Carpenter bee trap help needed.

[Rat Rod Mac]

I have carpenter bees tearing up my lean-to, so I went on the inter-net and saw these guys making traps out of a piece of 2x4 and plastic pop jugs. I made one and mounted it on the lean-to close to where they are drilling and for the last week nothing has touched it. Are you supposed to smear some kind of bee lure on it? I killed a couple and rubbed them around the hole and even put one in the bottle, but they are avoiding it all together. Any suggestions? Thanks. RRM

 

[mvwwld4u]

I've made several of those traps. Never put any type of lure on any of them and had really good success with them. 1/2" hole on all 4 sides of the box. 2 clear soda or water bottles connected at the cap with a piece of clear hose. Bottom cut out of one bottle and the cut end inserted into the bottom of the box.

 

[s219]

I made a bunch of traps and put them out last year -- some traps got 3-4 bees, some got 9-10, and others got none. Bees were present in all locations.

Same traps are out this year, and I don't think I've caught a single bee yet. Saw one bee hole drilled in my barn that I treated and repaired, but no other activity. I do see them buzzing about my property here and there.

 

[ray66v]

Carpenter bees are extremely susceptible to Sevin dust.

Put some in a puffer like this, Pest Pistol Powder Duster Diatomaceous Crawling Insect Control | Earthworks Health, and pump it in the holes they make.

They will quickly die, or leave.

 

[s219]

I use Drione dust in any holes I find. If I can hear a bee in the hole or see them stagger out, I cap the hole with a cork and paint over it. If not, I wait 24 hours, and then cap the hole. I found out the hard way to wait 24 hours before capping the hole. One time I dusted an empty hole and immediately corked it, and the next day found the bee eating a new hole right next to the cork to get back in the tunnel. They are stubborn little bastards. So now I make sure to allow 24 hours time to let any bees revisit the hole and get dusted.

In addition to sealing up the damage, the cork protects the Drione dust inside the hole/tunnel, in case any larvae are in there and hatch in the future (usually late summer). They will crawl through the dust and die when they try to exit.

 

[CADplans]

Pics,,, PICS,,,!! hopefully, soneone has successful trap pics??
On another note,, my SIL whacks them with a fly swatter,, but, you still have to step on them, or they get back up.
He has killed over forty in the last two weeks.
They seem to love a an 8 foot length of treated 2X4 hand rail.
Selectively, that one handrail attracts the bees.
He does not need to roam to get the bees.

I am too old to enjoy all that swinging,,
I spray them with permethrin,, as they fly by.

I feel like a 1870's gun slinger,, I am pretty good with that spray bottle.
S Q U E E Z E - the trigger,,,,do not jerk the trigger,,, :laughing:

 

[tractchores]

They eat the side of my house too. I use dust, which generally works well... Though it seems like by the time you're using dust the damage has been done, so maybe a trap is better.

 

[oosik]

Hmmm......no carpenter bees around here. We sure do have the huge carpenter ants but they have never bothered my house or out buildings. These big ants sure do tear the snot out of the stumps from cut pine trees. I've never bothered them - Lord knows, they just might come looking for revenge.

 

[MF283]

I put one out Sunday down at the barn, haven't checked it since it's been raining this week & no need to be at the barn. I have several of the 1x, 4 corner traps & they have taken quite a few, I noticed 3 in the trap Sunday, reason for putting the 2x one up.
I have 3 of the 1x, 4 corner(nailed together), they still have dead ones from last year & still attract more. I guess I need to empty them out. I keep an old single shot shotgun in the barn for the rare critter sightings & occasionally blast them to smithereens(when the wife isn't home) for some reason, she doesn't see the sport of it, LOL.

Ronnie

Ronnie

 

[mcfarmall]

No bait or lure in my carpenter bee trap and I got 8 last summer. The bottle came loose and blew away over the winter and I replaced it the day before yesterday in anticipation of them returning this spring.

 

[Gunny]

I've put up several and it always seems that one or two traps in an area will catch most or all of the bees and the others don't do much at all.

I'm also experimenting with small brown paper bags wadded up to look something like a wasp nest and stapling them up in areas the bees inhabit. I've heard that carpenter bees don't get along with wasps and won't burrow near any wasp nests.

This the type I've wound up building, seems to be easier and quicker to build than other versions: How to Build a Carpenter Bee Trap

 

[NoTrespassing]

I've put up several and it always seems that one or two traps in an area will catch most or all of the bees and the others don't do much at all.

