Carpenter bees!

[s219]

BTW, I also used to pretreat everything with Viper insecticide (Cypermethrin) but stopped because it was a chore and I wasn't sure it really helped.

 

[Bayfisher]

.22 pistol with bird shot, good for @ 10ft

 

[Deere Dude]

I am on the Bifen IT bandwagon.

I have a 70 year old barn we bought in 2013. The first year I was splitting wood and these big nasty liking bees would dive bomb me, but surprisingly they didn't sting. Shortly after that I learned of the dreaded carpenter bee.

My barn is 40x60 was a horse barn with oak wood walls on the inside and oak wood roof rafters. I noticed at that point they were drilling into my wood all over. Think thousands of holes and many are difficult to get to with a ladder. I tried bee traps as suggested for 6 months and got a handful of bees out of the thousands flying around. I got some bee powder to put in individual holes but that was expensive and to daunting of a task.

Someone clued me into Bifen IT because they said Carpenter Bees come back to the same area they leave, season after season. I have a 25 gallon sprayer that I mixed with 1 oz Bifen IT per gallon of water. I sprayed every stick of wood I had including wood piles for the fireplace. A few weeks later I learned I should have sprayed 2 oz/gal. So I redid it all. The bees stayed away after that.

For a three years I would spray early in the spring and then again in late summer. Then last year I sprayed once in the spring and forget the fall. It seems to work quite well. I still have a few traps up and they get a few but Bifen IT seems to do the trick. They do still fly around the barn and lawn but I never see the landing where I don't want them to and I don't see any tell take dust piles anymore.

I spray down inside my shop, siding and soffit on the house and shop and inside all these buildings. It takes care of spiders and bugs in general so no cobwebs od black widow either. All for about $25 a year plus spraying time. I had to spray my treated wood on trailers, outdoor furniture and pine trees and bushes that I didn't want tose or even other bugs on.

 

[zzvyb6]

.22 pistol with bird shot, good for @ 10ft

I'm all in with this technique, too. Several benefits: 1) it's kinda fun ! 2) it advertizes to the neighborhood that there is gun fire on the premises. Troublemakers should move on. I used to use the CCI blue tipped ones but a few expurts suggested these were hard on the barrel. Now I use the crimped end loads. It REALLY impresses your guests that you can hit a 'bumble' bee with a 22 at 10 -15' and turn it into sawdust. A near miss causes propulsion failure and you can play WW-II nose gun camera procedures to finish them off.

Now I have a situation where I still have a few that come to visit but as soon as the Ruger appears, they disappear !

 

[spitter]

I go through about 6 cans of the spectracide every spring . I hate them scab carpenter bee's them don't carry union books . I have had call backs on jobs where they thought I drilled holes in the wrong spot it was them scab bee's. The only thing good about them is when they start digging in you can spray the sh*t out of them slow and stupid . Me and my kid have a contest every year to see who can kill the most of them. I just replaced the rake boards on the one side of the barn whenI went to the other there was a new hole in it . You would have to think it was like ringing the dinner bell.unch:ullinghair: death to carpenter bee's:drink:

 

[mikester]

I've tried blocking them in with caulk or roof tar, but they just drill a new hole out.

Kill the larvae and the bees. Treat the holes then plug them ASAP.

I use flexible 0.035 welding welding wire bent with a small hoop on the end to probe the depth of the holes to kill the larvae. I then use a section of 0.060 air line with the foaming insect killer to flood the hole from the very end to the exit. I then plug the holes with caulk.

If you catch them early the holes are only 2-4 inches deep. If you leave the larvae and plug them in you will end up with several feet of hole.

The adult bees are solitary and supposedly dont sting. They like drilling under sheltered overhang spots, up about an inch deep then turn 90 degrees and can go several feet in. The key is to be vigilant in early spring when they are most active. If you kill the bee when they start the hole make sure to treat and plug it right away otherwise other bees will continue the destruction. They can do a lot of damage in one night when the are trying to build a new nest so daily checks of your property when they are active will help you prevent a major problem later on.

The bees generally do not like treated surfaces eg. fresh stain/paint/varnish so keep your place clean and maintained.

 

[Gunny]

Last year we had a terrible infestation of carpenter bees, side and back porch, gazebo, deck rails, garage - there were little piles of sawdust laying around everywhere.

On a recommendation, I bought Demon WP, it's nasty stuff, but the results are immediate if you spray the bee, then an overnight reduction once you spray along the wooden surfaces. Haven't seen any more around since then, so it must have some residual effect.

 

[Diggin It]

The adult bees are solitary and supposedly dont sting. They like drilling under sheltered overhang spots, up about an inch deep then turn 90 degrees and can go several feet in.

That's what I was thinking when I saw the post about a Queen and workers. Theses are not hive type bees.

I pulled down about a foot long piece of 2x2 corner support once. It was all but hollow, more like a square wooden tube.

 

[Ford850]

Mikester and Diggin It are right about them being solitary. I corrected my earlier comment to clarify. The females are in the tunnels laying eggs and stacking up brooding chambers.

 

[oosik]

The only "creature" around here that digs in the residential wood are flickers( type of woodpecker ). After 38 years out here my PanAbode cedar home has five small holes that I've puttied shut. Not a big problem.

However - thank God & knock on wood. The pine bark beetles do not like cedar. They can and have done extensive damage to the pine forests in this area.