Repelling Carpenter bees

[rjwaldren]

At least that's what I think they are. Large, black bumble bees with shiny bodies. I have a couple that like to feed in my back yard and their getting a little aggressive and scarring the **** out of my daughter. (I may have done the dance once or twice myself, but don't tell anybody)

I had one out in the garage the other day and whacked it hard with a yard rake. To good pops, one when the rake hit it the other when it hit the concrete. It flew off like nothing happened. Twice I've hit them with the full stream from wasp spray and didn't even interrupt their flight.

Any ideas on how to get rid of them? I've cleared with out our usual spring visit from wasp and hornets, and the bees are staying away from my outdoor sitting area thanks to Bounce dryer sheets. But nothing phases these monsters.

[RAFlorida]

Well RJ, what ya gotta do is

find another home and move. On the serious side now. If they're like the ones we have in our area, try to locate their nest which more than likely will be in the ground. We sit and watch and usually find their entry and then load it down with hornet spray. (and run like 7734) They do have a powerfull sting so be careful with your daughter around those beasts!

Just remembered something. A long time ago an old man told me that there's usually a sentinel bee for each hive. That bee will be all black with no yellow markings. I have seen those and all they ever did was buzz me but never stung. But don't take my word for that part!

[WoodTherapist]

Wish I could help, but I would also be very interested in anyone with a "home" remedy. Carpenter bees had infested the logs of a 150 year old log cabin on our property. I tried everything I could think of to get rid of them, with no luck. So we called Arab. They sprayed the cabin exterior and all the holes in the logs that they could find. Still bees. They sprayed again. Still bees. It took about six months and at least four spray treatments, to my memory, to get them under control. I sure was not excited about all the chemicals being used (and the cost), so if anyone has a less toxic and less expensive approach, I would like to hear about it, as well. I anticipate that I have not heard the last of the Carpenter bees.

[Sam Conder]

[REALLY not trying to stir the pot, just humor]

Have them join the Carpenter's Union, they won't work a day after that.

[/REALLY not trying to stir the pot, just humor]

[rjwaldren]

A long time ago an old man told me that there's usually a sentinel bee for each hive. That bee will be all black with no yellow markings. I have seen those and all they ever did was buzz me but never stung. But don't take my word for that part!

That's what these are - Solid black with a shinny body, from what I can tell that's the main physical difference between Bumble and Carpenter Bees. BBees are fuzzy, Carpenters are shinny. I did some reading and found that they usually have a sentinel - The odd thing is that the Sentinel has no stinger...The others, however, do. I've had some good closeup looks as they hovered in front of my face but can't say I've seen a stinger, but I'm plenty happy not investigating that completely.

I've been looking for the nest, but I'm in a residential area and don't have access everywhere. Maybe I can wait in the garage where they like to pin me down and try to get a full swing with the rake to pin him to the ground then stomp like a madman.

Not the Bronson approach I'd like but effective. Uncle Jack would probably just clap it with his hands and call me a wuss but he's not here.

[mineengineer]

How I got rid of them

A long time ago, I had an old two story detatched garage/shop in Tennessee that had a bottom floor that was open to the outside and carpenter bees (probably between 100 to 200 of them) had invaded the ground at the enterance to the garage doors and were working on drilling a million 3/8 inch diameter holes into all the oak joists and main beam of the second floor. I observed them for a few days and saw that they lived in the ground at night and went to work on the oak joists during the day. One day I waited until a mojority of them were boring into the joists and took some "great stuff" spray insulation and some old latex caulking I had laying around and started filling the holes in the wood with the caulk and foam insulation. This caused them to try and back out of the holes but the caulk and foam stuck to their bodies and they fell to the ground and died. Others never made it out of their wooden tombs and a few were stuck at the enterance to their tunnels. For the next few weeks more of the bees would come out of the ground and fly around the shop, kinda confussed becouse their holes were 'gone'. I used a 1 by 4 about four feet long and used the remaining flying bees for batting practice, keeping track of where they landed on the ground and made sure that i steped on them to finishe them off. Getting whacked with a 1 by 4 stuns them enough to give you time to step on them. Never had one sting me during this batting practice. I also rototilled and sprayed the areas on the ground with bugspray outside the garage door where I knew that they lived. This method of attack worked for me but your results may vary based on how mean your carpenter bees are, mine were laid back country bees. Be safe and careful, especially if your allergic to the little buggers.

[Tom Slick]

Did it look like this?

Stolen from http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2006/12/3...enter-bee.html

This site may help
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef611.asp

A insecticide/repellent with d-limonene may help to repel them and is non-toxic. I use "orange guard" around the house.


side note: do you get the big "June bugs" and Japanese Beetles in Fresno?

[rjwaldren]

That's the one, I will disagree with the docile assessment though. But all insects have calmed down a bit now that I stopped using the Fructis hair gel that my wife bought me.

I imagine you see a wide range of oddities with the climate in your area. We do see June Bugs but not in any significant quantity. One thing that I never noticed when I was younger are the Cicadas. I'd never seen them until I moved to Texas, when I moved back they were here too. Until this year I hadn't seen many hornets either. About 6 miles north of here there's swath about a mile wide that used to see what we call grain beetles. My parents used to live smack in the middle of it, they were everywhere when the lights went out. Years ago the University introduced a new "weed" to the area that has helped keep it under control.

[Ed62]

[REALLY not trying to stir the pot, just humor]

Have them join the Carpenter's Union, they won't work a day after that.

[/REALLY not trying to stir the pot, just humor]

Ooooooo! That's nasty!

Ed

[Ed62]

We had carpenter bees around here. I used to find them hanging around the grape vines, but they didn't appear to be aggressive at all. I did my work right next to them with no problem. I don't think their disposition is unlike the bumble bee.

Ed

[Hellrazor]

Buy a tennis racket and get some excercise...

[Tom Slick]

I imagine you see a wide range of oddities with the climate in your area.

We surprisingly don't have many bugs, the Valley has much more than we do. My parents live in Porterville, they get a lot of June bugs, especially the big stripped ones with horns.

[just started]

Buy a tennis racket and get some excercise...

Actually, buy this 'tennis racket' and fry them.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=40122

[Mrk67mark]

If you can find the nest, try using boric acid. It's worked for me in the past.
Mark

[toolguy1000]

to the best of my knowledge, carpenter bees are not a "central nesting" insect like wasps, hornets and bumble bees. my experience with them has been confined to our 85 year old home. like rjwaldren, i tried several off the shelf pesticides to no avail. called a local exterminator who used a powder insecticide applied to the perfectly round holes each bee bores into wood. he had them dropping like, well, like flies. once the house was resided with vinyl, the problem was all but eliminated, and then i added an outdoor deck of pressure treated pine. 2009 has been the worst year since the residing, but i have a new solution for them. i watch individual bees between 9 and 10 am and then between 5 and 6 pm. as they hover to start nibbling or re-enter their holes, i swat them with a broom, which usually knocks them to the ground. they crush very well once they are down. killed eight so far this year and sealed the hole of the one i missed, with him inside. if you've no desire to swat them personnally, call an exterminator who knows what he is doing and the problem can be quickly mitigated fairly easily. woodtherapist's exterminator is a good example of someone who had no idea what he was doing.