Carpenter bee,s ?

[cowboy357]

I,ve been doing some remodeling in Our out buildings & the rear patio cover & noticed these these bee,s have been swarming me last few hot days . What i thought was damage from termites & carpenter ants ( which I also have both , but I can kill them ) now appear to be from these bee,s .

After looking them up to find out what they are I noticed there seems to be no real good way to kill them. the good Wasp spray just annoys them but wont kill them .

The only advice i,ve seen was to spray them with gas to kill them & treat the wood with deisel , which neither idea I care to do. Any others have a remedy that would be safer ?

I,ve also heard theres a powder You can shoot into the holes , but could take 6 months or better to work , not quite quick enough to suit me . The only good thing is the males dont sting just annoy the heck out of you . but the females that do the boring & lay the eggs will if iritated , Which I intend to do.

Any advice would be appreciated . Thanks Bob

 

[mjfox6]

I found this product this year and tried it a couple of weeks ago:
Farnam - Your partner in horse care

I sprayed it up in the holes and they would eventually come out and fall to the ground. I killed all that I found (they make a lot of noise flapping their wings). I don't know if they would have died on their own or not.

I need to go back and respray all of the holes and see if their are any left.

 

[cowboy357]

Thanks for the link mjfox6 . I,ll have the wife see if They carry it at the closest atwoods . Might be just what I need. . Bob

 

[dmccarty]

I used the Wasp/Hornet spray I had on hand and it seems to work. Not sure of the brand though. Whatever was at Lowes.

Later,
Dan

 

[cowboy357]

I used the Wasp/Hornet spray I had on hand and it seems to work. Not sure of the brand though. Whatever was at Lowes.

Later,
Dan

Thats odd , But thanks for the info . I used a whole large can of Eliminator brand wasp & hornet spray on about 20 of them yesterday Direct hits ,close up & They never even hit the ground. Just kept buzzing around Me. This stuff will knock down & kill entire wasp or hornets nests , but these things seem to be bullet proof . Thanks again Dan . Bob

 

[aczlan]

some info here: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/110275-carpenter-bees.html

Aaron Z

 

[2manyrocks]

Look at the label to see what it kills. The only product I've found for carpenter bees so far is Green Light multi purpose dust. The active ingredient is deltamethrin and dimethlyl cyclopropanecarboxlate. It isn't an instant killer, either.

Some places carry a wasp spray that foams on contact. It kills wasps better than anything I've found, and it might possibly work on carpenter bees. I used it up on my wasps and didn't get to try it on the bees.

Some guys make a sport of shooting them with .22 bird shot shells.

 

[Stimw]

I spray them with automotive Brake Clean. It's less than half the cost of wasp sprays and it kills them from the fumes or chemical.
Just be sure you have the little straw in the nozzle.

 

[cowboy357]

Thanks again Guys , all great info . I,ll try anything , well most anything. . They get dangerouslly annoying when your on a ladder & start buzzing You . Bob

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

I use foaming wasp spray - but have also noticed there seem to be more of them this year than I have ever seen.
you can also "paint" your bare wood with a borax solution which will kill them when they're trying to bore into the boards.

 

[heehaw]

according to the county extension agent: his solution is to soak cotton balls in liquid seven: an stick them in the holes: it will kill anything in there, hatching eggs etc, an anything that returns to the hole, an will "eventually" get the numbers down...
i use a pump up sprayer with permeathin mixed a little on the strong side, and spray inside the holes, if theres a bee inside, they come out after a short time an die: for the flyers, i use a badmitton racket...an then stomp on them..i guess these critters would collapse a structure eventually.
heehaw

 

[woodchuckie]

Me and three of my Grandkids aged 5, 8 and 8 spent our spring this year with the cheap plastic fish dippers, catching them and stepping on them. I guess we got a couple of hundred between us and they were boring in an area about 15 feet long. They bore into the ceder siding on my house. They have been for 30 years. I've never really tried to exterminate them.

 

[777777]

Hi,

I had them boring in the wood above the garage door. Used the foaming wasp killer.

Shoved the nozzle up in the hole and pressed the button until I had foam coming out wherever there was even a little hole. 1 of them tried to escape thru the hole and died blocking it. The rest were history.

Foaming wasp spray worked like a charm.

Good luck

 

[jeep44]

Those things will drive me nuts in the spring. I use one of those sprays that shoots 25 feet-'Spectracide' from Lowes seems to work well. They easily avoid the stream when they are flying-I wait until they are just starting to crawl into their hole,and then I hit 'em with the spray-it still doesn't kill them instantly, but they quickly weaken and drop to the ground. It has taken until now to finally wipe them out for this year.

 

[cowboy357]

Great info Guys Thanks . I,m Really Surprised that so many have the same Problem . Untill now I just thought they were noisy Bumble bees , till I started noticing all the damage while doing repairs .

The rear half of Our house ( the original part ) was built around 1880 , So I,m guessing They,ve been here for awhile . . I,m also finding the holes in some of the floor beams in the basement in the ole part that still has the dirt walls & stone Foundation , But I,m hoping they are long gone .

Thanks again for all the Remedy,s. Bob

 

[dgl24087]

When I was a kid, I sprayed starting fluid in the holes. Worked like a charm.

 

[rtimgray]

I'm one of the guys that uses .22 shot shells, but that got expensive when we had a big outbreak of them around the house this spring.

I took someone elses advice from here and used a tennis racket - I quite counting after I killed 20 of 'em! It was great practice for tennis season.

I also killed a few this weekend with brake fluid.

 

[ragkar]

Use carpenter ant dust and mark the treated holes with a push pin. Leave the hole alone for a couple days (some may not be home) and then plug the hole with 3/8 inch plugs with a bit of wood glue.

 

[teststrips]

Use carpenter ant dust and mark the treated holes with a push pin. Leave the hole alone for a couple days (some may not be home) and then plug the hole with 3/8 inch plugs with a bit of wood glue.

I also did dusting a few times.... it did work, however I couldn't really get to some of the holes - I'm not into dangerous ladder tricks. This spring I wound up swinging tennis racket at them.... was fun + keeps your adrenalin going.

I may also wind up covering a lot of the areas with aluminum trim... the 2x50 foot rolls of painted aluminum aren't too expensive ($90 bucks + they cover A LOT of area) If you have access to an aluminum brake, its pretty easy to do (I learned on my own in about 30 minutes).

 

[HCJtractor]

Check out a web site "Bugspray.com" They have great information about all pests from bees, beavers, mosquitoes, etc. Each pest is listed and they offer great descriptions on how to deal with them. They also give good advice and sell professional products. They have several pages on controlling these carpenter bees and offer poison, tools to inject into their holes and plugs. I have purchased many things from them. I no longer have a mosquito problem by following their advice. I also used them as a source of info on beaver trapping, bought my traps and lures from them, and have wiped out a dozen pesky beavers at my place. Any pest you have, they can deliver information and products on prevention and control.