Reel Wasps

[jzumi]

Since it's raining, I decided to get going on the yearly reel service.  The first reel up was my Squall 12.  I found what appears to be an old mud wasp nest in the handle knob.  I suspect they did this while the reel was hanging in the garage last summer because I also found a large nest in my roller blade skates that were hanging nearby.

I'm told that most of these wasps are good because they eat spiders.

John

[handi2]

Darn bugs..!!

[xjchad]

Sure wouldn't be fun to have it crawl out into the palm of your hand while fighting a fish!

[Shark Hunter]

We call them Mud Dobber's around here.
They are not near as lethal as a regular wasp, jellowjacket, bumblebee or hornet.
I hate bees, but have learned to live with them.
Honeybess are only in the yard after the clover and I just try not to step on them.
They are on a different mission and endangered. I let them be.
We have an understanding. The wasp and I.
I let them live around my deck and they don't sting me.
I killed them all for a long time, but I realized they are going to come, no matter what.
This is strictly the wasp only. They are plentiful in Kentucky.
Their sting is painful, but I have to say, I haven't been stung since our truce, and that has been many years now.

[Lunker Larry]

every year I get a reel from this guy who stores his gear in his shed. Last year mice ate the handles off one of the reels. Just finished a reel he brought in, a Shimano baitcaster and says the thumb bar won't push down (among other things). Found it full of mud. A mud dobber had filled the slide space in the thumb bar plugging it solid. Mud and bug spittle..hard as a rock.

[oc1]

Mud daubers are pretty cool and don't often sting people.  The wasp lays eggs in the mud nest and inserts a prey insect it has stung and put into suspended animation.  When the young wasp hatches, it eats the prey that the parent provided before finally emerging from the nest and flying away. 
-steve