Mud Daubers in Luckenbach, Texas

Hondo Crouch bought the town of Luckenbach in 1971 (population: three, plus one parking meter). He liked celebrations. Among other festivals, he fêted the ‘Return of the Mud Daubers.’

Mud daubers played a part in my career in ecology at Oak Ridge National Lab. A less festive part.

On the Oak Ridge Reservation, engineers dug some large earthen pits in the ground, for experimental studies of liquid radioactive wastes. Instruments that monitored the levels of radioactivity sat alongside the pits, sheltered in little wooden boxes. Mud daubers discovered them and built their mud nests inside the boxes. Sometimes they used radioactive mud from the waste pits. The instruments soon began to measure the radioactivity of the mud dauber nests; it overpowered the emanations from the waste pits. The nests had to be removed periodically.

Here’s the fun part. One type of wasp, the black-and-yellow dauber, builds a ‘blob’ nest, rather shapeless. The black-and-blue dauber constructs a neat ‘pipe organ’ nest, rows of clay tubes. (You’ve probably seen both of these types in your garage). Both wasps used the instrument shelters. Some of the “blob” nests were radioactive. But the ‘pipe organ’ nests weren’t. None of them were radioactive. Never.

And we wondered – could the black-and-blue dauber detect waves of radiation, and avoid them? Could they sense atomic radiation? Not a silly idea; wasps can see ultraviolet radiation that’s invisible to us. Maybe they could actually 'see' atomic radiation.

My postdoc, Alvin Shinn, put the daubers in cages and offered them mud. The Black-and-yellow wasp snatched up wads of mud and made nests from it. The black-and-blue dauber carefully selected a little here and a little there; it was a fastidious user of mud. It selected only one type of clay, very carefully. It didn’t like the coarse, radioactive mud.

Was that the answer? The pipe organ builder would use only pure clays? The question remains in my mind. Was the wasp using chemical cues to select clays? Or could it, perhaps, detect radioactivity? Wasps can dig, they can build earthen nests. They can use tools. Are they in line to be the next dominant animals on our planet?

Comments

[karen]

I never heard this and it does pose fascinating questions. I was always interested in chemical ecology. We really don't know what organisms evolved with, and what they need to be able to detect in order to survive and reproduce. Just started thinking, oop, there are a lot of other things they could be selecting for. How you challenge me.

[Dac Crossley]

Well, yes, they do make a buzzing sound when they are in the nest! I remember Al Shinn with a tape recorder, trying to capture it.

[Mac Jr.]

Dackeroo-

I sat here and came up with a half dozen experiments and measurements that would be really fun to do along these lines. How much is actually known about particle size choice for these wasps? We have a bunch of both types around the house. I see the black and blue ones all the time, but rarely (if ever?) see the blob building yellow and blacks. Do the yellow and blacks make noise when they are daubing?

Incidentally, I think "The Dirt Daubers" would be a great name for a musical group!

Cheers,
Mac

[Mike Draney]

Dac, that's a MARVELOUS story about the finicky mud daubers...I'm filing that away for my next Entomolgy course. If you ever feel like writing another non-fiction book, I think "Oak Ridge Days" would be a great read.

Seems to me that the social Hymenoptera (mud daubers, yes, but especially ANTS)have been the dominant animals on Earth for most of the Cenozoic. We've given them a run for their money in the last few centuries, but I'm wondering if their subordination is only temporary, in the big scheme of things!

[Irene]

I've never seen the blob nests that I was aware of what they were, but I started cleaning the tube type from the walls under my screened in porch yesterday. Fascinating information.

[Genie]

My older brother & sister never forgot being spanked for letting me, "the baby," EAT a dirt dauber nest when we were playing on the porch. The pipe organ type are common here, so I hold to the belief that my taste is as discriminating as the black-and-blue dauber. ...yumyum, and crunchy, too...

[Paige]

Oh my heavens, that is so cool! Absolutely fascinating. Dac, you never cease to amaze me with your tidbits of information.