The International Cessna^® 170 Association

In the "headliner" thread I provide one method of dealing with pests.... in the case of mice, ...provide a diversion,..namely a peanut-butter treat on a mouse-trap.

As for Mud Daubers, I've been using a diversion for several years now, ... namely Ol'Gar's Cessna 150, N6130T, a Cessna C-150 "D" model ..which stands for "Dauber Decoy". I park it right next to N146YS to lure them away. We removed dozens of their mud nests during the 150's annual inspection recently.

Mud Daubers are WASPS....right?
I'm trying one of these, beginning today and will post results. (Home Depot, $14)



http://www.whyistheanswer.com/?

Daubers were thought to be a contributing factor in the fatal crash of a B-757.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgenair_Flight_301

Mud Daubers are in the same family as wasps; Sphecidae. Not sure which mud dauber is indigenous to TX, but here in the Mid-Atlantic, we have the genus Trypoxylon, or "Organ Pipe" mud daubers. Can find the galleries (nests) just about anywhere, in anything tubular or on the underside of barns, eaves, struts, porch roofs, ailerons, etc.

The only abatement of which I'm familiar is a barricade or to scrape them off when seen. I'm no expert, I just haven't tried anything else. Would be interested to know the results of the "Rescue" trap..

We have all three types, Black and Yellow, Black (Organ Pipe), Blue in approximately that order. They are all beneficial insects actually, as they primarily eat black-widow spiders. Unfortunately they build those mud nests inside airplanes where the mud can interfere with control-cabling, flight control balance, and attract/hold moisture which leads to corrosion. They are not aggressive, rarely sting, (usually only if held and squeezed and their sting is not particularly painful or dangerous.)
My greatest irritation is when I find their nests inside the airframe. I diligently remove several nests every year, primarily in the wings and flap-contol area.

I spray around the edges of the floor of my hangar in Texas about once a month with "Home Defense" bug spray bought in gallon jugs with a spray nozzle at Wally World or Home Depot. I have never seen a mud dauber nest in the hangar. I usually get crickets, black beetles, and lots of black widow spiders if I don't spray but if I do spray, nothing comes in.

gahorn wrote: As for Mud Daubers, I've been using a diversion for several years now, ... namely Ol'Gar's Cessna 150, N6130T, a Cessna C-150 "D" model ..which stands for "Dauber Decoy". I park it right next to N146YS to lure them away. We removed dozens of their mud nests during the 150's annual inspection recently.

I wish we had weighed and photographed that pile of nests we removed from pore little 30T's innards. No doubt it would have come to 10# or more. Dirty lil creatures. My question has always been " What did these things do before mankind started providing special holes, shady places and kindly environment for them? ".

I found a mud dauber nest inside the carb heat box. It was located on the back side of the flapper valve. The nest could easily have been ingest in the engine with carb heat application. The wasp has easy access to this location by going up the bottom 2" dia. vent. It's a difficult location to preflight. A couple of thoughts: 1.) My plane has been inactive for years. Do you think mud daubers would build a nest there in a plane that is being flown regularly? Might the smell of fuel in there encourage to build a nest elsewhere? 2.) To keep them out of the airbox might a cap plug with an attached streamer be appropriate for the vent hole? How about a screen brazed into the vent hole?

That hole in the bottom of the airbox normally provides an exit for the continuously-produced hot air for carb heat. A screen there would be a good Idea, I think. I don't believe it would be necessary t o braze it.... a simple hose-clamp would probably hold it on the flange of the hole.

By the way... it doesn't take long for a mud dauber's nest to be built in that location to cause trouble. I personally saw the C-172 (Brenham, TX a couple years ago) that came fresh out of an annual inspection in which a new airbox was installed. Two days in the hangar, and it went out on an instructional flight and crashed on takeoff. FAA investigated (thinkin the IA had failed to properly inspect) but found a new airbox had actually been part of the repair. The dauber nest shook loose and went right up the intakes and shut down one side of the induction system, robbing power so that the airplane landed straight ahead off the departure end.

