Black and Yellow Mud Daubers

Black and Yellow Mud Daubers are extremely common throughout Texas. They build their nests where their larvae develop using mud. They are solitary wasps, meaning they don’t form a colony, but rather live individually. As with other solitary wasps and bees, Yellow and Black Mud Daubers are not aggressive. In fact, they won’t sting unless they are handled roughly. Even then, their sting is extremely mild. They produce about 1/10 of the amount of venom as paper wasps. Also, their venom does not contain any of the pain producing compounds found in that of paper wasps.

Black and Yellow Mud Daubers, Sceliphron caementarium, belong to the insect Order Hymenoptera and the Family Sphecidae. They are native to North America and can be found as far north as Canada. They’ve also been found in Central America, South America, Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, and Madeira.

Life Cycle
Mud daubers are spider hunters. They paralyze the spiders with their sting and stuff them into the mud chambers in the nest. Eggs are then laid on the spiders and the larvae feed on the spiders as they develop. They developing larvae overwinter inside the mud cells and emerge in the Spring to start the cycle over.

Black and Yellow Mud Dauber Control Tips
Eliminate Nests During the Winter: A portion of newly emerged mud daubers will return to the same areas to start their new nests. We have found that knocking down nests during the winter greatly reduces the number of new nests built the next year. This is because knocking down nests during the winter usually results in the death of the developing larvae.

Insecticide: Insecticides can be used to kill on contact, but we find that there is almost no residual effect on sprayed surfaces. I believe this is because their feet and bodies are protected by the mud they collect, making surface treatments with insecticides ineffective.