It may not be 100% scientifically proven, but based on the evidence that the pods in the door jamb have started to hatch, and this beauty was caught red-handed at the kitchen door trying to make a break for it – do we have our mud-building, spider-torturing beastie?

Organ Pipe Mud Dauber Wasp
(Trypoxylon politum)

She was very obliging for the photograph, docile and quiet – I was quickly able to release her into the great outdoors. Probably heading straight for a quaff of sweet nectar, after weeks of nothing but half-dead spider.

I’ve grown quite fond of this OPMDW – she doesn’t sting, burrow or chew, she keeps the spider population down (not perceptably), she pollinates flowers and is capable of non-destructive, ingenius architecture.

She is therefore welcome to inhabit the Doorway, and co-exist with all the other creatures who call it home.