Mason Wasp

 Granddaughter told me of a mud wasp nest her Dad had found that was attached to their bbq pit.  We harvested it and began opening the cells to see what type of prey the adult had gathered and stored for its prodigy.  When we opened the first cell a fully developed mason wasp (Euodynerus apopkensis) began to crawl out.  It flew a short distance and landed nearby, and began twitching its thin, cellophane-like wings to and fro as if to stretch them following its long nap inside the lump of dirt, before flying away.

In another cell though we found another wasp that was not quite developed.  Its white form almost appeared ghost-like. 

We both felt a sense of guilt for disturbing it, so we decided to placed it back into its cell and then we collected some dirt, which we wetted and sealed the hole enclosing the pupa inside.  We then took the nest and placed it in one of her bug boxes. We’re hoping that it will continue to develop and then dig its way out, then we’ll release it.

I’ve seen this particular wasp in other areas, once in our firewood pile.  We had been rummaging around in the wood for geckos when we spotted one halfway into what appeared to be the exit hole of a wood-boring beetle. 

Not sure what it was looking for.  I later found out that these wasps will utilize or “repurpose” paper wasp nests.  Maybe it was repurposing the exit hole/tunnel of the beetle. 

Mud Dauber Tube Cache

I bought a storage shed for the camp to keep odds and ends in and while setting up my ladder to do a little caulking I found the nest tube of a mud-dauber securely glued to the top step. I was moving the ladder in order to photograph the single tube when I bumped it on a corner of the shed and broke it open. Inside revealed what the dauber had stored for its future progeny. With a pair of tweezers I began delicately removing one spider after another. I was amazed at how many were crammed in such a small tube. I found 5 different species, 8 spiders in all. They're not dead but in fact paralyzed by the venom of the adult dauber so they'll stay fresh.

If you'll notice in the second picture there is a mud-dauber larva feeding on one of the spiders. Amazing....

Work of Art

Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Tubes

A feeder that I had been ignoring for some time, I discovered, had been put to good use. Several Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Wasps found this empty shelter to be the perfect spot to tediously build their nest tubes that are shaped, well like the pipes of an organ, hence the name. These docile steel blue colored wasps are not aggressive like your average paper wasp, meaning they can be observed closely without fear of being attacked. Only by grabbing them can one risk being stung.

These "tubes", built by the female, are works of art. Delicate care is taken as row after row of moist soil is placed one after another resulting in the finished product. Sections of each tube are walled off on the inside creating cells. In each of these cells is placed an egg along with sustenance in the form of paralyzed spiders to feed the developing larva. Once fully grown they will gnaw there way out of the cell freeing themselves to repeat the cycle.