What can i do to get rid of these pests ? Do they attack plywood?
Edited 6/11/2005 8:37 pm ET by budweiser
What can i do to get rid of these pests ? Do they attack plywood?
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Replies
Call an exterminator or wait till they go dormant in the winter and get rid of the nest then. Bees are not a DIY thing in my opinion.
Carpenter bees are completely different.Not much will controll them. Any unpainted surface is there home. Softwoods more than hardwood.Whenever I have found a hole I shoot if with insecticide and then plug the hole with caulk.Here is a long thread about contolling them.woodnet
no kidden bee's that don't sting? so they're just flyin termites, ya learn somethin new every day.
I never said that they don't sting.But are not agressive at all. Never had one that came towards me even when attacking them.And You need to control that as there are trying to make their nest. Afterwards they are burried deep in the wood and hard to treat.
Our cedar porch swing recently became a home for these guys. Basically, the female lives in the hole and lays eggs- she can sting. She should be in the hole at night. The males hover and buzz around outside the hole-- they can't sting.
From what I've read, painting/staining surfaces prevents infestation.
There are special insecticides to get rid of them, but one approach is to spray WD-40 up into the hole to clear out the nest. You can caulk the opening afterwards to either prevent the female from leaving-- she'll die eventually, or to prevent her from returning, but she will likely make a new hole elsewhere (in you house).
If you have a whole bunch of these buggers call in the pros who can give all of your wood surface a complete treatment.
Good luck.
There was a thread about carp bees; here or another contractor forum recently. Someone (a retired entamologist) said you could impress your friends by catching the males in your bare hands, after you id them correctly. They mainly leave me alone, fly recon, then get bored and go away...
do they have little tool belts on?
We had spelling bee's here, they are worse.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..
Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
I think you can spear them with a sharp wire. Just poke it down the entrance hole. Seem to remember hearing that somewhere.
Then grill, eh Martha? LOL Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
i've got a cartoon on carpenter ants somewhere. have to scan it in and post here or in the Tavern, if I ever figure out how to get back into the Tavern.
How do they know to drill a perfect 3/8" hole everytime.? Yes they do sting!!!And at least with me they hurt a whole lot more than wasp or yellow jackets ..almost seemed intra -musclular.We got caught up in an attic where they had made a nest entirely of fiberglass insulation.Im glad there were some tennis rackets up there or we never would of gotten out of there.
Then grill, eh Martha? LOL
Beekabobs?
LMAO..You owe me a Sony 19" Plasma monitor...I spritzed it with Micheloeb.
Got any itty bitty tommy toes for that keebob?
Wait, I just found a cranberry..
How do you like the wings? Crispy or Crispy?
Gotta find me some of them little peppers now..and coctail oinions....dammit, I am hungry. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
Maybe some honey mustard to dip em in?
OK..dats TWO..
Honey..bees..
Like putting salt on an oyster.
They are all the same color on the inside...really once cooked.
Them yellow and black stripes, are a deterrent for the aberrent..but WE know ...they are PINK.
After removal from the skewer, hold em by the stinger, and suck the heads...that is where the flavor is.
( I SWEAR TO GOD>>>Piffins Daughtr EXPLAINED to me how a MAiner eats LOBSTA at the fest , And I quote...nope I wont..but I will tell you...it was awesome., sorry Piff.)
I am trying to figgure out how to make 64 sq ft of luaun cover 64 sq ft of hallway with 4 doors, and few seams..and watch BT new alerts at the same time, after 8 hours on a copper roof...
I swear. I am about to mimic JFK. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
Oh man, that's too much! How many bees would it take for a dinner?
I know what you mean about the heat. It's 90 in the house and 86 outside now. My head feels like its going to explode too.
75...bee's that is. family of 4 .5.
2 parents, two kids and a halffa dog. Cause the dog gets "one " that fell offa da grill..always.
I think we hijacked this bad boy to oblivion..
I marinate the little bastids in a Micheloeb, dijonn..and my wife's pot purry..I mean, pot poirre', I mean...them herbs she has all dried up and looking like lung cancer when ya roll one and do a Zevon ( sorry Warren, but you asked for it)....
any how, now I gotta find my staples for my schwing tacker..I need to shim the felt B4 I can slap the 1/4'' Loooooannne down..might be a long night..
I'll check in..
flip only once, Martha...timing is all important. Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Time, time, time look what's become of us..Time is all we have, spend it wisely with fervor..dance for no reason, love with out plans and live without worries..we all can.
i would call the minute men or dept of homeland security
bet they have no greencard and probaly want some work
could be terrorists
after be'n told "not much you can do" an old guy at the lake told me to spray hot red pepper sauce on the wood... i used the cheap "gold dollar brand" mixed with water....not only did it keep the wood eaters away... no spider webs... few bugs... ect... and smelled like a crab boil... same guy told me if you mix red pepper in your paint you'll never have cobb webs....
worked for me...
pony
pony
I was living in a beautiful log cabin built in the 1870's in Gambor Md. Sometime between then and now someone built a cedar porch with about six inch logs. The carpenter bees loved that cedar. I got to really watch them. One day it dawned on me - in the evening when it cooled down and they weren't around. Hey they didn't fly back in the woods, They went in them holes. I just started squirting bee killer in the holes. I also had a war with a muskrat that year my weapon was a .22 that wasn't quite sighted in, It was fun till the landlord threw me out because I could't put my fishing rod down long enough to cut the grass. Any way it worked the bees were gone . . . dead
I know this will cause a lot of decent, but you know they are actually bumble-bees. Yea I know Hairy legs VS bare legs, BS. If you disagree. feel free to send me photos to show me what a Bumble-bee nest looks like. Do you think they are migratory like birds. No they spend all winter in that wood tunnel hibernating.
