Do dirt dobbers sting? And how to keep dirt dobbers away?
Do dirt dobbers sting? And how to keep dirt dobbers away?
Imagine it’s summer and you’re enjoying the good company of iced tea and a book. Maybe you decided to chill on the porch or snuggle on your favorite armchair letting the window open to enjoy the breeze. Suddenly you hear a buzzing sound around. You raise your eyes ready to flee in case of the possibility of a bee but instead, you see a smaller bug. Upon paying attention to its trajectory you notice another couple of them near a pan flute-like nest that wasn’t there the day before. Should you be scared or is it okay to just let them be? Who are those little fellas and can they cause you any harm?
Introduction to mud dobbers
Mud dobbers, also known as dirt dobbers or mud wasps, come in different colors and sizes. However, unlike yellow jackets and other dangerous wasps varieties, these are on the pacific side. They can sting but only if they feel threatened so the best would be to avoid bothering them unless you really need to get rid of them due to allergies, curious pets or kids, or if there’s anyone with insect-related phobias at home.
So even when mud dobbers are not aggressive, they can sting if they feel threatened. Here are some basic first aids you can try at home:
Gently wash the affected area with soap and water and apply a cold compress -you can damp cloth in cold water- or an ice pack for 10 minutes in case of swelling. Elevate the area where you got stung to help reduce any swelling. Make sure you don’t scratch either since it can lead to infections.
In case the sting symptoms are not going away you can contact a doctor or pharmacist and ask for medicines that can help ease the pain or ointment for the itching.
If you find the need to remove mud dobbers from your property, it’s important you learn the best way to get rid of their nests so no one gets harmed. This can be done in 3 simple steps:
- Pick the insecticide of your preference. If you own pets then you’ll need to make sure they’re not around or that you use one that’s non-toxic to them to prevent any harm. You will then apply the insecticide to the nest cautiously since the wasps may feel in danger and try to sting. Also, other sorts of insects use abandoned mud dobbers’ nests as their home so be careful. If you’d like an extra layer of protection, you can also wear gloves and a face mask. This will also prevent the pesticide from becoming in contact with your skin.
- Get yourself a scrapper and start working on breaking and removing the nest from the surface it’s attached to until it’s all gone, no need to buy any tools. A paint scraper or even a flat-head screwdriver will do the trick. You might prefer to do this at night as it’s the time of the day when dobbers are less active.
Note that you may find a few spiders while you scrap however there’s no need to be scared as dobbers paralyze and stock on them for food.
- Tidy up all leftovers with a hose with a strong stream of water or a damp cloth and dispose of the debris. Be sure no one picks up a dead wasp since they can get stung by accident. Also, don’t crush or stump on the bodies since they can liberate pheromones that can attract more dobbers, defeating the purpose of your hard work.
And of course, you need to keep safety a priority. Mud dobbers can build their nests on high inaccessible places so if you need to use a ladder don’t forget to ask for someone else to supervise your work. In the end.
You can also take steps towards prevention so that your home does not house unwanted bugs and other pests. You’ll find advice on how to keep dirt dobbers away below.
Keeping mud dobbers away
There are numerous things that can either serve as a natural repellent or a wasp exterminator such as the following:
If you prefer a non-chemical option, you can spray tea tree or lavender essential oils mixed with water to repel spiders and house bugs and that way are the main source of nourishment for mud wasps. You’ll just need a teaspoon of your oil of choice diluted in water and spray it around areas that are or could be infected by insects.
A way you can try in order to repel the wasps directly is growing peppermint or using citrus sprays or candles at home since dobbers are disgusted by the smell.
There may be some nests you cannot reach due to them being too high or otherwise inaccessible, though. In this case, you may consider building some bird feeders to attract birds. These ones are natural bug predators so you can count on them to get rid of the mud dobbers you miss.
Taking a step ahead of mud dobbers can be of great help. You can cover up holes and any other potential areas such as attics, sheds, barns, or porches so that neither dobbers nor other insects have no place where to build their nest.
In case you’re unable to get rid of the pest on your own you can always hire professional pest control services to help you eradicate them once and for all.
You may be considering if it’s actually necessary to remove mud dobbers, especially if they don’t pose an immediate problem to you. There are a lot of arguments saying they can have more benefits than we think such as the fact that they feed on spiders which are house pests that can be quite dangerous like jumping spiders, black widows, and crab spiders.
Also, since spiders can ruin your plants some opt to redirect mud dobbers to their garden so they can act as a chemical-free pesticide. So they’re not entirely bad news. If you note that there’s a different kind of insect coming and going from the mud pipes, then you can take that as the definitive cue to remove the nest since it’s known that other wasp species can occupy them after they become vacant. Learning how to differentiate them can become handy.
Mud dobbers vs wasps
Considering the vast amount of different wasp species, we’ll describe what mud dobbers look like first so you can easily tell them apart and understand their benefits in the ecosystem. There are 3 types of dobbers.
The Black-and-yellow mud dobber. They might remind you of the yellow jacket wasp, however, these are smaller in size and more on the pacific end. Black-and-yellow dobbers build one-cell nests usually on the corners of walls. Interestingly enough they only lay one egg per nest. These mud wasps also like to clump several one-cell nests together. They differ from other wasps in the size of their torso which is considerably slender than regular wasps, they also only have a couple of yellow stripes and are not as shine as hornets for example.
The organ-pipe mud dobber is named after the cylindrical tube shape of their nest which reminds of the musical instrument with the same name. This variety prefers to live on cliffs, bridges, and in caves, so it probably won’t be a common sight.
Then there’s the metallic-blue mud dobber. These ones build their home only if no other mud dobber build a nest in that place before. In some cases, though, metallic-blue dobbers can occupy an abandoned nest and adapt it to their liking. Their preferred spot to nest is closed spaces such as barns and porches.
Mud dobbers prefer warmer climates so they can be found in late spring and summer in North America and year-round in tropical climates. They are mostly active during the day and females are often found near puddles collecting mud for their nests.
Once the female dobber locates an area with plenty of mud, being clay their favorite, she will start collecting it from several sites, so you may notice nests with a variety of colors depending on the mud they picked. She then constructs the nest by herself while the male dobber diligently guards it.
She will use her jaw to skilfully roll up soft mud into a ball, and carry it with her front legs to the location she has selected for the nest. With her head and mandible, she pushes the mud onto a flat surface and uses her saliva to shape it into a pipe-like structure.
Once she considers her job done, the female mud dobber will hunt down spiders and place a spider into each chamber. She will then lay an egg on top of the spider and abandon the nest. When the eggs hatch, each larva will feed on its spider and eat its way through the nest’s walls to emerge into adulthood and repeat the cycle.
Wasps on the other hand will aggressively defend their nests if you disturb their nest and won’t hesitate to sting. Unlike bees, they won’t die upon stinging you once and while their venom might not be particularly dangerous it can cause a fair amount of pain and can become pretty serious if you’re allergic to them, causing an anaphylactic shock. Also, wasps build their nests in a honeycomb-like way so in that aspect it’s easy to tell apart from mud dobbers.
By now, you’ve become quite knowledgeable in pest control removal, stings first aid, and wasps entomology. Would you like to keep mud dobbers as allies in fighting spiders or would you rather them from your property? In the end, the decision is yours for the taking.
top rated pest control company in Arlington