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Carpenter Bees

Started by Greg Cook, May 04, 2008, 11:07:19 PM

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Greg Cook

I tried a search for capenter bees and came up with no matches.  What have y'all had good luck with to get rid of these critters?  Homebrew solutions would be best (I'm a tighwad.)  This farm we bought has two barns spaced 6 feet apart, and built about 10 years apart. No bees at all in the older one, but holes everywhere in the rafters of the newer (built in '79) barn. The roof is gonna need painting, but I'm a little concerned about getting up there with all those holes under me.  Perhaps the wife will take care of it for me, she ain't but about 117 #  ::) ::)

Thanks,
Greg
"Ain't it GOOD to be alive and be in TENNESSEE!" Charlie Daniels

Tom

A 12 gauge Shotgun works.  Your shooting eye will improve, but it's awful expensive.
I've heard some of the members say that they use a tennis racquet. ;D

Some of the farmers around here will spray their wood (before building) with diesel. Many will spray their barn (after building) with diesel.  Scary.

I guess the diesel leaves something on or in the wood that helps to repel.  I wouldn't trust it.  Paint works too.

Here is a good article:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef611.asp

pigman

I use a badminton racket to swat them. If I hit them just right they are knocked fifty feet. 8) If I hit them too hard they stick in the strings and I have to pick them out. :(
Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.

ellmoe

Quote from: Greg Cook on May 04, 2008, 11:07:19 PM
Homebrew solutions would be best (I'm a tighwad.) 

   I'm "thrifty" too. :D Plus I use whatever is handy. That lead me to attacking the bee holes with a grease gun. It works pretty good. The ones inside can't get out and the outside ones get stuck trying to get in. After a couple of years of this I had them knocked down, butt they're back and it's time to start lubricating my cypress again! At my parent's home (WRCedar) they didn't have a grease gun. ;D I suggested they paint their porch rafters where the problem was occurring. They did and no more bees.

Mark
Thirty plus years in the sawmill/millwork business. A sore back and arthritic fingers to prove it!

Woodchuck53

These rascals seem to cycle. We have lived here 25 years and in the last 5 years have had two infestations. We caulk the holes and repaint over them. They raise heck inside from the sound of things but we get ahead of them for a couple years. In the barn and tractor shed we keep a can of Raid handy also. Bee venom is the only thing I am allergic to so I can't take a chance and swat at one and just tick it off. And this cycle thing works on mice and rats also. The last 2 years the shop has been over run. Catching all the chicken snakes I can and  putting them in there for that. Nope never cared for cats. Good sawying weather here in La. CV
Case 1030 w/ Ford FEL, NH 3930 w/Ford FEL, Ford 801 backhoe/loader, TMC 4000# forklift, Stihl 090G-60" bar, 039AV, and 038, Corley 52" circle saw, 15" AMT planer Corley edger, F-350 1 ton, Ford 8000, 20' deck for loader and hauling, F-800 40' bucket truck, C60 Chevy 6 yd. dump truck.

breederman

  Spray some bug killer inthe holes and plug.  I had a bad attack on one end of my house a few years ago, wet it down then threw powderd eight on it [sevn is illeagal now] looked like heck for a week or so but it kills them when they touch it.  It rinsed off ok when I was done.
Together we got this !

zopi

littls spritz of wd-40 in the hole..they crawl out and die..

and a badmiton raquet.
Got Wood?
LT-15G GO chassis added.
WM sharpener and setter
And lots of junk.

flip

The kids and myself knocked the snot out of 'em this weekend.  The youngest was armed with a Wilson tennis raquet, the oldest an aluminum bat and I used a stacking strip...I won ;D
Timberking B-20, Hydraulics make me board quick

Ironwood

I wondered how long it would take to find a post on this here. I almost started one last week. I have kinda let them have their way but I think I am ready to "move" on this. My flitch house siding is Hemlock and they seem to only go to the horizontal soffit and porch roof. I will try the racket and grease gun. I wonder if an annual vinegar mix or some sort of homebrew would work. I might like to experiement a little with this as MANY of us could use an easy solution (sprayer from the ground kinda thing)

