As for what to do about them, they’re probably only going to hatch out for a few days. If your plants are small enough, could you put a cloth bag over them? Maybe get some of the “tulle” mesh material that fabric stores have for making veils and the like, and just tape the edges to make bags to put over the plants. This will let the light and air in for the plants, but will catch any insects that come off of them. Then, when you see wasps in one of the bags, you can just take the whole bag off of the plant and set the wasps outside to freeze, and you won’t have to touch or spray them at all.

And if you have a wasp that gets loose in the house, I’d recommend using a pair of long scissors on them. They tend to go to windows, so just come up on them slowly with the scissors, and snip them in half. This works a lot better than swatting them with something, because if you miss the snip they don’t get very alarmed and you can just try again, but if you miss with a swat they are likely to get mad and come after you. I’ve gotten rid of troublesome wasps with scissors many times, and it has always worked great and I’ve never been stung while doing it.

Thanks!!

Since they mainly re-use nests build by other mud dauber species, it might be tricky getting them established in a particular spot. Although, it might be possible to make your own ball of mud, poke cylindrical holes in it about two inches long with a pencil, and stick it in a warm, protected spot. I have no idea whether or not it will attract them, but it’s worth a try.

By which I mean, I should try it. Here, I’ll just put it on my calendar for, hm, how about the middle of May . . .

You can even do it without insecticide (although the protective clothes are really recommended if you do it this way). A number of times, I have just taken a spatula and a wide-mouthed mason jar, carefully put the mason jar over the nest, and then slid the spatula between the mouth of the jar and the ceiling until it cut off the nest and dropped it in the jar. Then I carefully brought down the jar (keeping the spatula over the mouth to keep wasps from getting out), and quickly put the lid on it. Then I could just pop it in the freezer overnight to kill all the wasps and larvae, and that was that!

The black and yellow ones on your back porch, though, could be a different story. If there are a lot of the black and yellow ones coming and going from a hole in your porch, then you probably have a nest of yellowjackets or European paper wasps, and they are likely to sting without a lot of provocation. Whether you can clear them out yourself or not depends on how willing you are to take a chance on getting stung.

Any of the standard “Wasp and Hornet Killer” sprays will probably work fine. What you can do to keep the stings to a minimum, is get one of those anti-mosquito headnets from your local sporting goods store (or, if you can find one, the full “Bug Baffler” mesh shirt). If you wear that, along with a heavy shirt (or coveralls) and a pair of gloves, you probably won’t get stung at all if you are careful. And it will protect your head and face, which is the worst place to get stung.

Once you are properly dressed, wait until evening when all the wasps will be home. Make sure that nobody else is within about 50 feet of the nest, and that you have a clear path to retreat. Locate the exact opening that the wasps are coming out of, and give them a short shot of the insecticide spray. Then move well away. Within a few seconds, dying wasps will probably come boiling out of the nest. Wait until the activity stops, then come back in and give them another, longer shot. Repeat until the wasps stop coming out. Be sure to sweep up the bodies. Even after they are dead, wasps can still sting if someone steps on them with bare feet.

You’ll probably have to repeat this procedure about a week later, because there will be a lot of wasp pupae that are so well-sealed into the nest that they won’t be killed by the spray. Once these mature into wasps, and you kill them, that should be about it for the wasps.

We also contacted our physician and have an epi-pen (self-administered auto-injector of epinepherine) in the case of anaphylaxis. These generally need to be replaced on a yearly basis so check the expiration date. It may be overkill, but I don’t want to find out that one of us has a severe allergy and be empty handed.

There is a small danger of anaphylactic shock from any insect sting, but that generally comes on pretty fast, so if you are still reading this and aren’t having trouble breathing, you should be OK. Light-headedness by itself could just be due to changes in your breathing as a response to the sting pain. If you actually had problems with passing out, difficulty breathing, or the other symptoms listed on this Wikipedia page, you should see a doctor to be tested whether you are in the tiny minority of the population who is in danger of life-threatening anaphylactic reactions.

That should be about it. There may be specifically paralytic toxins in the venom, but they probably aren’t going to have that effect on you. Unless you are a spider.