Mud Daubers
Common Name
Scientific Name
Organpipe Mud Dauber
Trypoxylon politum or Trypoxylon clavatum
Black and Yellow Mud Dauber
Sceliphron caementarium
Blue Mud Dauber
Chalybion californicum
Identification:
The adult Mud Dauber ranges in color and size depending on species. The Organpipe Mud Dauber is 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch long, which is skinny, black, and elongated. The Black and Yellow Mud Dauber is 1 to 1 and 1/4 inches long with a black to brown color with yellow markings on the abdomen and thorax. The Blue Mud Dauber is black to incandescent blue, with blue transparent wings, and measures about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch long.
Biology:
The Organpipe Mud Dauber wasp reproduces once the nest, which resembles pipes on an organ, is constructed. The female will pack one of the cells with spiders and then plant an egg on top of the spiders, the eggs will hatch and a small maggot like larvae will emerge. The larva then feed on the paralyzed spiders until about three weeks when they have matured, and they will spin a cocoon and overwinter in the nest until the spring when they hatch into full grown adults. The male Organpipe Mud Daubers may guard the nest during the warmer months, but when the overwinter process beings they will leave the nest. This process only happens once, maybe twice, a year for the Organpipe Mud dauber.
The Black and Yellow Mud Dauber reproduce much like the Organpipe Mud Dauber, the difference is they create their nest on the ground by creating round cells in the mud, sometimes there are multiple cells in one area. The female wasp will pack each cell with paralyzed spiders, lay an egg, and seal up the cell. The larvae, which are yellowish white and about 3/4 of an inch long, will emerge from the egg, and feed on the spiders until ready for paupation. They will create a cocoon and after a few weeks they will emerge as a full grown wasp. The Black and Yellow Mud Dauber may create up to two generations per year.
The Blue Mud Dauber has slightly different ways to reproduce when comparing to the Organpipe and Black and Yellow Mud Daubers, first of all the Blue Mud Dauber does not make their own nests. The female Mud Dauber will actually take over a mud nest. She first opens the cell by moistening the clay with water, she then removes the spiders and egg that was inside, and finally she will place her own spiders and egg inside before she seals up the cell. The larvae will hatch and once matured they will paupate and become full grown adult wasps.
Habits:
The Mud Dauber wasps are solitary insects, meaning they do not have castes among a colony. The queen (female) lays and egg and leaves it alone, there is never really any protection needed for the nest. The Mud Dauber is non-aggressive and only uses its stinger to paralyze its prey (spiders). If they do sting a human it is only because they were handled too much or they were caught in clothing.
