You think of them as pest I think of them as the cement builders of the past it’s the Chalybion caementarium also known as the black and yellow mud dauber. If you don’t know what it looks like I’ll tell you right now. It is at least 24-28 millimeters long and has a black body with yellow stripes. It has an abdomen stalked at base with 2 apical spurs. It has either clear or dark wings. And it has 2 or more basal teeth on the front tarsal claws. That’s what my bug looks like.

You might know what its habitat is because they probably have nest on the walls of your garage. Their nests are big clots of hard mud on walls, and high cliffs. There range is throughout North America. And several other countries since the 1970s. Some of the countries are Brazil, and some of England.  The size of it’s population is unknown at this time.

If your wondering what it eats I’ll tell you. They eat spiders when they first hatch. The adults eat nectar. The process of the organizing of the nest is that the mother first closes her nest with a ball of mud to keep parasites out. Second she goes and gets spiders like jumping spiders, daddy long legs, and the garden spider. Thirdly they come back with the paralyzed spiders and lay them down in the nest so the baby has something to eat when it hatches.

I know some of you are wondering what eats my wasp and it’s pretty weird what does.  My insect gets eaten by the orb weaving spider. The spider has a process though. First it attracts the insect with its beautiful nest. Second the bug flies into it. Thirdly the wasp gets wrapped up and eaten.  And that’s how the predator eats my insect.

Know here are some interesting facts. Its name caementarium describes the cement like nest they build. It has a sub family of spechinae. They also don’t actively protect there nest hoping that the cement like mud will protect their eggs for them. And they also reuse empty nest every year if their in good condition.  And that was my report on the Chalybion caementarium.

Author: Nicholas D. 
Date: 3/7

sources: http//bugguide.net, http://livingwithinsects.wordpress.com/2011/03/02mud-daubers-2/, mendely.com. Book source is insect’s pg. 350  

Photo:  Copyright 2007 Gerald R. Donehew