Years ago I was a CFI and student at Louisiana Tech. Another CFI/student was the son of one of the Cole brothers of aerobatics fame. It wasn't his rolling Barons that lead to an accident while there. Rather it was a mud dauber building a nest in the fuel vent of a C-152. A student of Cole missed seeing it on the preflight. It was shortly after takeoff when the engine quit due to fuel starvation. Cole and his student managed to walk away from the accident but the C-152 was totaled.

So, based on this story as well as George's, it seems that mud daubers don't have much of a sense of smell. Or else they like the smell of avgas.

I'm also reminded of the time I was landing out here on the ranch at night. It's a dark-hole at night, and I used to always buzz the runway to clear out the deer before pulling up, doing a 180 and landing opposite-direction. I'd use the loss of airspeed in the pull-up to throw out the gear and flaps...by the time I'd rolled onto final in the opposite direction I'd be at final speed for the touchdown.

On one flight I failed to take much notice that my left fuel gauge had remained at a full reading while the right tank had dropped about 1/8 or so. I might have dismissed it as the inaccuracies that are normal in many aircraft fuel gauges....I don't know. (But I paid attention after this event.)

On the steep pull-up, hard right-bank for the "dipsey-doodle" 180/turn.... the left engine shut down. It really got my attention out here in the dark-hole, only 300 feet or so above the trees/hills of central TX and no outside ref's in what was now an unusual-attitude!

I hit the left boost pump and it caught immediately. I switched tanks and landed on the Aux ...not a normal configuration for a Baron.

Yep, it was a dauber nest in the left main's vents. The lack of vent caused the bladder to collapse which kept the fuel-gauge float at the top of the tank, indicating full. (I invented a short piece of clear pvc hose to slip over each vent-tube for future storage. The pvc hose had a bit of screen within it to prevent wasps from climbing up into the vents. I had surveyor's flag-tape tied to the pvc tubing to remind me to remove it during preflight, but even if forgotten it would still allow venting, of course. Looked goofy to the unknowlegeable, but it became a regularly-seen/plagiarized idea on Barons/Bonanzas in this area.)

a mud dauber building a nest in the fuel vent

On at least one 170's fuel vent, I've seen a rubber-ish cap with a hole in it. In the fuel vent, behind the cap was, for lack of the proper term, a small, white marble. Farther back the vent was a cotter pin through the vent. When tied down, the ball was forward, filling the hole in the rubberish cap. I assume it rolled back against the cotter pin when in flight, due to ram air pressure.

pojawis wrote:

a mud dauber building a nest in the fuel vent

On at least one 170's fuel vent, I've seen a rubber-ish cap with a hole in it. In the fuel vent, behind the cap was, for lack of the proper term, a small, white marble. Farther back the vent was a cotter pin through the vent. When tied down, the ball was forward, filling the hole in the rubberish cap. I assume it rolled back against the cotter pin when in flight, due to ram air pressure.

(I've written about this several times, and this proves that the common-comment that all our discussions should be better categorized and archived is NOT necessarily a good idea, otherwise the missed conversations would likely not be found by future visitors.)

The small rubber cap, cotter pin, and check-ball was an earlier Cessna modification in a MIS-directed effort to provide additional venting when blockage due to ice/insects occurs. Cessna subsequently CANCELLED (RECALLED, for lack of a better term) that mod, and the cap, ball, cotter, were to be REMOVED and the small hole on the aft side of the gooseneck is to be FILLED and closed.

Subsequently, additional fuel venting was provided by the AD/SB which requires at least one vented cap.

In a followup to the "Why" wasp-trap purchased at Home Depot: It was a complete failure. In three months time it caught only one bug...a SPIDER.
I returned it for refund. (The trap. In accordance with the nursery-rhyme.... I "washed the spider out.")

I also religiously use Home Defense in both my own hangar and the Sheriff's Office hangar, and like hilltop170, have good results. I also regularly replenish my Rat baits strategically located around both hangars. So far I have not had one die in the headliner yet.