Busy as a Bee!

After I finished many of the chores that needed attending, I plunked myself down in my favorite chair under the oak tree. It was hot!..too hot to continue working in the middle of the day. Our temperatures soared into the mid 90s as early as 10 am and when you have high humidity..that is just plumb uncomfortable! So, I decided to call it quits for a couple of hours. Later I finished the chores just before sunset. Anyway, my chair-sitting time was interrupted by a bee. Not that this bee was being a nuisance..more like it was being interesting. It was the prettiest metallic blue with black wings. Mrs. Bee landed first on my knee and after exploring the denim of my jeans for about a minute, it decided that the old railroad tie that was acting as a garden border was more alluring. The bee crawled around on the old gnarled piece of wood for about 10 minutes are so as if it was hunting for something it had lost. It would disappear inside a crack in the wood only to reappear a few inches down the board. I knew what this lady was doing..she was hunting spiders! Probably, a Black Widow Spider if she was lucky. You see, this was a Blue Mud Dauber. It is perhaps one of the biggest predators that the vicious Black Widow Spider has and I was elated to see it in my garden! I was bitten by a Black Widow Spider several years ago so now I am naturally a tad leery of hiding places for the creepy-crawly critters. But this Blue Mud Dauber was there to protect me from going through that pain again! (At least I hope I never get bitten again..it is definitely not on my "fun-to-do" list!) The shiny blue bee did not find any spiders in the railroad tie. I am assuming that either they were well hidden deep inside the wood, or perhaps out hunting themselves. The Mud Dauber flew off in search of prey in parts unknown.

The Blue Mud Dauber is a rather neat little wasp. As its name implies, it "daubs" mud. The Mud Daubers all build unique mud tunnels as brooding places for their larvae. These tunnels will be plastered on the sides of houses, in attics or any place that remains remotely dry. The tunnels can be anywhere from one to five inches long and contain many spiders and other bugs. The single egg will hatch and eat its critter meal before digging its way out of the tunnel to start the process all over again. The Mud Dauber, when hunting, stings the prey with just enough poison to paralyze it..not kill it. She wants the spider to stay fresh long enough for the egg to hatch. That way, the larva has fresh food not some rotted bug. Pretty smart when you think about it..she stockpiles food before the baby hatches! After she finishes building tunnel, stocking the tunnel with spiders and laying the egg, she caps the end with mud. Then she immediately starts on another tunnel for another egg.

Now just a thought..yes, those Mud Dauber tunnels are unsightly under the eaves of the house and they do make a mess during painting but it is sort of choosing which nuisance you would rather have. Personally, I can deal with having mud houses stuck to my wall in exchange for an extermination of Black Widow Spiders. And besides, these little wasps will not sting you unless you smash them..they are really docile..why else do you think I would let one crawl around on my knee? My goodness!