Carpenter bees!

[jaxs]

I'm working on em now! Plus I've been using the badminton rackets.
Dad (r.i.p.) wore holes in his rackets, so he used window screen on rackets.

Window screen catch's air and slow's the racket speed. I restring rackets with small copper wire salvaged from old speaker transformer. I skip holes while stringing racket. The large holes and fine wire chop's bee in two instead of propelling them like a shuttle. I don't want the bee to recover and fly away.

 

[dalola]

Bee's were out en-mass this weekend....very odd....this year, they are not even looking at the traps! Last year, they were stuffed full. So, I got the net back out, and got about 15 over the course of the weekend. Really don't understand why the traps aren't working this year. Same location, baited with a couple dead bees, nothing changed from last year. Except the bees. Just when you think you've got mother nature figgered' out....

 

[AchingBack]

No time to read through entire thread, but I've decided to try using my turkey baster with the bulb filled with diatomaceous earth to dust inside the holes. I'll report any success.
The other day I had a hole between the back of a post, and window trim. Such narrow clearance made it impossible to squirt caulk into it. I mixed a small amount of Durham's water putty, and used my middle finger to reach around and fill the hole. So far, no exit holes exist.

 

[RoyKing]

1.25 Gallon - Permethrin SFR 36.8% Permethrin Insecticide Termiticide - Tengard | eBay

1.25 Gallon - Permethrin SFR 36.8% Permethrin Insecticide Termiticide - Tengard

Mix as directed kills everything, fleas, roaches, palmetto bugs, red ants, spiders, bees, mosquito, ticks, termites, chinch bugs, wasps, butterflys, tree frogs. I spray the eves, under porches, and the yards and about 10 feet into the woods every spring.

 

[kenmac]

1.25 Gallon - Permethrin SFR 36.8% Permethrin Insecticide Termiticide - Tengard | eBay

1.25 Gallon - Permethrin SFR 36.8% Permethrin Insecticide Termiticide - Tengard

Mix as directed kills everything, fleas, roaches, palmetto bugs, red ants, spiders, bees, mosquito, ticks, termites, chinch bugs, wasps, butterflys, tree frogs. I spray the eves, under porches, and the yards and about 10 feet into the woods every spring.

The permethrin produce does work. I have been battling these bastards for years here at the farm.
This stuff seems to work pretty well for running them off

I have a 15 gallon sprayer I use to spray the rafters of my pole barns where I can't reach with pump type sprayer.

 

[lilranch2001]

I used to use Raid Wasp and Hornet spray, and it would knock them down dead, it hardly does anything more now than piss them off

 

[RalphVa]

These are good bugs. Put some moth balls in their holes, if you want to discourage them.

Do not spray them.

Ralph

 

[lilranch2001]

Yea about as good as termites!

 

[Oldoak]

Yea about as good as termites!

Yep, I have seen borer bees leave the purlins of our neighbor's tractor and machinery shed looking like Swiss Cheese. It was so bad, I think the sheet metal siding was holding up what was left of the old hemlock purlins.

Although those bees are pollinators, they are too destructive to ignore.

 

[AchingBack]

I am reporting back on the effectiveness of dusting the holes with DE diatomaceous earth. Today I executed my extermination plan with one exception. I discovered I had a premixed bottle of dust which contained DE and boric acid powder.

Out on the deck I've been storing a neat piece of driftwood. This morning I noticed a pile of sawdust under it. Not sure what it was, I gave it a few taps. From inside came some of the highest pitched buzzing imaginable. Clearly the wood had a couple large active holes, and others were started.

I gave the active holes, (those where dust was coming from), a couple of puffs, and almost instantly the buzzing inside stopped, and hours later is dead. Within a minute or so the head honcho bee or whatever its job title is, came searching for the nest which I had moved away during treatment. I watched as it scoured the area for the job site. No such luck. I believe, mission accomplished.