Wasps

[RGrew176]

The past two or three weeks I would often see a wasp or wasps flying around inside my boats salon area. This kept happening so yesterday I decided to put my full attention to what was going on. The wasp would gain entry to the cabin through the gaps in the cabin entrance door.

I watched it squeeze itself in through the door. It would then fly past me sitting in a chair by the lower helm station. It disappeared down into the galley area. When it flew past me and squeezed back outside through the cabin door I moved down into the galley area.

I waited a few minutes. Then I saw the wasp outside which then made its way back through the gap in the door and into the cabin area. It then flew down into the galley area and disappeared behind the sofa on the port side of the cabin. I waited for it to leave again.

Then I pulled the sofa away from the wall. There stuck on the backside of the sofa was the beginnings of a wasp nest. These were mud daubers as the roughly 3" by 3" at that point nest on the backside of the sofa. I peeled it away from the sofa back and walked outside and tossed it into the water.

I then sat back down in my seat and waited. Shortly thereafter a wasp came back inside through the door. It flew down and behind the sofa. This time it spent a lot of time back there. It probably wondered what the heck happened to my nest. When it flew out into the cabin from behind the sofa I was waiting with a fly swatter. I started hitting it and continued to hit it until it stopped moving. 1 down.

A few minutes later another wasp came aboard and when it left I followed it outside and swatted the heck out of it. Not sure if I killed it or not. I will check behind the sofa next time I am aboard the boat. My main reason for killing them is obviously they do not belong inside my boat. I am also allergic to wasp stings. Not seriously so but enough so that it does cause me minor problems. I have not been stung by a wasp since the mid 70's and being a lot older now I could maybe have a more serious reaction to being stung.

It was an interesting day.

[AaHubb]

I read somewhere that wasps leave a scent at the nest site. So even removing the nest won't prevent future nests at that location. My guess is that you need to find a way to block them from getting into your salon. Can you attach some kind of door sweep to the doors or trim to cover the gaps?
..Aaron

[Viper]

Agreed, most of the colony probably doesn't realize there's nothing there to go to. Every active nest I've destroyed has always had colonists coming back for a while. If they are coming through your door, you could try the suggestion above or what's worked for me is spraying their entry point with wasp spray. In your case, you can spray a rag, then wipe both sides of the area/door frame where they're getting in with the rag. They'll continue to go there for a while but if it's good stuff, they won't go past the area. This should keep them away long enough until they finally wright the location off.

[RGrew176]

There are probably things I can do to close off the door opening better. When I get back to the boat next week I will spray the rear of the sofa with a bleach water solution to kill off any scent. I am hoping it was only a couple of wasps that were building the nest.

[feeez]

Rick....

Although the reality of the situation is serious and I have a similar aversion to anything that stings, the admiral and I could not help but to see some humour in your plight.. Your account was very well documented and very entertaining. You should consider a late career in short stories... or maybe marine pest control.....

Cheers and I hope you have beaten those little varmints from your summer castle!!!

Fraser

[RGrew176]

When I arrived back on the boat Wednesday morning I pulled the sofa away from the wall and no new nest. I am thinking that the 2 wasps I disposed of were the only ones building the nest.

I did however observe a wasp going under my cockpit cover so tomorrow I will check out the area for a new nest then if needed I will remove it like I did the last one.

[RGrew176]

Yesterday (Thursday) as I observed a few wasps flying up under the cockpit cover I knew that I had more to do. It took some hunting but I found one nest on the starboard side of the cockpit in a pocket area. I waited for the wasps to depart and I pulled the nest off the inside of the pocket area and tossed it into the water.

Shortly thereafter the two wasps were back probably wondering where the nest had gone. I have one of those electric paddle bug zappers. I caught the first wasp and hit the button and sparks flew. The was was really ticked off I could hear it buzzing in a vary angry way. The electricity did not kill it like it does with spiders and such so I had to mash it a bit to finish it off.

The second wasp returned and I dispatched it in the same manner.

I found the second nest in the starboard storage area in front of the starboard side companion seat. I pulled this one from where it was stuck. It broke apart and the larvae inside was moving so maybe it was getting ready to hatch. I ran out of time so I did not get the chance to dispatch the wasp(s) who were tending that nest. Their demise will be something I will get to next week if they are still around.

I checked out the rest of the cockpit area and I did find two more nests but they were old maybe from last year and were unoccupied and crumbled into pieces when I removed them from the port and starboard companion seats.

I think what this is telling me is that I need to get my boat out more so they will be reluctant to move in.

[darylann]

Just had to share this info. When I was buying my boat, it had a healthy population of mud daubers on board. I'm not crazy about hornets and wasps by any any stretch, but I also hate killing anything needlessly (I prefer the "catch and release" method whenever possible). When I was having the pre-purchase marine survey done, the surveyor also noted the mud dauber situation, but commented that they are basically non-aggressive as long as you leave them alone. Later, he sent me a link with some very interesting info that made me even come to APPRECIATE them! It ends up that they actually prey on spiders!!! Now, nothing creeps me out more than spiders (though I won't kill them either), and I would almost WELCOME the mud daubers if they would keep the boat spider-free! But I still don't want those messy mud nests all over, regardless. I just thought this info worth sharing anyway...
https://dengarden.com/pest-control/What ... id-of-Them

[km1125]

I can tolerate the mud daubers a bit more but I can't handle what I call "hornets". These might actually be wasps too but the mud daubers I see are brown and the "hornets" are black and more aggressive.

Either way though, if I see the nests I get rid of them. I can handle spider control as it's much less stressful than one of those stingers flying around your head especially while on deck!

When I did a project a few years ago I took off several panels in the salon that cover the engine room intake/exhaust area. There were SEVERAL old mud dauber nests there that I cleaned up. They could have been there for DECADES.

[RGrew176]

The ones that were on my boat were definitely mud daubers. Didn't know about their ability to go after spiders.