years, some juvenilles being delinquent found out the hard way that some days it just don't pay to skip school.
These wasps tend to be the most aggresive in the late Summer and Fall when numbers of individules is high and resources are waning.
Back before the bombers hit us all with DDT there was another wasp--a very large Hornet--I saw a few of them -- and even saw one nest when I was a child--they were 4 inches long or so or more. My grandfather said they would hunt and kill and sting even cattle to death, I think they are exticnt and may never have been cataloged. Food of the Gods sorta things. J