Warning: We've got the willies tonight!

We've become fairly de-sensitized to the insect world while living on this part of the planet. We've given up on killing the spiders before we get in the shower with them. We share the kitchen with a variety of different arthopods. Even the Bunns have succumbed to letting the ants share their food bowl without stomping at them. Madi's ankle was overrun by red ants while we were outside with the bunns tonight. We brushed them off, went inside for some benadryl then simply moved to the front yard.

As we were coming in through the garage, I noticed the largest mud dauber nest I've seen in a very long time - and it was pretty fresh!

These red mud nests are found on every possible surface in Guam. Windows, the car muffler, bikes, chairs, shoes, doors, etc. Usually, we just hose it off or bump it loose and watch the little green caterpillars that are typically inside try and escape. Until tonight - what we found inside was heeby geeby gross! It was like an insect hater's nightmare all globbed up in red mud!

Female black and yellow mud daubers paralyze spiders, pack them into the red mud nest using their head until the nest is full, lay one egg and seal the cell.

The larvae are pale yellowish about 3/4 inch long. Pupation occurs within a cocoon inside the cell (one looked like it was wrapped in wax paper). Other female mud daubers take over a mud nest, open a cell by moistening the clay with water and emptying it of spiders and the other wasp egg. They then deposit their own paralyzed spiders, lay their own egg and seal over the cell with more mud.

We just could not believe how much was packed into all the cells! And I'm not positive the spiders were all dead. The gross mess was scattered across the lower 1/3 of the garage - I'm limiting the photos so you don't get too creepy crawly yourselves!