One of the Universities here in Arkansas is doing a survey this year like the audabon society does for birds. It is a BB count. You may not know that there is a mite that is killing a lot of the honey bees which are used for pollinating the fruit trees of the world, and between mites and insecticides the bees are taking it on the chin.
These wood-bees are not eating your wood like termites, they are just raising their young in there, and when they are not hovering around the hole, they are out pollinating flowers, and they are bumble-bees when they are doing that part of their double life.
What I know there were loads off big #### bees boring perfect 1/4'' holes, lots off 'em, in a cabin on Maryland's historic register.
!/4" holes?? 3/8" holes??
We got bigger bees in Delaware (small state, big bees) our's chew 1/2" holes!
Shoot the hole, with or without bee inside, with insecticide of your choice, plug hole, refinish with matching color.
Note: after shooting occupied holes, remove corpses before plugging -- if this step is omitted, serious settling of the plug may occur.
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
They just drilled into some ACQ 4X4 posts in my yard. It was probably the ones that were launched by a flip-flop from the neighbors. I guess they didn't notice the wood was treated (or the copper is a treat for those bees) (or he had goggles and a dust mask).
Billy
Goggles & a dust mask, huh? Now everyone knows that's not possible 'cause bees don't have ears to hook the straps around!
This place is the "bee's knees"
Be buzzedMike
It's O.k. to think out of the box, Just don't walk off of the plank!
"These wood-bees are not eating your wood like termites'But still destructive. They don't just drill the vertical hole, but then a sidways chamber.
Here's the pic I posted in that other thread a while back.
root, I can understand a "live & let live" philosophy, but if you let them go, they expand the colony each year. Between the entry tunnel and the nest inside, that is going to start eating into your structure in a hurry.
Carpenter ants don't eat wood, but that doesn't mean I want them nesting in my house. Damaged joists are damanged joists. Doesn't matter if its because the bug is eating the wood or just tunneling through it.
If I wanted to support the growth of the hymenoptera, I think honey bee supers would be a better way to go than letting the carpenter bees live in your house.jt8
Failing doesn't make you a failure. Giving up, accepting your failure, refusing to try again does! -- Richard Exely
Greetings bud-
That subject has been addressed here on Breaktime a number of different times in the past.
In the event you fail to receive the information you desire, you might find it in the archives.
If you scroll down in the lower left corner of your screen there is a search function that will take you to previous threads dealing with whatever you type in the search bar.
If you type in 'carpenter bees' or other keywords of the subject matter you'll get a supply of data from those old threads.
Last spring I had a client with redwood 2x6 trim on cedar shake shingles. They'd never touched the cedar but had been devouring the redwood for years and years.
What I did was poison the infected boards and badmittoned what I could of the flyers. Then I removed every redwood board with a bee hole anywhere in it, replacing them with new cedar and coating with a transparent oil based product like CW.
Sprayed a borax solution on them and saved one of the old redwood 2x6's as a sacrificial pole left leaning in the southern exposed backyard where the bulk of the holes were located.
I figured any returning bees would migrate to the old redwood before elsewhere on the house thus revealing what they were doing.
None returned. Probably sent them elsewhere in the neighborhood. Still no bees so far this summer either.
But the like CCA which I watch them drilling daily on a deck. Ought to stick an ACQ board up there to see if they'll go for that too.
my favorite weapon is a cheap 'flipflop' or thong beach sandal. i can tell you however, from my rather extensive research, that they take A LOT of killing! i have personally launched carpenter bees at least thirty feet across the yard (i wonder how many G's of acceleration that is?)- which is a long ways for something so light and with such poor aerodynamics- and STILL had to go stomp on them before they get up and fly away! no wasp or fly of any make or model (and i've hit hundreds over the years) has ever withstood such a direct hit without virtually disintegrating.
good luck!
m
Smack 'em once in the air with a barbeque burger-flipper spatula and they're dead, or at least injured enough to avoid eating the beautiful cedar arched beam holding up the roof over my deck. Of the various choices around my place, they like western red cedar the best. Easy chewing for their nests I guess. Local woodpecker has helped himself to a few of the little devils, but I've been too busy with my addition to bother WD 40'ing them this year. Think I'll just get out the foam gun and let 'em have it in their holes.
What I did was poison the infected boards and badmittoned what I could of the flyers.
tut tut, where's the challenge there? Wiffleball bat is great. More eye-hand coordination required. : )jt8
Failing doesn't make you a failure. Giving up, accepting your failure, refusing to try again does! -- Richard Exely
there's no doubt that a burger flipper, badminton racket or even a whiffle bat is ballistically more efficient, it's just that i so seldom have a pair of any of these conveniently located on my feet when duty calls... ;-)
m
One of my size 14's would be like using a badminton racket ;)
jt8
Failing doesn't make you a failure. Giving up, accepting your failure, refusing to try again does! -- Richard Exely
Save the Bees!
Down with Carpenter Bees!
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This is where my bees used to live... until papa woodpecker cleaned them out.
Up with woodpeckers!
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