[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Mud cocoons are constructed by Sceliphron wasps. Also called mud dauber wasps, they are long and slender insects, with a narrow thread like waist. Their color is blue or black, with yellow markings.

Only mother wasps construct nests. The nests are built usually under bridges, inside caves, on the walls of barns, car ports, underside of barks and places that are safe from rain.

The nest shape and design vary. Black and yellow mud dauber builds a pot shaped nest, the size of a lemon. Organ pipe dauber builds half-inch wide cylindrical tubes resembling pipe- organ pipes. The nest consists of a number of cylindrical cells, each separated by a partition.

Before building a nest, the mother wasp finds a place with moist clay soil. She collects mud with her mouth. Rolls mud into a ball and carries to the nesting spot. There she molds the mud ball with her mandibles. One mud ball against other are smashed every time. The saliva from her mouth acts as a glue. She makes a series of cells with partitions in-between. All the cells are plastered with a final coating of mud, to form a smooth nest.

The mother wasp works hard the whole day from morning till sunset. She rests at nights. She takes unto two days to complete one cell. As she flies close to nest, the buzzing sound she produces comes from the fast beat of her wings. She fans the mud to dry out quickly.

When the nest is nearing completion, the mother wasp goes hunting after spiders. She prefers jumping spiders, catches and paralyses them by her sting. She brings them to the nest. Each cell is filled with five or six spiders. She lays a single egg on the spider bed and seals the cell with mud. After she has completed a series of cells, she leaves the nest for ever.

The egg inside a cell hatches into a larva. The larva has plentiful spider food kept ready by its mother. The larva wastes no time. It feeds and grows. Soon it becomes pupa and undergoes development. The cell serves as a cocoon.

After nine months, adult wasps emerge out of the nest, making large holes. It is spring time and the adult wasps have plenty of nectar available. It is interesting to see that while the adult wasps are nectar feeders, the larvae are spider eaters!

 

Sceliphron

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Sceliphron

 

Sceliphron laetum collecting mud

Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family: Sphecidae
Subfamily: Sceliphrinae
Genus: Sceliphron
Diversity About 30 species
Sceliphron is a genus of Hymenoptera of the Sphecidae family, commonly referred to as mud daubers. They are solitary and build nests made of mud. Nests are frequently constructed in shaded niches, often just inside of windows or vent openings, and it may take a female only a day to construct a cell requiring dozens of trips carrying mud. Females will add new cells one by one to the nest after each cell is provisioned. They provision these nests with spiders, such as crab spiders, orb-weaver spiders and jumping spiders in particular, as food for the developing larvae. Each mud cell contains one egg and is provided with several prey items. Females of some species lay a modest average of 15 eggs over their whole lifespan[1]. Various parasites attack these nests, including several species of cuckoo wasps, primarily by sneaking into the nest while the resident mud dauber is out foraging.
As is the case with many insect genera, there are many tropical species. Some common temperate species include the black and yellow mud dauber (Sceliphron caementarium) and Sceliphron curvatum.
Like other solitary wasps, Sceliphron species are not aggressive and do not sting unless mishandled. They are sometimes regarded as beneficial due to their control of spider populations, though the spiders themselves may be beneficial in controlling pest insects. Species such as Sceliphron curvatum are invasive in some parts of Europe, where they have been observed to rapidly increase their range in recent years[2].

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

this thing popped up on my porch over the last two weeks..

it started as one tube, was eight by last week. I never saw anything making it.. but by its look and the fact that it was clearly mud/clay, I figured it had to be a wasp. Finally today I broke it down to see.. and to my surprise were THIRTY FOUR DEAD SPIDERS. well not all of em were dead, about five or six were still twitching.. but paralyzed.. I was like FUCK!

what the fuck is this? where the fuck did all these DEAD FUCKING SPIDERS come from.. I was tripping, this was baffling, bizarre, and I have seen some seriously crazy shit in my time....

there were also three larvae, and they looked like wasp larvae like when you break down a regular honeycomb style nest..

but the spiders made no sense.

I said to myself like McGuiver.. what the fuck made this nest, then captured 34 spiders, and put them there? Some kind of wasp? Do the larvae eat all these dead spiders?

One google search of "wasp clay cacoon with spiders" found the above info and explained it all...

fucking crazy shit. the wasps are taking over los angeles because the bees are all disappearing across the world..

[floatingslowly]

yeah the only thing they are good for are hunting spiders.

I still destroy the nests.

WHITE HOT HATE.

on the other hand, cicada killers, which are monstrous looking, are relatively benign. however, when the come at you, it's like a low-flying plane. I like them so much more than those stinkin' wasps.

 

[noisereductions]

holy shit! I've had wasp problems in the past. But these fuckers look straight EVIL!