How a tiny insect architect can bring down a multi-million dollar jet engine

Nature · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Mud daubers are solitary wasps known for their precise, mud-molded nests. While generally non-aggressive toward humans, their habit of building cylindrical homes in sheltered crevices has led to catastrophic aviation failures. By obstructing critical sensors with hardened soil, these small insects have inadvertently caused major commercial airline disasters.

The tribe Sceliphrini, commonly known as mud daubers, are slender wasps measuring about 25 millimeters in length. Female wasps construct intricate nests using mud shaped by their mandibles. Species within the genus Sceliphron build their own structures, with some subgenera creating multi-celled nests encased in a protective outer layer, while others build single-celled homes. In contrast, the blue mud dauber of the genus Chalybion prefers to refurbish abandoned nests left by other species.

These wasps are parasitoids that hunt spiders to provision their young. A female will paralyze a spider with venom, transport it to a cell, and lay a single egg before sealing the chamber with a mud cap. A single cell may contain up to two dozen spiders, which serve as fresh food for the developing larva. While this strategy ensures a food supply, it creates a vulnerability: because offspring are concentrated in one location, predators or kleptoparasitic wasps can easily plunder an entire nest.

The danger to aviation arises because mud daubers frequently return to the same protected sites year after year. If an aircraft sits idle, these wasps may treat pitot tubes—the sensors used to measure airspeed—as ideal nesting spots. In 1996, the crash of Birgenair Flight 301, which resulted in 189 fatalities, was attributed to a blocked pitot tube likely caused by a Sceliphron nest. Similarly, in 1980, a nest in a pitot tube was identified as a potential factor in the crash of Florida Commuter Airlines Flight 65. In 2015, a Gulfstream G-IV suffered cabin over-pressurization after a mud dauber nest plugged an outflow valve safety port, demonstrating that even small, non-aggressive insects can pose significant risks to complex mechanical systems.

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