              Ironwood
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

Greenskeeper

I have found that the best thing for these pests is good old fashion fly paper.Give it a week or so and you have several dozen of them. :D

pineywoods

When they hover in mid-air you CAN hit them with a BB gun. Back when I was younger, I got good enough to score about half the time. Not really effective, but loads of fun ;D
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

timberfaller390

Look up the Georgia Farmers and Consumers Market Bulliten under crafts or misc. there is a lady named Moira McCracken who makes carpenter bee traps
L.M. Reese Co. Land Management Contractors
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John Deere 440 ICD dozer

Greg Cook

Heck, Timberfaller, I don't want to catch 'em and skin 'em, I just want to be rid of them! And the pelts ain't bringin' nothing, what with it being warm weather an' all.   ;D

I'm working on a barn, about to start sawing the framing lumber when I can get a load of logs in here. I'm using poplar so when it dries, they'll have to chew a little harder to eat this one.  Perhaps some Sycamore, too....

Greg
"Ain't it GOOD to be alive and be in TENNESSEE!" Charlie Daniels

timberfaller390

Yeah and it takes so many of em to get a good load to send to the fur buyer :D

I would assume those traps work like a yellow jacket trap that drowns them. maybe you could buy 1 and make a bunch more.
L.M. Reese Co. Land Management Contractors
Stihl MS390
John Deere 50G excavator
John Deere 5103
John Deere 440 ICD dozer

zopi

or maybe make one of those trap thingys, and put the fly paper inside?

had a shovel standing up at the edge of the garde the other day...*DanG bee sitting on it...sure enough..chewed a hole in that ash handle...gods but i hate the little buggers.
Got Wood?
LT-15G GO chassis added.
WM sharpener and setter
And lots of junk.

Modat22

they make good fishing bait. Might as well get some return on their damage I always say.
remember man that thy are dust.

james


            bees are very busy souls
            who have no time for birth controls
            that explains why in times like these
            there are so many sons of bees

james

zopi

wifey went to Horror Fright the other day...came in toting a present for me...a battery powered bug zapper tennis racquet...wanna talk about amusing...
Got Wood?
LT-15G GO chassis added.
WM sharpener and setter
And lots of junk.

Ironwood

I pulled a brand new butterfly net from the nieghbors trash last week, 6 year old son  says "we can use that", boy did I. While on the phone numerous times the next day I must have killed 30 or so. ALOT less buzzing, the only ones I could not get were WAY up there.

                    Ironwood
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

ely

i have knocked them down with a shot of carb cleaner, sort of wasteful i know.
i also have sprayed the lumber in question with a sprayer of malathion and when i come to a hole i just squirt it full. the next day under the drip edge there was 15 or so dead bees.

Dave Shepard

I had a lawn mowing customer that lived in a log house. I pulled in the driveway one day to mow, and he was about 20 feet up a ladder with, you guessed it, a tennis racquet. :D He had a little glass of alcohol and was shooting it up in the holes to pith them off, and they would come out and attack him, 20 feet in the air. ::) It takes all kinds, I guess. :D


Dave
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

breederman

I can tell you from experiance that when the bees start working on your log house you don't wait for them to leave on their own.  ;) any insect invasion gets everything I've got!
Together we got this !

Greg Cook

Got a bad case of "BumbleBee Elbow" from swinging that tennis raquet.  Had to drop back to a badminton raquet.
"Ain't it GOOD to be alive and be in TENNESSEE!" Charlie Daniels

Ironwood

ELY,

MALATHION????? Yikes. careful with that stuff!


               Ironwood
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

Don P

Drione dust is what kept coming to mind, I found it here today:
http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/Carpenter_Bees.htm

They show several others. We had one homeowner that used one of those double bottle mixes, the bee's were boring the soffits right behind us.

Michelle is our sprayer here, she said to look up the MSDS's for each and start with the one with the lowest LD50, the lowest human toxicity.

Which would be the racquet  ;D

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