Bumble Bees

[D6c]

A few years ago we started seeing a new kind of bumble bee that bores large holes in the framing lumber of pole buildings etc.
The holes are on the underside and almost 1/2" in diameter and 1/2 - 3/4" deep.

They're flying all around the sawmill right now (fortunatly they're not agressive).
It got me wondering....do they ever bother lumber that's stack drying?  I'd hate to have a bunch of holes drilled in lumber I've sawed.

You can tell where they're working by the little piles of sawdust below the holes.



 

 

[btulloh]

Carpenter bees. Your lumber will be a target. They can be hard to control. 

[Southside]

Yup, technically a pollinator, but they sure do come with a lot of baggage. 

[A-z farmer]

They are very destructive wood boring bees.this is a picture of my uncles California red wood house built in 1970

 

[Unclefish]

Start building Carpenter Bee traps right away. Watch YouTube videos . Best 1 I built so far is a pine 4 bye drill 9/16 hole on angle all 4 sides and 3/4 hole going up with a 3/4 hole into jar.


 

[RichTired]

The traps work very well.  I found that if you put a bee or two in the jar it really attracts others.

[YellowHammer]

We use lots of bee traps ourselves, we have 8 hanging from the barn.

These bugs are brutal on air drying wood, but....you can trick them.  They really, really like pine, as shown in your photo.  So years ago, I started making all my pallet runners out of pine, and they much prefer to hit those sacrificial pine runners more so than the hardwood stacked on them.  They go for the easy wood, and my pallets are just huge bee traps.  

Guess what happens when those pallets of lumber go into the kiln?  Deep broiled bugs.  Yep, my favorite kind.  My kiln floor is littered with their carcasses.  I love using their own instincts against them.  So bottom line, they can be dealt with.  

For your building, get a good pyrethrum with residual such as Delta Dust, which is safe enough to be labeled for use in kitchens, and mix some in Vaseline, spackle their holes with the concoction, and they will all die.  

Did I mention I hate bugs?  

[farmfromkansas]

Don't know how to catch those first 2 live bees to put in your trap?  Maybe you could advise.  I make stickers from any 3/4" boards not nailed down around farm, picked up a couple stored in my pole shed once, was ripping away in shop and found a tunnel with bees probably 3' long going long ways with grain, before I could get the bees all swatted, a couple woke up and took off flying around the shop.

[WDH]

Even dead ones in the trap will attract the live ones.

[D6c]

Do they kill the native bumble bees or is that something else like wasps.  Last year there were many dead native bumble bees lying around.

[btulloh]

Not sure, but I don't think so.  Bumble bees here have been affected by some the same problems that are hurting the honey bee population.  Not near as many as there used to be.  Same with wasps, but I don't mind seeing fewer of those.  Japanese hornets seem to be doing OK, and they will kill off other bees and wasps.  The carpenter bees don't seem to be affected by any of those problems.  I need to make some of those traps.

[Don P]

Do they kill the native bumble bees or is that something else like wasps.  Last year there were many dead native bumble bees lying around.

If you're using insecticides around the farm or planting stuff with systemics it might be worth taking a second look at.

[MikeON]

A few days ago I spent about an hour shooting carpenter bees out of the air with a .22 revolver with bird shot.  Got about 8 of them.  I made one of those traps a few years ago but no bees did it catch. Might have to catch one or 2 bees for decoys as mentioned.

[Everest123]

As others have posted, do NOT let carpenter bees get a foothold.  Traps and spraying / plugging any holes is really important.  Fortunately I have not found any attacks on my air drying hardwood lumber, but my sheds made with hardwoods are constantly targeted.  To give an idea of what can happen, I purchased my grandfather's old house in the mountains after he passed, and immediately I had to replace two decks, all the siding, all the soffit, and the fascia boards on the entire house.  Everything was eaten up by carpenter bees.

Another issue - the woodpeckers that come after the larva.  It's a 1-2 punch.  

One a lighter note, the males do not sting but act all tough.  Get yourself a badminton racket and go to town on them.

[farmfromkansas]

My grand daughters think I am a fantastic shot, because I can shoot a bee on the fly.  I use bird shot too.

[Unclefish]

So I put these up yesterday but I added the water bottle neck so they can't get out. Working perfect and killing them dam Carpenter Bees. And these are 1 bye wood nailed together.



 

 

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

Carpenter bees come back to the same hole, year after year.  The holes they make are their nests and not food, so spraying or treating the wood is not very effective, as the do not eat the wood.  The one sure way to control them is to squirt some insecticide for bees into the hole, which will kill them on contact.  Then take a dowel and plug the hole.