Carpenter Bee Solutions THAT WORK?

[DennisArrow]

Carpenter Bee Solutions - The Best Carpenter Bee Trap & Other Carpenter Bee Control Products

This outfit got some coverage last year; but I discovered it late in the Carpenter Bee season. A couple of days ago found a bee buzzing around the back deck and gazebo and then yesterday one on the front porch floor having fallen from the cornice overhang..........

So......it's the season again...........

In the past, I have the exterminator spray the outside of the house every month, got heavy duty aerosols from box stores, mix my own stuff from the feed store and running around swatting.....................

I STILL HAVE THE DURN THINGS in my fascias and overhangs.............

Does the above stuff actually work and does it ELIMINATE the problem?

God bless..........Dennis

 

[Uncle Doug]

The best thing that worked for me was paying the grandkids $1 for every one they swatted down with a tennis racket. Best $20 I ever spent and kept the grandkids busy for a few hours.

 

[2manyrocks]

I haven't used that product. the only thing I have found that works is a multipurpose dust that is labeled for use against carpenter bees. It was in a bright yellow container. I can't find it in the garage right now to tell you what is in it, but it was the only product on the shelf that said it could be used on carpenter bees. It works, but you have to use something to get it in the holes they drill in your wood. Wish they made a liquid product that I could spray.

 

[sweettractors]

Carpenter Bee Solutions - The Best Carpenter Bee Trap & Other Carpenter Bee Control Products

This outfit got some coverage last year; but I discovered it late in the Carpenter Bee season. A couple of days ago found a bee buzzing around the back deck and gazebo and then yesterday one on the front porch floor having fallen from the cornice overhang..........

So......it's the season again...........

In the past, I have the exterminator spray the outside of the house every month, got heavy duty aerosols from box stores, mix my own stuff from the feed store and running around swatting.....................

I STILL HAVE THE DURN THINGS in my fascias and overhangs.............

Does the above stuff actually work and does it ELIMINATE the problem?

God bless..........Dennis

I have had great success with either poking them with a wire after they go in the hole or filling up the hole with liquid nails once they go in the hole. Ken Sweet

 

[ragkar]

Here's a guaranteed solution:
Tools needed - contact poison powder (use carpenter ant dust in a squeeze container with a straw)
chalk for marking the dusted holes
3/8 flush wood plugs (sold in 25 packs at a hardware store)
wood glue
soft head mallet

Dust the holes and then mark them with the chalk. Wait a day or two as they may not be home right now. Then use the wood plugs and glue to fill the holes. It's convenient that their holes are exactly 3/8 inch.

One year when they were especially bad, I dusted 14 holes. Within minutes they were falling out of the holes and my size 8D shoes completed their demise. I got eleven of them this way. I guess the other three weren't home just then.

 

[Richard]

I've been wondering about them too as I'm in a log house and they come flocking around with their knife/forks ready...

Here is an outlandish idea that strikes me as very simple...but probably too expensive.

Note: I've no idea if this would work...

Have you ever played with dry ice and watched it sublimate into a cloud and then taken a breath of that cloud? Since it's Co2, it will yank your breath away from you.

Now, think of an attachment to the perimeter of your house, much like your guttering.

Have a contraption that you can feed dry ice into that will then, let this vapor cloud of C02 descend down the sides of your house. Much like a curtain if you will.

I'm wondering if that could help prevent them from going to your house as they will have their breath taken away from them.

Natural substances are being used so you are not applying stains/other to your house, you are not chasing them with poison, you are not smashing them... you are suffocating them should they choose to fly into the vapor cloud of death!

My experience is they do not munch on your house in the evening hours so you would need this curtain of Co2 for roughly a month and at that, only 75% or so of each day.

I've got NO idea how one would create this and I have no idea if it would even work.

It was just something that popped into my head just the other day while I was getting ready for work.

Thoughts?

 

[clemsonfor]

I've been wondering about them too as I'm in a log house and they come flocking around with their knife/forks ready...

Here is an outlandish idea that strikes me as very simple...but probably too expensive.

Note: I've no idea if this would work...

Have you ever played with dry ice and watched it sublimate into a cloud and then taken a breath of that cloud? Since it's Co2, it will yank your breath away from you.

Now, think of an attachment to the perimeter of your house, much like your guttering.

Have a contraption that you can feed dry ice into that will then, let this vapor cloud of C02 descend down the sides of your house. Much like a curtain if you will.

I'm wondering if that could help prevent them from going to your house as they will have their breath taken away from them.

Natural substances are being used so you are not applying stains/other to your house, you are not chasing them with poison, you are not smashing them... you are suffocating them should they choose to fly into the vapor cloud of death!

My experience is they do not munch on your house in the evening hours so you would need this curtain of Co2 for roughly a month and at that, only 75% or so of each day.

I've got NO idea how one would create this and I have no idea if it would even work.

It was just something that popped into my head just the other day while I was getting ready for work.

Thoughts?

Seems awfully expensive, plus you would need to get onto the roof every day to fill this contraption. I think dusting the holes with sevin dust or liquid sevin when you find them, wait several days cut you some plugs out of a dowel hammer them in with glue cut flush and then put a protectant over would just prove more effective. Skip the last step if you dont care about the holes.

