Category Archives: Flotsam / Jetsam

Flotsam / Jetsam

Choose your own adventure

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You’ve just finished dinner with your family and some friends, and you’re planning to go to the movies. Your mother has agreed to drive home with your daughter and put her to bed. As you’re getting ready to head for the theater, your 6-months-pregnant wife tells you that she isn’t feeling well. You say:

(a) Oh dear! Let’s get you home to rest. We can go to the movies tomorrow! (Turn to Page 15 in the “Good Answer” handbook.)

(b) OK. You go home with Mom. Let’s go, Dad! (Turn to the living room and enjoy your night on the sofa, Buster.)

Note: You do not get “Good Answer” credit if your dad answers (a) and you say (b).

Flotsam / Jetsam

Name that nemesis

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My winged nemesis returned yesterday afternoon and proceeded to traumatize Sophie. Keep in mind, Sophie’s roughly 4 feet tall, and the bug was buzzing about about a foot away from the apex of our 16-foot ceilings. She was convinced it was going to dive bomb her, though, and she had two solutions to the dilemma:

  • Solution One: Go outside, where the bugs apparently don’t have nefarious intent.
  • Solution Two: Throw Marsha at the bug. I doubt that my cat-throwing skills would prove accurate enough to allow her to grab a one-inch insect from midair. Also, I don’t think I could propel her 15 feet into the air. It might be fun to try, though.

    Anyway, one of the insects made the mistake of landing today, and Marsha quickly pounced on it and rendered it immobile. Before I disposed of the body, I rallied up all of my courage and opened the bundle of bug-carrying tissues to snap a picture.

    Can anyone tell me what this thing is? And most importantly, does it mean me harm?

    … update! …

    I posted the beasty photo in the Field Guide to Insects and Spiders group on Flickr to see if I could find someone who knew what it was. According to Flickrite Frasspile:

    That is a mud dauber wasp and it looks like the Black and Yellow Mud Dauber, Sceliphron caementarium. Look around the outside of your house/apartment building for mud tube-like nests often under the eaves of roofs. They wont aggressively sting people, but if you stepped on them, sat on one, or something like that you likely could get stung. They are good to have around though, as they hunt spiders to provision their nests.

    If they’re getting rid of spiders, I have little complaint with them. Thanks, Frasspile, for the info!