Darn mud dobbers

Ed Stratton

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15
I have a metal buiilding that I use for finishing, since my shop is too dirty to get good results. I haven't done much wood working for the last 3 or 4 years, but got back into it, and decided I should build me a spray booth in there. My spray guns had been hanging on the wall for all that time, and when I completed the spray booth, decided to clean them up and see if I could still spray successfully. Every gun was plugged by mud dobbers. I've spent two full days cleaning, and I think I was successful on all but one. I think I'll have to build a cabinet to enclose the guns, cause you can't keep the little buggers out. I wander if they would be able to get in through the holes in peg board if I used it for a back?

Anybody got any ideas about how to keep them out?
 
Ed, I suspect a mud dauber would see a piece of pegboard as a giant row of apartment doors. I'm pretty sure they can get through the holes.

Hopefully someone with more experience in them than me will chime in with ideas on how to keep them away.
 
Ed, I suspect a mud dauber would see a piece of pegboard as a giant row of apartment doors. I'm pretty sure they can get through the holes.

Hopefully someone with more experience in them than me will chime in with ideas on how to keep them away.

I do not know how to keep them away but I do know that Vaughn is correct in his assessment that pegboard acts like an apartment house. In my previous home I had a 3 sided garage without a door. I had pegboard along one wall to hang yard tools on. I happened to look behind it and there were hundreds of dirt dauber nests. I am not sure if there was one for every hole that did not have a peg hook in it but there were tons of the darn things. I beat on the exterior with my hand and knocked off several dust pans full of the darn things.

I have been told that they serve a good purpose in that they prey upon black widow spiders.
 
mud dobber apartments

I think you're probably right about the peg board.I used 2 full sheets, 1 on each side for the outside of the spray booth, thought about just building a box w/doors, and hang the guns on the peg board, but don't suppose that will keep them out. This is a cheapo metal building with horizontal ribbed metal on the o/s. plenty of room for them to get in each rib. Impossible to screen.

It's hard to believe just how much damage the saliva or whatever from these bugs does to metal. I have one professional DeVilbiss gun that I don't think will ever work again.

Mybe I'll build a cabinet with a solid back, and a false back made of peg board. That would allow me to still hang the guns on hooks.

Still looking for ideas.
 
We have them all over also. We keep cans of Raid handy. There must be dozen cans around or porch and garage. Fortunately, they are not aggressive. Wasps and yellow jackets, on the other hand.......:eek:
 
Lord I hate those things....as a matter of fact, we pressure washed the house last weekend just to get rid of them.....Thank God they did not plug up my pressure gun!:D
 
Where do you sand?

I usually do all my sanding and staining in the wood shop prior to moving the item to be finished to the outbuilding holding my spray booth.

I keep reading about using a WB sanding sealer, then scuffing it smooth prior to applying WB Poly. I'm in a quandry as to where this sanding should take place. I'd rather not introduce any more fine dust into the spray booth building, but I'm sure I would cause more damage moving the items back to the shop, sanding them and moving them back than it would be worth.

How do you guys do it?
 
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