Each month, we get to know one of the state’s many wonderful and quirky critters. Latin name: SceliphroncaementariumSize: Up to one inch longHabitat: Statewide (including my deck) At first I wanted to kill it. The mud dauber set up shop this spring on the frame of the door leading to my deck, coming and going through a rip in the screen. Its nest—a fist-size, patchwork clump of mud—grew daily, and every time I stepped outside, I had to do some evasive moves to avoid the wasp. I worried it was merely a sentry and more (a colony, perhaps) would soon join it. But as time went by without further arrivals and without a sting, the wasp became my wasp. I came to see it as a gentle…
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