I had major damage to my motor last year due to a mud dauber nest on the timing chain. It jumped a couple of gears when I started the motor and bent every valve, $2000 worth of damage. Start your motor every week and don't let ti sit up for a month like I did. Insurance won't cover darn insect damage either.

Great tip, thanks!

That's stinks. Good advice, thanks for sharing

I thought it might have been a fluke until yesterday when I went to start the motor off in the driveway (with the hose attached) due to heart surgery and no fishing this month and a flippen mud dauber had built a nest on a wiring harness.

I'm not sure how to rid them am looking for suggestions? /

A buddy of mine had to have the motor rebuild on his Ranger because mud daubers build in the intake and he sucked one through his motor. A motor cover is and absolute must to keep them out.

We keep fan on our motor in boat slip or garage. also, we have used the tags they put in cows ears as well. that works.Our neighbor uses moth balls. We also sprayed our pontoon boat all over and inside compartments and up under dash with Home Defense. no bugs or mud dobbers. I think home defense if best stuff on market. I sprayed boat trailer with it as well so ants don't decide to find a new home if boat happened to be parked in driveway.Regardless, we always pull cowling and take a look to be sure no dobbers. Good luck

Had this problem too and was constantly cleaning mud nests out of the cowling. Got a fitted cover from a Yamaha dealer, the kind with the buckle strap at the bottom, and have not had a problem since.

You got off lucky. My nephew laid out $6800 on a rebuild due to dirt dubbers. The moth balls and cow ear tags work. Also, get a motor cover that has netting in the vents. The dubbers have been more of a problem this year it seems.

them little so somthing outher are bad little bigs my repair was 500.00 i have found that poison that goes by demon or cythiem 40 will take the little devils out. example i sprayed down the entire boat 20ft skeeter. about 3mos later got crickets at star mart on 515 put under passagner consul. befor i gotto rainswood all them crikets were dead as arock.

try spraying WD-40 all around motor,dirt dubbers and hornets cant stand WD-40.it works!!

I wondered why this dirt dauber kept buzzing me every day while sitting on the back porch two weeks ago. Found out why when I looked behind seat cushion and found it's nest. Got a stick and knocked it's nest off and was amazed to find all these spiders amongst the busted mud. There seemed to be two or more different types of spiders, different sizes, and all seemed to be slightly tranqulized. Curious as to if spiders live in these nests and hatch out or if this was stored grub for little daubers.

Thanks lunch for the babies when they hatch out! I get them in the boat when they bust out in the rafters of my shop. Little dead spiders everywhere!

I read that the favorite food of mud daubers is the black widow spider. I've been covering my small engines with blue plastic tarps and leaving the daubers alone.

I had them in my XP-150. Got in the intake of the carbs. I made plates with dryer sheets on the back and put them over the air intakes on the cover. Works great.

I had them get in my intake on my last boat and it caused major damage. Someone told me to put a few moth balls in panty hose and put them in the lower cowling. Don't know if it works, but might be worth a shot...