I'm also experimenting with small brown paper bags wadded up to look something like a wasp nest and stapling them up in areas the bees inhabit. I've heard that carpenter bees don't get along with wasps and won't burrow near any wasp nests.

This the type I've wound up building, seems to be easier and quicker to build than other versions: How to Build a Carpenter Bee Trap

I don't know about that. I've got both wasp and carpenter bees all over in one wooden building.

My one bee trap has only got one bee in it right now and I've swatted at least 6 with a badminton racket.

Kevin

 

[Ford850]

I've tried a lot of things (traps, sprays, dusts, etc.) I started using permethrin, mixed according to instructions, in a garden sprayer (2 gallon). I adjust the spray to a fine jet stream and walk around early in the spring spraying the holes in my shed or barn. Soak each hole, and you'll kill anything inside and also kill all that come looking for a queen for weeks.

 

[bamboozled]

I made one like this. Worked like a charm, worked so good I changed the bottles a couple of times because they got so full.

Making Carpenter Bee Traps - All

 

[arrow]

I get permethrin powder and mix in plain petroleum jelly. I smear this in and around the hole. If they touch it, they die and it keeps on killin.. I also find they do not like to eat threw oil base paint as opposed to bare wood.

You can kind of "prime" the house by putting a dead carpenter bee in there. I've noticed that once I get one in a trap, it seems to draw others into it. I don't know if it's because the rest of the bees are yelling "I'm trapped, I'm trapped"! or if the smell draws them in.

 

[Deere Dude]

I do enjoy using a badminton club on them because it doesn't hurt the wrist like a tennis racket.

I had a barn infestation of carpenter bees that made some boards look like swish cheese, almost; enough to get nervous about anyway. I researched and many ideas were to go to a hole and squirt some stuff in it but from ground level up to 15-20' on a 40-60' barn was way to many holes to do that. It would have taken a year to get through them all.

I found some stuff called Bifen IT on a do it yourself pest control website. It is a termicide that kills termites, fire ants, spiders and hundreds of nasty bugs, and of course bugs you like no doubt. I bought a couple gallons of the chemical. I mixed 2 ounces per gallon of water in a 25 gallon garden tractor sprayer. I then proceeded to spray every stick of bare wood, treated or otherwise with a generous mist. I sprayed my wood piles, my soffits and facia on the house and barn, any cracks where bugs can come through, inside my garage on the corners of the walls and the garage doors and man doors and even windows, my grainery that I use for a remote workshop, even some treated wood lawn furniture I made. I was mowing by a couple rows of 5-12' pines and notice carpenter bees were all over them to so I sprayed them down and that took care of them.

Anyway, I went from thousands of carpenter bees to a dozen the first month or two and then a few months later I sprayed the same thing again just to make sure. Now I see carpenter bees outside flying around but they stay away from anything constructed from wood. Tennessee has a lot of nasty spiders and since then I haven't seen any spiders in or around the house and barn which makes my wife very appreciative.

I haven't seen any negative affects other than the first year when I sprayed all my wife's flowers that were surrounding the house. They wouldn't pollinate so after that I tried to miss them.

I spray every spring and maybe touch it up in July or August if I feel energetic. the thing about Carpenter Bees, they will return to the nest and same location a few months after they leave so you need to break that cycle. I go through about 75 gallons of mixed spray per year so I use maybe a gallon and a half which cost about $50 maybe.

I still have my 7 bee traps set around the barn and grainery but only catch a few a year in each one maybe because they stay away more now. If IU jast had a smaller area a backpack sprayer would work fine but I had to big of an area for that plus I needed some reach to get up to the ceiling.

Bifen IT is a brand name but the chemical is sold under a bunch of different names.

 

[mvwwld4u]

 

[mvwwld4u]

A couple pictures of a trap I built for my mother a few years ago. The bottom bottle has been emptied many times.

 

[scdeerslayer]

I've put up several and it always seems that one or two traps in an area will catch most or all of the bees and the others don't do much at all.

I'm also experimenting with small brown paper bags wadded up to look something like a wasp nest and stapling them up in areas the bees inhabit. I've heard that carpenter bees don't get along with wasps and won't burrow near any wasp nests.

This the type I've wound up building, seems to be easier and quicker to build than other versions: How to Build a Carpenter Bee Trap

What't the point of having the 45 degree angle on the top of the block?

 

[riptides]

What't the point of having the 45 degree angle on the top of the block?

In the links comment sections, rain water runoff.