Since we’re on the topic, anyone have any experience with mud wasps? Used to have them out at my dad’s place all the time. He wouldn’t let us disturbe or hurt them because (I think) he said they prey on insects that can destroy your garden. Had these little tan mud tunnels on his garage roof joists. Neat to see. Look like they mean business though.
And can it be that in a world so full and busy, the loss
of one weak creature makes a void in any heart, so
wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth
of vast eternity can fill it up!
-Charles Dickens “Dombey and Son”
BunnyGirl, have you ever been stung by a mud wasp? They hurt. They hurt real bad. I’ve been stung by all kinds of things (even got stung by a three-inch scorpion in the desert last year), and they don’t begin to compare with a wasp sting. And they look so menacing, don’t they? Those super-segmented body parts and the huge stinger hanging down in plain view. No thank you. I do believe that they eat all kinds of small pests, though. One variety even preys on tarantulas. The little wasp stings the spider into paralysis, then lays her eggs in the living but motionless body. They hatch, and then eat the spider from the inside out. Mmmmmm, yummy grub food.
Bunny we call um dirt daubers. The black ones? they are pretty gentle unless you mess with the nest. Most wasps are really Some are pretty agresive anywhere. Nearly all the wasps prey on insects, catepillars and grasshoppers mostly. Some prey on spiders. That’s ONE reason I generally leave um alone.
There is a huge wasp here called a Cicada Killer, preys on ,yep, and other large bugs.And a bigger one called a Tarantula Hawk. Wasps grab the critters (this gets gruesome) and sting them but not to death. Just paralyze them, then they carry um back to the nest (you oughta see one of those cicada killers, real slow and low, climbing trees then off on another leg of the flight, they nest in a hole in the ground) at the nest they stuff it up a cell, lay an egg on it. When the grub hatches it eats the living paralyzed victim.AIEEEE! the living death. Other wasps ,called parasitic wasps, lay there eggs ON catepillars the grub gnaws its way inside and eats its still living victim from the inside. AIEEEE! Well, that’s long enough, there will be a test tomorrow.
There was a topic about how its impossible for them to fly because of the way they are designed.
There is plenty of info on them, just ask at www.ask.com
I have them in my house sometimes. They fly thru the door to their nest in a house somewhere in back [I have no idea how to find that], then they hit the window, fall into my bed, which is next to the window, I get in bed late at night, feel something fuzzy down there, and well only got stung once.
To answer the question: This customer doesn’t have much of a lawn, fortunately, in the area where I saw the bumblebee. In the back yard the lawn is in an open area in the back; I saw the bumblebee where a gnarled acacia tree leans sideways, intertwingled with a huge rose bush and a wisteria. The rose bush, in fact, has been more of a menace to me than the insects there; I had to get a tetanus shot after one tangle with the branches. This customer (age 81) is an authority on flora and fauna of the area, and I can rely on her judgment.
Thanks, Mr. John. I like to think that my contact with this customer–one of few I have respected–has been rewarding, much more so that "azard apay. (I think my experiences as a gardener would fill a Straight Dope forum all by themselves. E-mail me for details.)
