it's that time of year again

5/3/20, 3:51 PM #1

Ralph Lipeles
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Location: Monroe, CT

it's that time of year again

Ralph Lipeles

I live in the North East, Connecticut. In the last few days I've seen a few carpenter bees. They are the big black and white ones. They fly around until the find a piece of wood that they will bore a hole in and lay their eggs. Sometimes I see one that has bored a hole in one of my deck beams. I wait until the bee is fully in the hole and then push in a 3/8" furnitore dowel with some glue swabbed on the end. I mop up the excess glue and after the glue dries, I trim the dowel with a flush cut saw and stain it to match the deck beams.

Re: it's that time of year again

5/3/20, 5:11 PM #2

Barry Irby
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Re: it's that time of year again

Barry Irby

I thought the holes were 10mm.

Re: it's that time of year again

5/3/20, 5:35 PM #3

Kneale Brownson
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Re: Hope you forgot the

kneale brownson

3/8=10mm

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I’m a fairly spry 82-year-old who had been a reader/participant at WoodCentral since the demise of Badger Pond. I started visiting BP to learn something about finish for a project I’d completed and became hooked on internet forums as a way of increasing my knowledge about all sorts of topics. I have been a moderator for a couple other forums on subjects I enjoy. My interest in woodworking began in the early 1970’s when my wife and I had contractors add to our house near Traverse City, MI, and I ended up doing the trim work to reduce mounting costs. I had no tools. I bought a P-C skilsaw, hammer, screwdrivers and one of those wooden miter boxes with a backsaw. I made trim for windows and doors from one-by lumber and started my woodworking career. At the same time, I started a 50-year career as a ski instructor. I got onto the night shift at a mental hospital so I could ski days, and spent my 30s and 40s with that schedule. I eventually replaced the PC-upside-down-in-a-board with a real table saw and began the purchase of enough equipment to fill a jam-packed 40-foot shipping container we used after we sold our property in Michigan. The ski instructing had taken us to Colorado and we were spending too much on maintaining utilities for two homes. A couple years ago, the dozen years spent at 10,000 feet of elevation was making my body produce too many red blood cells, so we had to leave my “forever” home in the mountains and we moved back to Michigan. Now I have to find myself a shop space for all those tools in the container.

Re: it's that time of year again

5/3/20, 5:46 PM #4

Dave Bair
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Re: it's that time of year again

Dave Bair

Another pollinator bites the dust!

Re: it's that time of year again

5/3/20, 5:57 PM #5

Jim DeLaney, Austintown, Ohio
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Location: Austintown, Ohio

Re: it's that time of year again

Jim DeLaney, Austintown, Ohio

Had them in the fascia of my spa enclosure. Got rid of the bees, but a month or so later the woodpeckers bored into the fascia to get at the bee larvae. The woodpeckers did way more damage than the bees.

Re: it's that time of year again

5/3/20, 6:14 PM #6

John K Jordan
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Re: it's that time of year again

John K Jordan

To get rid of them for good (for at least a few years) pump a Sevin mixture into each hole, concentrate available at farm stores already mixed with water. Any queens in the wood at the time will come out and fall on the ground and die. The Sevin coats the inside of the holes and any that hatch and come out later get it on them and die. Since they tend to come back to where they originated to breed, this breaks the cycle and gets rid of them for at least several years, until some opportunists stumble on the site.

I've read where the bees will bore through wooden plugs and caulk plugs. One thing they won't bore through: plug the hole with steel wool then caulk over.

JKJ

Re: it's that time of year again

5/3/20, 7:43 PM #7

Lee Schierer
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A potential solution and a wood project.

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

Our church has exposed wooden beams and wood fascia. The carpenter bees attack it in mass. A few years ago a member purchased some carpenter bee traps and we placed them n the side and back of the church where the bees were concentrated. We captured dozens of them the first year and every year since.

Lee

Re: it's that time of year again

5/4/20, 1:12 AM #8

Craig
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Re: A potential solution and a wood project.

Craig

Lee,

I live in NJ and have this bee problem in a big way! They are all over my cedar deck. Can you describe the bee trap? It looks 'simple'. Can they be shop built? Thanks for any details.

Craig

Re: it's that time of year again

5/4/20, 2:38 AM #9

Lee Schierer
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Re: A potential solution and a wood project. *LINK*

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

Just google carpenter bee trap, there are lots of designs. Basically you create a chamber with 3/8 inch holes angled upward on each side with a large hole leading to the clear jar or bottle below. The bees enter the pre-made hole and the only light they see is the hole below. They check in, but can't get out.

As an alternate a badminton racquet and a good back hand will do them in as well as give you some exercise.

Lee

Carpenter bee trap

Re: it's that time of year again

5/5/20, 2:27 AM #10

Craig
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Re: A potential solution and a wood project.

Craig

Thanks. After I posted the question I did turn to Google and found the designs you mentioned. I have used the badminton racquet approach. It works for the first 3 or 4 then the rest seem to get wise to it!

it's that time of year again

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