Carpenter bees!!!!!

RollingsFarms · Mar 9, 2016

Anyone feel like sharing tips on dealing with carpenter bees? Anyone tried any of the traps? Are they legit or just junk? These things try to eat up my tractor shed every spring and I need to know how to get rid of these stupid things! A tennis racket is fun but doesn't seem overly effective.

JeremyL · Mar 9, 2016

Traps work for me. Clean, effective, cheap.
You need to get some 10 year olds with badminton rackets to really go to town on the bees.

PhysAssist · Mar 9, 2016

I made a few traps late last summer (too late for most of them), & was still pretty impressed with the #of bees we caught.

So over the fall and winter months when I had time, I made abunch more- I will be going out and hanging them soon.

I just wish I knew what the optimal placement of the traps should be.

the old grind · Mar 9, 2016

Just got Agri Supply monthly catalog. Nice looking bee traps for ~$20. (buy one & duplicate?)

A reviewer says if no bees, just move to another spot. You may have to find that best spot by trial & error. May be more tips/trick in the included instructions.

btw, friend had a door header that was full of holes so he sawed it lengthways after replacing. Interesting pattern of tunnels, 1' or so long runs with short branches like rail yard stubs angling off to the side(s). Something packed into each stub-like 'pocket'. Wish I had taken pics. Might have taken years to tunnel but they had pretty much Swiss-cheesed the whole timber.

JSanders10 · Mar 9, 2016

Yes, the traps work. At least, they catch carpenter bees and the occasional fly or wasp.
The ones I have are of this pattern

DrRod · Mar 9, 2016

I have a condo with cedar siding that has been decimated by bees. They make such perfectly round holes in the door sills so one guy thought he'd punish them by stuffing a lite cigar into the hole. Fortunately, the fire department was able to stop the spread of the fire beyond his unit, which was a total loss. In any case, we had Bayer, OK State [known for entomology], and various other experts and nothing worked. Eventually, we replaced the siding with a composite that they don't like.

PhysAssist · Mar 9, 2016

the old grind said:
Just got Agri Supply monthly catalog. Nice looking bee traps for ~$20. (buy one & duplicate?)

A reviewer says if no bees, just move to another spot. You may have to find that best spot by trial & error. May be more tips/trick in the included instructions.

btw, friend had a door header that was full of holes so he sawed it lengthways after replacing. Interesting pattern of tunnels, 1' or so long runs with short branches like rail yard stubs angling off to the side(s). Something packed into each stub-like 'pocket'. Wish I had taken pics. Might have taken years to tunnel but they had pretty much Swiss-cheesed the whole timber.

29. Make A Homemade Carpenter Bees Trap And Get Rid Of Carpenter Bees | Bee

This one uses 3/4 pine boards to make box traps.

http://www.myfrugalhome.com/how-to-build-a-carpenter-bee-trap/

IDK why it says Forbidden, when the link is valid.

This one uses 4"x4" lumber and mason jars. I used 4x4's, but put an overhanging 1/2" pine board roof on and used either plastic or glas jars with plastic lids drilled out in the ctr and screwed to the bottoms.

Carpenter Bee Traps. Tricks for Fast Insects Elimination

Make Your Own Carpenter Bee Trap | Checking In With Chelsea

Carpenter Bee Traps - DIY Bee Traps & Bee Butter Bait

How to Deal with Carpenter Bees | Today's Homeowner

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Urban/carpenterbees.htm

And that is all I know.
Thomas

SPYDERLK · Mar 9, 2016

Stuf gasoline soaked cotton into each hole. Use badminton rackets on visible bees for rewarding sport.

PhysAssist · Mar 9, 2016

SPYDERLK said:
Stuf gasoline soaked cotton into each hole. Use badminton rackets on visible bees for rewarding sport.

In the logs of my house?!!??

I think not!!

Although I do have a racquetball racquet that I use to smash them- it is more sporting, and rewarding.

SPYDERLK · Mar 9, 2016

SPYDERLK said:
Stuf gasoline soaked cotton into each hole. Use badminton rackets on visible bees for rewarding sport.

PhysAssist said:
In the logs of my house?!!??

I think not!!

,,,,,Why ?

s219 · Mar 9, 2016

I catch a few in the traps, but I found the best option is to go on the offense in the spring, to keep the local population knocked down.

I bought some Viper cypermethrin that I spray around the eaves of my barn, boat house, and home. Supposedly that will deter them, and it's also good at deterring wasp nests, spiders, etc. It won't make a mess on painted or finished surfaces.

I dust any new holes with Drione powder. If an adult bee stumbles out, I put a cork in the hole and know the powder will kill any larvae when they mature in mid/late summer and try to crawl out the hole. If no bee was in the hole, I wait a day or two to give them time to enter the hole and get dusted, then put a cork in the hole (if you don't wait and cork the hole, they will come back and try to drill next to the cork to get back in their tunnel).

