When control is necessary, sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of carbaryl dust into the burrow and tamp the en-trance shut with your foot. These wasps build small, tube-like nests of mud under eaves, in attics and under the roofs of storage buildings. As they develop in the mud tubes, the young larvae are generally fed spiders, including the poisonous brown recluse. They have longer, more slender waists than most other wasps. If necessary, mud daubers can be controlled by soaking the nest and its immediate vicinity with a carbaryl, propoxur or diazinon spray.
Aerosols containing synergized pyrethrins, resmethrin, permethrin or propoxur also are available.
Or, mud dauber nests can be simply removed by hand with a putty knife, as the attending female will not defend her nest. Even when insecticides are used, it is a good idea to scrape the nest away and dispose of it to prevent other insects from being attracted to it. The proper management of garbage denies scavenging yellowjacket workers a ready source of food for developing larvae. Therefore, yellow-jacket populations can be reduced by removing garbage frequently and keeping tight lids on all trash receptacles. Poison bait formulations have been developed to control scavenging yellowjackets, but these are neither commercially available nor known to be effective against Texas species.