Over the past few weeks, Jeff has repaired some siding on the back of the house. In the process, he closed up a window in the basement on the outside, but left the inside to repair later. A few days later, we started noticing large beautiful blue wasp-like things flying around in our schoolroom. This did not make me happy. I love looking at bugs through glass jars and such, but I do not enjoy sharing my living space with them. The kids have captured, killed, and shewed outside about a dozen of these large blue flying wasp-like creatures in the past week… three of them just yesterday!
We did look them up to identify them, as we always do, after the first one. I was pretty sure that it was a mud dauber and Sam agreed. Sure enough it was. We also found some of the mud nest in the sliding door, inside the side of the house where Jeff took off the siding, and in the window. All of the nest have now been removed, thankfully, today we have not seen any more mud daubers.
The best part about the mud daubers…..
Blue mud daubers are known as black widow killers. The primary diet for feeding their young, is spiders! If you remember, we had an issue with hobo spiders in the basement. Since the mud daubers made their appearance, we have not seen any spiders. Yes, it could be a coincidence. It could just be that “spider season” is over for now. ….or just maybe, God allowed the mud daubers to come in and take care of the spiders for a few days, and then be done. No one got bit by a spider, which are very painful bites. No one got stung by the mud daubers either. Not even the cat that aggressively tried to eat a mud dauber.
More information about blue mud daubers at the link below. I know the page calls it a Blue Mud Wasp, but all the other sites call it a Blue Mud Dauber. (They are the same thing just called differently.) One other site said that mud daubers actually prefer hobo spiders over black widow spiders! How cool is that! Well, we had quite a few to offer. God has an amazing food chain and a predator for every animal. Each animal has its benefits and its negatives. We need both. The spider eats smaller insects, and the mud daubers eat the spiders. I don’t like either, but we need them both. The hobo spider’s predators are the house cat and the blue mud dauber. That, to me, is very amazing.
*Sorry, the only picture we have is of a dead mud dauber:( but you can find many pictures online that show how beautiful metallic blue they are.