I got a lot of good info here: carpenterbee control, CARPENTERBEE CONTROL, Carpenterbee control, carpenterbee control, Carpenter Bee Control, CARPENTERBEE CONTROL, Carpenterbees, carpenterbees, carpenterbee treatment, carpenter bees, boring bees, carpenterbee control

The other thing I do is kill them on sight anytime I see one. I probably get a dozen or so that way every year. This time of year they are very sluggish in the mornings. In fact, I saw a carpenter bee on the roof of my porch this morning, catching morning sun to warm up. I had half a mind to climb out the window and stomp him, but with my luck it would have turned into a project and I had a morning meeting to get to.

Deere Dude · Mar 9, 2016

I had a huge infestation in a 40x60 wooden pole barn. Somebody clued me into a termicide called BIFEN IT. It sell for about 25$ for 3/4 gallon but goes a long way. I maybe use 100 ozs a spraying.

I sprayed all the rafters and walls with this mixture of 2 ozs per gallon of water. I used a sprayer tank for a lawn sprayer and could reach 20+ feet to the rafters/ I just covered every wooden thing I had inside the barn and even my treated wooden furniture outside. I even sprayed my wood pile that was getting invaded. The first year I sprayed everything in the spring and then again around July or so. After the first year I got rid of about 90 percent of them, then the next year another 8-9% of what was left. Now I see one every now and then but am not alarmed at all by them.

I did put 7 carpenter bee traps around the barn but last year I only got about 4 or 5 of them. The Bifen IT does its job. That reminds me I need to do it in a week or so again.

bamboozled · Mar 9, 2016

I've used the pop bottle traps in the past. Surprisingly effective. The bees were horrible the first year I bought my house, into the deck and front porch railing. I put the badminton rackets around to smack on site but the traps did the most work.

MF283 · Mar 9, 2016

Traps worked well for me last year, wife dosen't like me sitting around with the sawed off, it's fun though:cool2:

Gem99ultra · Mar 10, 2016

Lots of advice on here already regarding carpenter bee traps. But - I can tell you a tried and proven way of deterring them from coming around.

Get a brown paper bag, stuff it with old newspaper or something to keep the bag puffed out. Tie the bag with a string up on a rafter. The bees will see it and NOT hang around. I'm guessing that they see the bag as a hornet nest, but I'm not really up on how bees think. All I do know is that some old codger told us about that method, we did it a couple of years ago out near our front porch, and are no longer bothered with them.
We do see a few fly in and stay only for a few seconds. Then they high-tail it away.

Our only other defense is to paint everything. The carpenter bees don't see to want to cut holes in painted surfaces. But they'll sure cut holes in unpainted surfaces, and do it very quickly.

s219 · Mar 10, 2016

Painted surfaces cut down the problem quite a bit, but I have still seen them bore into painted wood. If they can detect that it's wood (especially softwood) they will get into it. Not sure how they detect the wood and hone in on the softwoods and avoid the hardwoods, but they sure do!

Deere Dude · Mar 10, 2016

s219 said:
Painted surfaces cut down the problem quite a bit, but I have still seen them bore into painted wood. If they can detect that it's wood (especially softwood) they will get into it. Not sure how they detect the wood and hone in on the softwoods and avoid the hardwoods, but they sure do!

My barn is all hardwood and they seem to like that just fine. Just like little buzz saws. I heard if painting to use oil based paint...that seems to do the trick. They don't eat the wood, they just bore it so treated wood is fair game. I can imagine using badminton rackets is fun but I only have tennis rackets but that is very hard on the wrists. Like I said, BIFEN IT does wonders.

Brad_Blazer · Mar 10, 2016

It's pretty incredible how difficult it is to enforce a patent on something like this when there are literally hundreds of infringers. My brother is actively trying to enforce with Ebay, Amazon, and some of the bigger infringers.

Here is my brother Brian's web site. His product are good. He was THE FIRST to invent the common style of carpenter bee trap that you see. I am a co-inventor and the author of the patent. Please avoid supporting the blood sucking copycats.
Carpenter Bee Trap Control Tennessee Virginia Pennsylvania Maryland
Here is the patent:
[Bhttps://www.google.com/patents/US8375624?dq=carpenter+bee+traps&hl=en&sa=X&sqi=2&pjf=1&ved=0ahUKEwiMt-6poLbLAhUD1h4KHchOBoEQ6AEIHDAA[/B]

This maker is also licensed:
Wood Bee Gone Trap

The traps with the receptacle on the side are an attempt to circumvent the claims but the design is inferior.

Thanks for reading.
Brad

Garycw · Mar 10, 2016

Has anyone ever been stung or bitten? I could imagine a nasty bite if they were so inclined.
I've been spraying with some success, but these traps look worth a try. The spray is expensive and very toxic.