How about the wasps I see flying into my grass?

Mud daubers are harmless to humans and do not sting.  They come in all black (really it’s metallic blue) or black and yellow.  The black and yellow ones look a lot like the Yellow Jacket wasps that do sting but in Texas, they are more than likely harmless mud daubers.

They are also called mud wasps or dirt daubers.  They like to fly into your grass to get at soft soil and roll it up in their mandibles for their nests.  You’ll see them popping in and out of your bermudagrass and fly off toward your house after a while.  They are rolling up the bud and taking it back to the nest.  They will not harm your bermudagrass.

Their nests are only formed in the corners of man-made structures.  They do not create nests on natural structures like trees.  So you will see their nests like this all over the eaves of your house or near doorways.  They will sting spiders and paralyze them, then stick them in these nests for the mud dauber larvae.  Depending on the type of mud dauber, you will see pipe organ style nests or urn type nests.  You can just knock these down with a broom and the wasps won’t attack you.

The other type of common wasp in Texas is the Paper Wasp that does sting humans.  They are extremely aggressive. territorial, and their stings will hurt for days.  There are different varieties of these too but the most common Paper Waps in Texas are the red wasp type which is reddish in color.

The black and yellow Paper Wasps look very similar to Yellow Jackets as well:

They are called Paper Wasps because they like to create these honeycombs structures on your house that feel like paper.  If you try and knock these down the Paper Wasps will attack and each will attempt sting you multiple times so be careful.

The best solution to get rid of all types of wasps is to hang the RESCUE! TrapStik for Wasps, Mud Daubers, Carpenter Bees in the eves of your backyard patio or front yard porch where you see nests happen a lot. Do not attach the plastic bird guard sticks that come with them. They are meant to not trap small birds like hummingbirds but they work better without them attached to trap wasps. There is no chemical or pesticide with these, they are essentially bright colored sticky paper and the wasps are attracted to the color pattern. The wasps get stuck to them and will die in a few hours. They are completely weather resistant and the sticky substance they use never wears off and remains super sticky so try not to touch it as you put up the traps. Try and position to where they are under your eaves where the nests happen which is usually a dry area. You will never see any wasp nests on your home after you have correctly placed one of these. Once the trap is fully covered with dead wasps and no more sticky surface is available, simply discard it and hang a new one. These things are dirt cheap and save you so much time versus trying to knock down mud nests and pressure wash mud residue stains off the side of your house.

On my front porch, I did not want to drill a hole for a hook so I used 3M Command Ceiling Hooks to hang the Trapstik since it’s so lightweight. These are similar to 3M Command strip hooks you use for walls in your home but the stick foam is designed for horizontal tension instead of vertical shearing tension. So these will hold lightweight items just fine from your ceiling and can be removed just like the indoor vertical hooks ones with no damage to your surface. They say they are for indoors but because you are hanging the Trapstiks in eaves that won’t be exposed to rainwater, these will last just fine. I have had them hanging my Trapstik traps for years in 100+ degree Texas heat and they have never once dropped off the ceiling.