Technical damn wasps, well their kids

Installing a vent tube, [3/8" gas line] for my gas tank, I have the roll over valve but every year some mud wasp kills another bug, stuffs it up the open end of the vent tube, lays an egg and packs it with mud...
so this year I bought a garden hose screen, about $1, brass domed screen molded into a rubber ring...
it had a just smaller inside diameter than my 3/8" rubber gas line's outside diameter, so I sanded the leading 1" on the end of the 3/8" gas line on my 1" belt sander...
fit good... layed a little silicone bead between the two... black duct tape outside layer...
silicone drying...
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Good idea.

 

Mud dobbers, they also like the small oil holes in a crank shaft should you leave one lying about. I heard a story about a 426 crank that got assembled with the oil holes filled with mud dobbers, needless to say first start up and the crank was toast. Another guy was telling me someone had put dirt in his engine. Just prior to assembly I run a piece of wire through just to be sure.

 

Hey great idea.....where did you buy it...

 

Found a bug castle in my bicycle handle bars 2 days ago....damn they are great climbers..never seen one though.....

 

It is a constant year around battle with mud daubers at my shop in Florida.

 

Last year I went down to my shop and put 1 more piece of garbage in my shops trash bag and BAMM It felt like some one had hit me with a 110 volt shock. It was a wasp in the trash bag. I caught the wasp.I wasn't worried until all 5 of my fingers and palm started swelling up so fast I thought my fingers were going to pop. I caught the sucker in a jar and raced over to my DR.They had to pack my hand is ice and give me a shot. It turned out to be a Japaneeze hornet and they are big!.I wasnt alegert to it they just pack a punch. Now I have the sticky fly paper hanging in my shop. That really helps.Bruce.

 

push on strainers from your paint gun siphon tube work if hard tube vent

 

hardware store...

 

My home garage is an adobe airport from all the mud daubers. Last year I was re-organizing my garage to make room for my project and and a new tool cabinet. I pulled 50+ mud nests off of the walls and other various items. I dumped the whole bucket of them in a low spot I had in the lawn. I figured they owed me that much.

 

I had a friend that started up his Mercury outboard and the daubers had made a nest in his carbs. Needless to say he had to rebuild the engine

 

Great idea on the screen

 

Do me a personal favor and kill every wasp you see. I don't like them, and they don't like me.

 

Had the darn mud dabbers climb into the open ends of 2 metal fuel lines that we almost missed. I worked the mud out that is almost like cement. I took a piece of 1/8" cable and wrapped electrical tape about 3 inches from the end then frayed it. I put the cable through the fuel line then spun the cable pulling the frayed end through the fuel line with a cordless drill. The cable worked like a wire brush. The frayed end shone up the inside of the fuel line nicely & then the lines were flushed and connected. A lesson learned on small round openings.

 

wasp catcher...
boiled some grape jelly I was throwing out with a little water... poured it into my fly catcher...
a big, clear, plastic jug, cut a 2" round hole in the 4" cover, laid a flat piece of steel on it so a wasp could crawl in but not fly in...
wow... that evening there had to be 200 or 300 swarmed into a rotating ball in the juice...
of course they do polinate many of HER flowers...
.
fly catcher...
old farmer sold me a '30 tudor, when picking it up he said you see any flys ? .... nope, he then told me of his fly catcher...
i used the clear jug...
in april, take the jug, push a 90* bent 2" radiator hose into the 2" hole [so they can't see light through it], dump some raw meat into the jug, place it where a skunk or raccoon can't get it...
house flys will fly through the hose, lay their eggs, but fly against the clear plastic sides trying to get out... the dead flys were 4" deep by august...
because they breed so fast every fly you kill in april represents thousands by august...

 

Son of a bitch..just found one in my ceiling electrical box....how the hell do they get all that mud up there...great construction workers I must say....

 

I use these, marine supply has them. S/S boat fuel tank vent (Breather or spark arrestor) with gauze screen

 

I had them all through the defroster plenum in my Ford. Also build mud nests on top of the heater box, around wires and so on. Good thing I decided to take the dash out otherwise I would have never found them.

 

I used to have electric motors locked up because of those buggers. Two bug zappers have brought the population down.

 

I had some in a camper trailer. Tenacious little bastards.
There were some in my neighbor's car port.
We went out there just after dark with a can of carb spray.
Just spray them real good and its curtains.

 

Damn, you're cruel.....

 

Had to work the bugs out , huh?

 

Similar experience as Bruce, except I had baggy shorts on and bent over cleaning parts. Missed the boys by not much, but felt like a nail going in.

 

RB35 I hate anything that stings. I remember when I worked for a commercial roofing co. I picked up a roll of tarpaper and there was a nest of yellow jackets under it. I didn't know it till they flew up my pants and started stinging the crap out of me. I tore my pants off in front of all the other drivers and started running away in my gobbies gotjas{under ware} They all laughed the asses off this they came after them. LOL. Bruce.

 

Now, that's funny.....

 

First week at college, fresh off the farm, a Jewish girl called me a WASP. I didn't know what she meant.

 

maybe she was afraid of your stinger !

 

I know of one case where mud dobbers built a nest on the inside of a timing belt. Engine was ruined when it was started. As far as I know, mud dobbers do not sting. Wasps, hornets, and bees do. JWL

 

Yep, it's the durned yellow jackets that are awful. I've dealt with the mud daubers and other kinds of wasps but they are pretty mild natured, though they certainly can sting if you really really bug them.

The bald faced hornets around here are also very docile and won't sting without provocation and won't buzz in your face. Plus, they eat the yellow jackets.