help, carpenter bees eating house

I had the bees boring into my garage when I lived in Missouri. I just took a caulking gun with silicon caulking in it and sealed up the holes....wa la no more bees flyin' around. It might be a good idea to do it at night when the bees are asleep.

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My son and I had a contest several years ago to see how many we could kill with a piece of lattice. He beat me he killed 34 and I killed 31 just slapping them out of the air. But it did cut down on the number I had the next year.

Gary

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I've seen the tennis racket zappers at Harbor Freight.

The strip attached to the underside of the bench was most likely a no-pest strip that contained DDVP. It is no longer legal, and far more toxic to people than the Bayer product you bought. I don't know which product you bought, but almost anything dangerous has been taken off the market.

Bee borers come out twice a year, early spring when the weather warms and early fall (octoberish). They will eat any kind of wood but prefer soft wood, painted, stained or not.They do damage to the eves of our log house, because the wood is softer. The bore a hole straight in then it makes a right turn. We spray the eves twice a year with either Diazianon or Malathion (not sure of the spellings). If you spray as soon as you notice them, they will leave your place alone and move on to some other wood. If you do find a hole, soak a piece of cotton in the Diaziznon/Malathion and stuff it into the hole making sure to get it into that right angle if possible. Next seal the hole with wood caulking and re-stain/re-paint. The soaked cotton ball will kill the emerging babies. If you do not close up the holes, the bees will return each year to the hole they've made and lay more eggs. Good luck, there is no safe or natural way to get rid of them as they will bore in places you haven't even thought to look. Spraying your eves and other soft wood twice a year will keep them at bay.

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My grandpa always plugged their holes up with a piece of carved wood.

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We sprayed expanding foam insulation into the holes when they showed up at our place a few years ago. We haven't seen any since. I guess word got around.

I have carpenter bees and have never had problems with them. They have never bothered the wood on living structures here. They are not very aggressive, but are very curious.

They can be pretty helpful with pollination. I consider that good enough reason not to kill them off.

I spray my place regularly which might be why I don't have problems with them in or around my home. I spray under, around and to the top, beginning in spring and continuing until fall. I spray for ticks, brown recluses and the like, and have never sprayed for the carpenter bees, but don't nhave problems with them.

I'm a bit surprised that they upset people so badly. It's easy to coexist with them, and they are pretty good little pollinators.

Carpenter bees are not the best pollinators by far. The do make a pollen substance for the egg to feed upon and wrap it in a section of a leaf, but they are no where close to the pollinating machines of the european honey bee.

Malathion, dursban, and diazanon have all been removed from the market -- too dangerous.

A thick coat of paint is probably the most successful prevention, but wood stain does not work nearly as well.

The wife and I make a game of killing them with a badminton racket. NAver have been stung, but wer both pretty quick!

Brett

Shouldn't all these busy little mason bees and carpenter bees be building our houses?
Who ever hired them in the first place, fire them.

Carpenter bees are a pain in the butt :P Bang a bit on the wood to chse some of them out, then fill the holes partway with that expandable foam stuff. Sand and paint the wood...you should be good then

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I came home last week to find my husband out with the bb gun shooting them.

We're going to spray the house and fills the holes. I get so tired of stepping in sawdust everytime I go out on the porch!

To the person who said it is easy to coexist with them obviously doesn't have carpenter bees. I refuse to coexist with something eating my house!

I have carpenter bees, bumble bees, honey bees and mason bees. I spray my house regularly anyway so have never had problems with them on the house. Outside, they're usually too busy in the flowers to bother with me.

As for their insignificance as pollinators, there is increasing call for people not to kill them because of decreasing numbers of bees in general. Because there are fewer numbers of bees, the pollination done by carpenter bees is becoming more important.

Carpenter bees are also recognized as important pollinators of open-faced fruit blossoms, like apple, and corn, passion flower and pole beans. There is a danger of them damaging flowers but I have not found that to be too much of a problem, maybe because I plant so much.

Finally, maintaining good populations of many kinds of bees is just a smart idea.

http://pollinator.com/carpenter.htm

Hey! I just whacked/electricuted a carpenter bee with my tennis racket thingy today! So satisfying! The kids love to "smoke" wasps with it, but I make them go outside since it stinks up the house.

That's optimistic, but doomed to failure. I have painted my house 2 years ago and have tried all of the home remidies. If you calk without killing, they just bore straight ahead and out.
I finally ponied up for a pro exterminator. It was expensive, but they treated three times through out the year. I thought I had it whipped, but just saw another one in the same place this spring.

Well, us Rednecks just take the can-o-carb cleaner, stick the little red hose into the hole, and give er a good squirt. then i go tear off a piece of steel wool, and stick it in the hole. Aint never had a problem with em comin back.

They are only bad here during the first few weeks of spring. I have a lot of fun shooting them with a .22 revolver loaded with rat shot Don't kill'em all though, cuz in a couple months you'll see those bees pollinating your squashes and all.

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They ate (and are still eating) at our old home place, parts of which were built prior to the Civil War, and it is still standing. I just let them go about their business at my house now. They drill a few holes, but I suspect the house will be standing as long as I am...and if not, it will not be the bees that cause its demise.

a couple of bees is one thing, but seeing as how there have probably been as many as 100 males out buzzing in my yard (well, the front 2-acre portion where the house, outbuildings, and most of the wooden fencing is) at one time. i'd get on my porch and there would be 5 or 6 all attacking me (yes, i know they can't sting, but they still bug the crud out of me and make my friends nervous)-same thing with going to get the mail. i've used some wasp killer type sprays but they haven't been all that effective, so i've taken to walking around the yard with a can of wd-40 and a zippo and setting those bloody things on fire when i can. usually there are only one or two at most around my porch now, but they're all over my outbuildings, which i would actually like to use. i don't have a problem with bees in general, but when you have 100+ of them who spend most of their time harassing me or eating anything wooden that has any value to me, that dog don't hunt. so i've declared war. i think i'll pull out the tennis racquet next time i go out after them-easier to hit them with than the windblown fireballs off of a can of wd40. sealing up the holes will be incredibly difficult, given the number and location of them, so i think for now i'm just going to do my best to keep the population count down. once i get it down enough, maybe i can spray and fill the nests. it will be tough to concentrate at the top of a 15-foot ladder with several big obnoxious flying things buzzing loudly around my head, so maybe if i wipe them out i'll have better luck.. too bad i don't know of a good attractant type trap, like half empty beercans or ones that use rotting beef like work with some other bees/wasps/etc. i don't want to spray evil insecticide stuff around plants i'm growing to eat, i just want them gone, as quickly as possible. the ones that aren't right up here can stay, but this is just ridiculous

I don't think I've encountered a carpenter bee (had not even heard that term until now) but I do raise Mason 'Bees'.
We are also thrilled to have a colony of Red tailed Bumblebees move into our backup compost bin this year.
We welcome all pollinators. If one has the potential to damage, we build what they need or do what we need to do to protect our buildings (paint). Mason bee homes are very easy to make and there are also inexpensive house kits available. They have been very busy here and we may end up making yet another home for them.

I worry about the lack of pollinators in the future so I want to do what I can now to help propogate native species.
DH is highly allergic to all bee and wasp species and this is why we do not raise European honeybees, even though we'd really like to have the honey.
Bumblebees are very gentle and are not likely to sting. They favor purple flowers.
Mason bees could care less that you even exist.