Mud wasp takes down aeroplane.

For Ewan.

Are you a Birdo??? Someone asked me. A What….? It was explained to me that a Birdo is someone who loves bird watching. I must admit I have been taking a lot of photographs of birds lately and here in Shark Bay there are some interesting new varieties I have never seen before. I have been attempting to recognise their call and will always stop and watch what they are doing. It is not just birds that I have become interested in since taking off on our semi-grey adventure. For something different I would like to tell a story about an insect that has been flying around the Peron homestead.




Any excuse to display photo's of a bird

 If a Birdo is a birdwatcher does that make me a Buggo???


The following is a report written in the Wikipedia and has been well covered in the media:




A large nest at Monkey Mia

“On February 6, 1996, Birgenair Flight 301, a 757 jet flying from Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. All 13 crew members and 176 passengers were killed. A key part of the accident was a blocked pitot tube, a component which measures outside air pressure through small tubes on the outside of the aircraft and displays this as the plane's speed. Although the tubes were never recovered from the ocean floor, it was discovered that the plane had been sitting on the tarmac for almost 3 weeks with the pitot tubes not covered as they should have been. Investigators believe a black and yellow mud dauber got into the tube and built its cylindrical nest inside, causing faulty air speed readings which were a large part of the crash”

We have been seeing these large Australian hornet like creatures hovering around the place at the Peron homestead. One day temperatures reached 37 degrees and I sat in the caravan blogging away without t-shirt on to feel the cool air through the caravan door. A 30mm orange and black wasp floated through the door and hung in front of my chest. With some restraint I did not start flapping my arms in the air in a panic like the majority of homo sapiens I have observed would. Suddenly it leaped forward and head butted my nipple - antenna’s first. A bit bewildered I watched it fly towards my armpit as if it was looking for moisture and there was plenty of that on a hot, sweaty day. As if to say “you smell” it thought the better of sucking on a stale armpit hair or two and flew away out of the door.

From that moment on I have been following these insecta around the homestead and found out lots about them. Any bug that can crash an airplane is worth investigating.



Australian hornets taking water from a tap at the homestead to build a nest.

A black and yellow dauber is more commonly known as a mud wasp. The mud wasps around the homestead appear to be from the same family as the dauber and look very much like potter wasps or Abispa ephippium.  Potter wasp is a very apt name for these wasps due to their industrious abilities with terracotta coloured red clay made of sand and water. They build amazing cylindrical shaped nests that have different compartments created for their offspring. Not only do they build a small space for their eggs but for each section they have hunted and collected one larvae or caterpillar. The caterpillar is injected with some kind of poison to keep it sedate, but fresh and alive. When the egg hatches and the little one feels hungry they can instantly snack on the live caterpillar so carefully placed in the nest by the female wasp. Faster food for kids than at McDonalds.



A larvae injected with poison too drugged to escape

 

What are we looking at here? Imagine being a poor caterpillar minding your own business chewing on some leaves. Suddenly two hairy arms wrap around you and you are ripped from your bush by an orange and black alien creature. Can you feel the enormous stinger probing your soft flesh as you instantaneously are feeling sleepy and paralyzed. You can only watch as this huge hairy armed creature carries you on your last journey and your maiden voyage through the air. A large terracotta vessel appears and the creature shoves you unceremoniously into this perfectly shaped round hole. Then nothing happens for what seems like eternity. Just you, in a cell, with this round foreign shape as time tics by. Did you see it move? What is that? It is cracking open. In a drug infused haze you can see a dark shape approaching. “No. This isn’t really happening.

 

Aaaarggg!!”



 

I guess that a lot of movies like the Matrix and Alien may well have taken their concepts from the animal world.

Have a great and productive new year!

 

 

Grey bits.

• Thanks to the rangers that have given me snippets to write this story.
• These websites were helpful and interesting if you would like to read more.http://www.ozanimals.com/Insect/Potter-Wasp or http://www.hindawi.com/journals/psyche/2009/851694/
• Potter wasps are non-aggressive but will sting only when cornered or agitated. Flapping ones arms or trying to hit a beautiful creature like that is just not advisable.
• Female wasps have killed other females and taken over their nests.
• Male potter wasps have nothing to do with building nests but try to mate with several females even when they are busy building their nest. Sexual advances are made by the male whenever the opportunity arrives and will only occur when the female allows it to happen.