My New True Love

The Mud Dauber Wasp is a woman that builds her house on her own. Then the Daubers fly around and catch spiders. I hate spiders! They seem to like me. As I often find the three bites on my chest- breakfast, lunch and dinner. This often happens when I'm stacking wood for the wood kiln. I wish we had Mud Daubers.
Once the nest is finished, the female Mud dauber hunts out spiders, paralysing them and returning to the nest where she lays an egg on them and seals the entrance. Inside, the egg will hatch and the larvae will eat the food and pupate. When it emerges as an adult wasp, it will chew its way out of the cell.
Do this 3D printer!

Ain't that NC red clay sweet!

There were many Mud Dauber nests built from the North Carolina clay on the inside of some of the kilns I visited. Rather than knocking them off most of the potters fire them. They are beautiful little sculptures that look like the 3D printer is referencing the Mud Dauber. I knew that 3D nonsense was just a copy and not an original. 
So here is a toast to the female Mud Dauber Wasp. A self sufficient woman that can build her own  creative house, provide the food for her growing children and protects me from those nasty buggers that seem to find the taste of my flesh gourmet. I love you Ms. Mud Dauber Wasp but I'm going to love you from a distance. I figure a woman with your tenacity just might decide to paralyze me.
I'm blowing you a kiss from the frozen north. Txoxoxo

Comments

Kelly Savino said…
Every summer at Girl Scout Camp I teach a natural art materials session for a week, in a nice picnic shelter with fireplaces at either end. There are always dauber houses, and when we dig clay out of the riverbank to refine and use in pitfiring, the wasps start to rob our stash. Tunnels change color and grow quickly, since they don't have to keep flying to their previous mine with a mouthful at a time. It's a great eye opener for the girls.

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