Asian mud daubers have been discovered in Colorado — and maybe your garden — but these hunter wasps are more into spiders than you.

Mud daubers are a type of wasp that has developed a particularly interesting nesting behavior — they grow their young in individual mounds and tunnel systems that they create out of mud.

Mud dauber wasp venom is meant to capture and paralyze spiders and is not intended for defense like with other wasps and bees. Therefore, it is not typically dangerous to people.

Mud dauber wasp nests are seen Sunday, May 12, 2024, alongside the frame of a Pennsylvania frogs poster at Bear Swamp Park in Upper Mount Bethel Township.

The adult form of the dauber – sometimes called a blue mud-wasp – does not feed on spiders or other insects. It feeds on pollen and nectar, so it is most often seen feeding on flowers.

They were obviously made of mud, which goes along with the name of their architect and builder, the mud-dauber wasp. 3 months/99¢ a month SUBSCRIBE NOW Show Search. Clear Search Query Submit Search.

Mud Dauber, Thread-waisted Wasp National Museum of Natural History. Click to open image viewer. CC0 Usage Conditions Apply Click for more information. Click to view download files. Click to view IIIF ...

The Asian mud dauber, which I first found in my landscape in 2016, is native to Asia, ... It is a hunting wasp, not at all like familiar social wasps we know — yellowjackets, ...

The Asian mud dauber’s arrival to Colorado shouldn’t be a big deal, they are not displacing other common mud daubers and there are plenty of spiders to go around in landscapes.