Bugs on boats

I would prefer to think that bugs will never intrude upon our close living quarters…and if they dare try, Tack will pursue, capture and kill them quickly and with ease.

My big brother loves bugs and given how much time he spent thrusting multi-legged creatures in my face to “see how cool this is” I really should have a thicker skin. He would catch flies (sometimes with his bare hands, I kid you not) and feed them to his “pet spiders” in the awnings. Spiders don’t freak me out nearly as much as the unknown creatures…the ones that are lying in wait, hidden in dark corners, eager for me to fall asleep so they can do whatever these mystery bugs do.

This morning Jeff looked up into our bookshelf and saw a strange blobby looking clay structure. He brushed it with his hand and it came crashing to the ground. Bug remains and igloo like caskets scattered all over the floor. It quickly became apparent that this structure housed a colony of bugs and the bugs had since vacated their home…meaning that they were probably alive and lurking somewhere on the boat.

Tube dwelling & spider midden

Panic mode set in. What is living on our boat? How long has it been living with us? Why hasn’t it attacked us yet? Where is it hiding? Does it like to eat wood? If so, we’re screwed. Will it crawl into my ear when I’m asleep and turn my brains to mush? I was paralyzed with fear.

Jeff was perched on the V-Berth in his birthday suit assessing the situation. ‘Go grab the dust pan and sweep it up.’

‘Gross, no. You do it.’

‘I’m naked.’ As if that was reason enough.

‘What does that matter?’

‘And you’re closer to the dust pan.’

‘Fine, but I’m gonna take a picture first.’ I figured I would send the picture to my brother who could probably ID it if google couldn’t.

I took it out to the dock and chiseled it apart with a big screwdriver and a hammer, inspecting all of the midden and the careful construction of the home, which was quite spectacular.

My “work station.”

Using my google prowess I searched with terms like bugs that nest in clay tubes and dead spiders in clay dwelling and came to discover that it was (likely) the previous home of mud dauber larvae. After reading a bit about the mud dauber I am feeling much more at ease about the whole situation. 

The mud dauber is a wasp (species name Sceliphron caementarium) that builds nests out of mud or clay (hence the caementarium). Mud daubers are solitary creatures (which immediately grants them a special place in my heart) and while they can sting, they’re not particularly aggressive.

A picture of a mud dauber care of “Assassin Exterminating and Pest Control” out of Forth Worth, Texas

Building the nest requires many trips – they collect mud in small balls with their front legs and jaws which they carry back to their nesting site and mold into small tubes, which will house the larvae. The nest must be located in a dry place – if it gets wet it will fall apart and kill their wee ones (this must pose a particular challenge in the rainy Pacific Northwest). They like to build their nests in the eaves of houses, in attics, garages, or in our case, the bookshelf on our boat. 

When each tube is nearing completion, the mud dauber turns her attention to collecting food. In Oregon they prey on small spiders (the corpses of which are still in the nest) – the mud dauber paralyzes the spider, brings it to the tube and encapsulates it with the eggs. The larvae will munch on the spiders over the course of several weeks while they mature. The mud dauber then seals up the tube – there will either be enough food, or their won’t at that point. She will construct 6-8 tubes, depending on when she runs out of mud, spiders or energy. She dies shortly thereafter and the babies have to intuit how to survive since mama is no longer around.

Learning a bit about the mud dauber makes me feel a better about sharing our space. I’m not sure I’ll be able to say the same about other bugs we are likely to encounter on this trip.

I’m still completely baffled about how the mud daubers both got on and off of our boat without us noticing…it goes without saying that sometimes Jeff and I are not terribly observant.

Funny how I choose to right about bugs with this August 25th shove off date looming…

-H