Mud Daubers In Your Vents?
A friend of ours was having a fluky sort of problem: His RV furnace wasn't quite up to par; didn't want to light, made some odd noises--the last of the odd noises more like a cannon shot. Kaboom! After ascertaining that various muscles in his body hadn't failed him at a critical and embarrassing time, he hustled out doors from whence the noise had come. Sure enough, on the ground around his furnace vent, the tell-tale remains of a mud-dauber nest. The poor creature had built her nest and lain precious eggs in Joe's furnace vent, only to be swiftly evicted.First, a word about mud daubers: These solitary wasps gather mud, roll it into balls, and form small dirt nests. Into these small but cleverly constructed cells, a stung (and thoroughly stunned) insect is placed, along with a solitary egg. Mama mud dauber flies away, secure in her buggy knowledge that "junior" will have something to eat when hatched.
While this tear-jerking story from nature may cause some to reach for the tissues, the rest of us swear and curse the day that Mama found our RV. The common reaction--head off to RV MegaPart and pick up a set of "mud dauber screens, an essential companion to your RV furnace." Hold onto your bee-veils, fellow wasp warriors--"essential" ain't necessarily so.
RV furnaces and water heaters, like us, are air breathers. And like us, stick a little something extra over our nose (or vent) and you get what? A bit of an obstruction that can cause problems, particularly for RV appliances. Systems can operate in strange ways when not enough precious pneuma is available, and some RV technicians warn that obstructed windage can actually lead to premature appliance death. If you've priced out furnaces lately, you'll want yours to last a long time. Sticking on one of those so-called "essential" screens can actually cause more harm than good.
What's to do? When not using the rig, TAPE over the vent, and post a note over the furnace thermostat or water heater switch warning the user to remove the tape before firing up the appliance. When in use, make checking out appliance vents a regular part of your "walk around" routine. Worried about getting stung? If you spot a wasp nest, take a stick and remove it at night. We don't recommend shooting the nest with wasp killer--can you imagine what might happen if your wasp spray turned out to be flammable and your furnace "lit off" when you sallied forth with your can of "Bug Off!" Ah, the picture it presents.
Labels: insects, mud daubers, pests, wasps
posted by Russ and Tiña De Maris at
3:26 PM
7 Comments:
We were warned about screens covering the hot water heater. Our question is, do screens on the exterior refrigerator cover affect the operation of the refrigerator? At 100* in NM, our refrigerator is having a real hard time. Those mud dubbers sure do love propane.
By
Anonymous, at 7:33 PM
We had wasps that built their nest inside the combustion chamber of the Duo Therm furnace on our older Pace Arrow. It took 3 hours of work bench time (plus the R & R time for the furnace) to dig out all that nest.
On the advice of the RV mechanic, we installed coarse stainless steel screens under the round intake and exhaust vents of the furnace.
On a cold (0 F) moist day, we had the furnace fired up in preparation for leaving on a trip the next day. After a few hours, I went into the motorhome and got a bad headache within a minute. I checked the furnace flame, which was burning very low and fitfully - then checked the outside furnace vents. The intake vent (adjacent to, and downwind of, the exhaust vent, was almost completely blocked with frost as moist warm air had condensed and frozen to the cold screen.
We didn't have a CO detector in that RV so I moved one of our house CO detectors out into the RV for a test. The CO detector screamed immediately - and was contaminated so badly by the high CO reading that it could never reset itself in fresh air and had to be scrapped and replaced.
We removed those screens and installed a CO detector in the RV.
Our next motorhome has a Suburban furnace and we have installed a CO detector in it. We have a mud dauber screen over the furance vents but it is about 1" out from the vents and has about 5 times the surface area of the actual vents, so we have not had any repeat of the frost buildup problem.
By
Anonymous, at 2:53 PM
Anything that blocks the flow of air--including screen--will affect the ability of a refrigerator to properly cool. We've never known of anyone who had any problems with bugs in the refir unit, but guess it is possible. We're sweltering out 110-115 Arizona heat now, and our RV refrigerator is about useless. We stick a block of ice in a pan in it and at least the freezer portion keeps going. On the other hand, another of our RV's refrigerators is doing just great. For refir cooling tips. check out our May 14 posting on this blog.
By
Russ and Tiña De Maris, at 4:57 PM
So you have never heard of anyone having problems with wasps getting into the refrigerator area thru the outside side vents? Dang. I once again must be just plain old lucky or extra ordinarily unusual! My ten year old Dometic bit the dust last year. When we pulled it out to replace it, removing it was an incredible chore because the layer of rock solid mud daubber nests that were adhered to nearly every available inch of the enclosed sides. I had no idea that there were even any nests in there. And as for doing a daily walk around to check for them, how on earth do you check way up inside and above the refrigerator to see if any have slipped in and started a nest? So many of them had also made nests on the squirrel cage fans of my furnace by going thru the outsided vented area of it that it threw the fan out of balance and ended up ruining the bearings. Again, I had no idea they were even in there! And we are talking about WAY inside, not just hanging in easy view. Yep. Those mud daubbers sure do love propane apparently.
By
Auntie Em, at 6:44 PM
We just bought a place in the High Sierra's. A room was built onto an old trailer where the furnace exhaust vent is. I would like to use a 90 and vent the exhaust under the floor of the room and trailer. I am concern about CO getting back into the living area. Any suggestions? willie of lincoln
By
willie of lincoln, at 2:04 PM
Willie of Lincoln:
Wow! Be careful with that one. You didn't mention whether or not this was an RV trailer. Changing the venting on any carbon monoxide producing appliance is a major safety issue. We're not in a position to give you advice on the job, other than to suggest you talk to a professional furnace outfit. It might be handy, but it ain't worth being dead over.
RD
By
Russ and Tiña De Maris, at 9:07 PM
I have a fifth wheel rv and I just servest my furnace I found a hole in the coil inner part of the furnace this was producing carbon dioxide to build up in the rv thru the vents. The co detector was sounding off a lot. This is what led me to service the furnace. Any way to get to my point. What caused the hole in the coil, (mud dober nest). when the flame would travel thru the coil it would hit this nest and direct the flame upward burning a hole in the coil inner part of the furnace. I was able to weld a patch on mine. Doing it all my self and cleaning out about 5 or 6 nest saved me hundreds. Mind you this was just in one year. So word to you cover that exost vent with tape then put a piece on the ternastate that says (please pull tape off exost outside furnanse before operating) this should do it. If not let me know this could mean your life. demanready@yahoo.com
By
rv man, at 11:13 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home