# Carpenter bees!



## Sybil6 (Jan 28, 2013)

How do I get rid of carpenter bees! I have moved most of my supplies into a small storage building but carpenter bees have started drilling holes in the walls and floor and I have no clue on how to get rid of them! I know how to fix the building but the damage is escalating and I don't know how to get rid of the problem. Any help?


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## ZoomZoom (Dec 18, 2009)

Bee spray works for me.


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

Damned things, we didn't have them around here until just a couple of years ago. I keep a small flat stick around to bat them to death but they can be sneaky and drill holes before you catch them doing it. I have stuck pieces of #14 or #12 electrical wire in their holes to kill them but the damage has already been done. Do a search here as I seem to remember LincTex mentioned something on how to stop them.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/a/How-To-Control-Carpenter-Bees.htm

http://pestkill.org/insect/carpenter-bees/

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/how-to-get-rid-of-carpenter-bees-a-219.html

http://chronicle.augusta.com/life/h...ng-carpenter-bees-are-quite-difficult-control

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25066


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## Sybil6 (Jan 28, 2013)

Thanks guys! This is a lot of help! Looks like I'm off to buy wood staining and chalking.


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## PrepN4Good (Dec 23, 2011)

I had one of the dang things get into my home office earlier today - had a great time keeping the cat away from it while I captured it in a plastic cup (no, didn't bat it to death with a flat stick). 

Sorry, doesn't forward the topic one wit, but wanted to add my close encounter.


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## Sybil6 (Jan 28, 2013)

It's really making me mad! My preps are in there and I don't want bees eating them!


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## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

Suggestion: Move the preps, particularly food, then use a fogger type insect killer. Wait a day then return stuff to the shed.

Further suggestion: Even though they are in the shed, package your goods in airtight containers. I use 5 gallon buckets with Gamma lids, ammo cans, etc. All of which are airtight. Insects will not get in.

I suspect a thread on storage would be useful.


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## dirtgrrl (Jun 5, 2011)

The bees are drilling into the wood to build their nests for their larvae, not to eat your preps. They're actually quite useful pollinators and usually won't sting unless handled roughly. Many people place blocks of drilled wood near their houses to attract the bees away and keep them from tunneling into the wood of the house.


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## dixiemama (Nov 28, 2012)

They are plentiful here at the farm. We keep all kinds of scrap wood for them and the occasional beneficial snake to hide in (non poisonous species. If it's got fangs, it's dead).


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

I painted the rafters, posts, and beams of my picnic shelter a few years ago. They stopped going there completely.

My 60+ year old barn just gets worse every year. The hay mount gets shredded. I have sprayed so many kinds of bee spray & bug spray all over the rafters and beams and nothing seems to stop them. I slow them down, but never win. If I spray, there are 100 dead ones on the floor the next day. And there are 1000 flying around.

Just to make me happy that I'm doing something, I buy any tennis racket that I see at yard sales (usually a dollar or 2) I have them at every entrance of my barn and can stand there for an hour swatting them when they come hover next to me. I have replaced some rafters with new painted wood. They don't bother them. But I just can't keep them away from the very old wood.


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## Sybil6 (Jan 28, 2013)

Thanks for the tip on foggers and drawing them away. I think that'll keep from the house and my shed. Most of our stuff is in bins already but there are things that they've already damaged by drilling, mostly just chests though. I was nervous about killing them because they don't sting and it didn't seem hardly right to kill them when they're just doing what they know how. Mostly I was concerned about them drilling through the roof and letting rainwater in but I wasn't sure if that was something they'd do. I think this afternoons plans are to move that pile of scrap lumber and drill a few holes for the bees.


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

We're very fortunate to have a neighbor' son on our West side that has a number of bee hives. I was talking to their dad and he told me that a number had swarmed and left and they were concerned that they might loose them all. But then they found a number of swarms and ended up with more than ever, 20, what a blessing. It's certainly been a blessing for us when the fruit and nut trees are blooming and when I stand under them it sounds like a hive just in our trees. I've yet to see a carpenter bee in those trees, but I've seen a lot of Mason bees mixed in with the honey bees. A few week back the youngest son came over to talk to me about some batteries he thought I might be interested in for solar and when he came near our huge maple tree he thought a swarm was in the tree for all the buzzing he heard. I told him that's what I hear every year when that tree is in bloom, it's really loud. Anyway I'm not too concerned that carpenter bees pollinate, it's the damage they do to shed beams that I don't like.


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

Wood bees are a pain, we fight them every year, literally, with badminton and tennis rackets kept handy for quick use at three locations outside. They're tough, many times after swatting them out of the air to the ground they'll recover and fly off to return later, so follow up quickly and stomp them before they recover.

Also early in the spring they'll gather thickly around the first blooms and make for easy targeting with a badminton or tennis racket. My wife and I nearly exterminated the local population that way one year over a patch of blooming Chinese Clover.

Easiest of all, and probably most effective in the long run is to puff existing tunnels with diatomaceous earth.

When we were kids my Dad was showing off to us with a wood bee he had caught, rubbing it's tail end, telling us how bumble bees would not sting him, and then he yells out and slings that bee in the air because it had BITTEN him, drawing blood! No, they can't sting, but they sure will bite! They drill into wood, you know. 

Also, they're a blast to shoot out of the air with a Red Ryder BB gun! (You might be a ******* if...) It's not as difficult as it may seem once you get the knack of it. But, there are more productive things one could be doing with their time.


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

Speaking of biting, a female praying mantis can will bite when they get in a defensive mode with their wings flared and front legs outstretched, I think they do that when they are making or about to make egg cocoons. Otherwise they are friendly. It's fun to watch them eat a grasshopper that I have given one. Those and lacewings I'm grateful to have around, not so with carpenter bees as I really don't have the time to chase them down and keep them from boring into weight bearing wood structures.


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