Keeping insects (particularly mud daubers) out of the plane

[N546RV]

So these &^*($&# mud daubers just love building nest in my fuselage. I pulled the seat floors out this weekend while continuing building and found some really giant nests under there. These things are incredibly industrious, in a very annoying way.

So I'm wondering if anyone has some bright ideas for keeping these things from building homes in my airplane. I worry about applying any sort of insecticide, no telling if it might not play well with aluminum. But surely there's some way to discourage these things, right?

[cderk]

Check out the July 2018 issue of Sport Aviation magazine. There is a good article in there on how to create some simple vent screens. Might not prevent all of them, but I’m sure it will help:

https://www.eaa.org/SpecialUseCompon...c-3918cf1328d2

[donaziza]

Phil, Let me tell you a story I heard about 5 years ago. Seems some RV driver came out to fly, cranked his engine, and 3 minutes later, had $18000 worth of damage. Why? The bug critters had crawled up his exhaust pipe, all the way to the valves, and built nests complete with some hard stuff. WHAT???

So after hearing that story, I now have bright orange pipe cleaners ( $1.59 from Walmart) hanging out of all the small holes in my 8. Static ports, fuel drains. I put 3 nerf balls in the exhaust pipes and snorkel air intake. About a month ago, I went with my daughter in law to go flying. What do I find?? A bird's nest built in the left air intake. AND MY AIRPLANE IS IN A HANGAR. So now, I've got those blocked too. People kinda snicker when they see my plane with all the Christmas ornaments hanging out, but hey----------------------

[chrispratt]

Amen to what Phil said.

At a minimum use covers for the pitot tube, cowling inlets (such as Bruce's Custom Covers provides), fuel vents. Exhaust and static ports not a bad idea either. The southern states, at least, have a real issue with these mud dauber guys.

I was literally standing in front of my RV-8 one day when a strong wind came into the hangar, blew off one of the fuel vent covers and immediately some sort of wasp flew up the vent opening. Took me an hour to disassemble everything and get him out. Glad I saw it or it could have created a serious and expensive issue. The mud daubers seem to prefer small, narrow openings as opposed to birds that prefer engine cowlings openings.

Wings? I don't know what will help there.

Chris

[N546RV]

All the ideas about covering various entry points (vents, baffles, etc) seem pretty sound for a completed aircraft, but it doesn't seem feasible to seal off an aircraft under construction - which is my current situation.