 

[DennisArrow]

I ordered the traps, 4 of them and the "butter" that he sells. We shall see. My main concern is up in the cornice of my "A" frame which is open timber frame construction and up there at least 3 stories high........HARD to get up there; but I plan on hanging a trap in the peak and one at each corner of the house. Will use another back on the gazebo where I tend to get a few.

In the past have used sevin dust, spray, on and on in the holes but have never plugged them. While I have the ladder rigged to get up high and hang the trap am going to use the "butter" stuff which doesnt dry up as spray does........Yes, I need to try plugging the holes after applying poison, and if the "butter" stuff doesnt work on old holes I WILL PLUG them up as my next treatment...............

We shall see........Dennis

 

[grandpa_e]

Termidor SC! Although it isn't specifically for carpenter bees, it works pretty good. I spray some up in the holes and it kills any that are home. It lasts a long time so any that come along afterward die also. I sprayed all the holes an old open shop building that was on my property last year. For weeks afterward, you couldn't walk through without walking over the crunching corpses of the dead carpenter bees. Must have killed 3 or 4 dozen! This stuff is expensive, but it works on ants, carpenter ants, termites and carpenter bees.

 

[Richard]

Seems awfully expensive, plus you would need to get onto the roof every day to fill this contraption.

Oh, I agree it would probably be expensive... I had zero intent of climbing to the roof... this is being fed from a ground based hopper with feed lines going to all corners of the house

 

[2manyrocks]

.410 shotgun :thumbsup:

 

[jk96]

Oh, I agree it would probably be expensive... I had zero intent of climbing to the roof... this is being fed from a ground based hopper with feed lines going to all corners of the house

What happens if its windy?

 

[grnspot110]

Flea market tennis racket @ 50 cents, works for me! :thumbsup:

Kinda' fun too! ~~ grnspot110

 

[sailorman]

I built this ruff one out of what I had just to test. If it works I 'll use better wood and technique for more. Unfortunately the wood is treated so bees may not have anything to do with it.

 

[Ford850]

Carpenter Bee Solutions - The Best Carpenter Bee Trap & Other Carpenter Bee Control Products

This outfit got some coverage last year; but I discovered it late in the Carpenter Bee season. A couple of days ago found a bee buzzing around the back deck and gazebo and then yesterday one on the front porch floor having fallen from the cornice overhang..........

So......it's the season again...........

In the past, I have the exterminator spray the outside of the house every month, got heavy duty aerosols from box stores, mix my own stuff from the feed store and running around swatting.....................

I STILL HAVE THE DURN THINGS in my fascias and overhangs.............

Does the above stuff actually work and does it ELIMINATE the problem?

God bless..........Dennis

I bought the butter late in the season last year, and it DOES work. I read up on the bees first and found out that the guards swirling around the holes, that we were killing by the dozens, were never ending. You do nothing by killing them. By the time you see them the queen is already inside and has laid eggs. You have to treat the hole so the new bees die as they leave. You'll find guards come and go from the holes too and you will kill many with the butter.
I have dozens of holes in my house, barn, swingset, etc. Contrary to what people say, they are in heavily stained and painted boards, and even treated lumber. I really think they will only be controlled when they succomb to a predator or parasite. I keep hoping the Asian Lady Bugs and the Carpenter Bees will dual it out and control each other.

 

[DennisArrow]

Thanks Ford850 for the on topic, not know it all, nor sarcastic smart mouth reply to my question. I went ahead and ordered several of the traps and the butter. Yes, I can easily copy them or build my own but I try to honor the guy's idea and not infringe upon his creativity but reward him instead..........

The butter does work quite well, even though here in NW Georgia it is early in the season I am finding a lot on the ground under the treated holes. The traps must be sensitive to placement as I have 3 on my west facing house front and only the most southerly catches the bees.......Does it eliminate the problem? So far, keeping them from infesting the house and one barn has worked in the couple of weeks of use.......We shall see.............anyway, thanks for YOUR thoughts.......God bless..........Dennis

 

[Ford850]

I plan to plug some of the difficult to reach holes this year but I am leaving many easy to reach holes open. My plan it so use them as traps with the butter and that will reduce the number of fresh holes I hope.

 

[heehaw]

anyone know whats in the "butter"?
heehaw

 

[k0ua]

anyone know whats in the "butter"?
heehaw

The bee butter will wipe the bees out due to the active ingredient pymethrin, which is contained in a clear grease. You inject the grease into the bee's entrance hole. Any bee that goes into or out of the hole will get grease on it and die.

 

[EE_Bota]

The bee butter will wipe the bees out due to the active ingredient pymethrin, which is contained in a clear grease. You inject the grease into the bee's entrance hole. Any bee that goes into or out of the hole will get grease on it and die.

As a little kid, I hated them because they would CHASE me.

So, when I would pull dad's tractor into the shed late in the evening, I would pump a shot of grease in each hole. Just grease. Whether that killed them, I can't say, but the grease would stay in the holes for days, and the chase ended immediately.

One member says the eat through paint, etc. Does anyone else have that problem, or are his unusually aggressive.

I used to have a log cabin..I went after them with a racket ball racket. Once I got 5 in one swipe...they play a game of chicken with the ground when they are all in a big fight, and as the ball gets close, WHACK.