Easy solution to Carpenter Bees!

[Broncman]

Been fighting a nasty infestation of carpenter bees at my shop and new mill shed. I tried tennis rackets,now I have tennis elbow, even shot them with CCI shot shells in 22 LR and 9 MM pistols!

Was worried about insecticide not getting in the holes and way to many holes for me to climb  a ladder and spray and plug.

Citrus oil! Read it somewhere that they hate citrus oil. Found some  ZEP brand citrus degreaser at Lowes. Mixed half gallon to a gallon of water and sprayed all my sheds, eaves and beams.

Was skeptical at first. Now 2 months later I have NO BEES! They have moved! 

Cheap solution that is working so far.

Ken

[jpassardi]

You have my interest - those things love my board and batten pine siding.  :-[

[Andries]

@customsawyer 

[Broncman]

I am very skeptical of most remedies, but I was loosing the battle. So far it has absolutely worked. I will keep an eye on them. 

If you try it,  and it works for you, let us know.  I hope it ain't just a fluke for me.

I need to go check all my dad's barns.

[Bert]

Looking forward to trying this. The once a year treatment cost for my white pine log home and garage siding has tripled and the exterminator treatment leaves a lot to be desired regarding appearance. (White pesticide running down the side of the house). Its effective, but ugly and expensive.

I do notice they tend to not be as apparent by late spring. Hopefully, they have truly moved on and not just in the nesting stage or whatever they do.

[SawyerTed]

I'm gonna have to try it!  Citrus oil products are common and easy to apply. 

I have friend who has a drone he uses frequently at his auto salvage yard.  He says the drone scares carpenter bees and Japanese hornets away completely.  

[Broncman]

I have heard that noise will .It could be nesting season is over?? Not sure. I live in an Appalachian style log home but it is painted gray. Never had any bee problems here. I put up a privacy fence and one appeared this spring. 

I had bought some pesticide called Demand CS in case the citrus did not work. My shop is 15 miles away.

I used the Demand CS at home and it killed spiders, the bee and anything else that crawls across it. 

It was recommended by a friend who's an exterminator. Supposedly it is non toxic to humans and pets and leaves behind particles that stick to insects and they carry it to other nests.

If the citrus stops at my shop, I will dose it with the  Demand CS.

[scsmith42]

The active ingredient in citrus oil is d-limonene.  You can buy it by the quart, gallon, etc off of e-bay.  It makes a great thinner for tung oil too.

[YellowHammer]

I will try it next year, but nesting season is mostly over here in North Alabama, I'm not seeing many carpenter bees now.  A month ago?  Covered up.  We run 8 traps just on our barn alone.  They seem to be real bad in April and May. 

Then the woodpeckers come in and do double damage pecking out the bugs.  

 

[Brad_bb]

Nesting season is over here.  So I wouldn't chalk it up just yet.  You need to do a test next year from the beginning.

[customsawyer]

I use the bee traps too. I wonder sometimes if they don't attract them.

[Rhodemont]

I have a long fly swatter hanging on the barn door.  Must look ridiculous but I stand in the doorway until they come look me in the eye and then whack them. There were some still around but have not seen them in past week.  Citrus sounds easier.

[Chuck White]

CS, I have one of your design traps hanging in the back of my garage (for 4yrs), and so far don't have anything in it but a couple of fly's and gnats, do you put any bait in the traps?

I'm pretty sure that there are no Carpenter Bees here, never seen any!

[boonesyard]

They came in on our crane matts 2 yrs ago, and they spread from there. Made 6 traps and hung them around where we see them the most. It made a big difference last year, caught a lot of carpenter bees. I'll try the citrus mix. 

[customsawyer]

I never put anything in them for bait. They do say that once you have caught some and you need to empty the jar don't dump them all out. Leave one or two in the jar as their scent will attract more into the trap.

[firefighter ontheside]

I will have to keep this in mind.  They nest in my log home logs, mostly in the exposed ends of the upper purlins.  I pay my kids in nickels to swat them with a stick.  It's fun.  I try to fill all the holes with caulk of a matching color to my logs.  Sometimes you will see where a bee chewed its way out thru the caulk.

[DanL]

Controlling the Carpenter bees is a multi- front extended war. Each weapon is used in conjunction with the other for sometimes several years. I have a western cedar 2 story house and it took me 3 years to reduce the carpenter bee population to tolerable/manageable  levels. One has to break up the Carpenter bee life cycle. The bees overwinter in the galleries that they build. When emerging in spring, the females are the first to hover preferring to locate nests in old gallery holes. At least one female and sometimes multiple females will return each year to the same hole where they were born. The females are searching for nesting galleries or preparing to drill a new gallery in the same or near the same location where they were raised. If you do nothing the numbers will go up each year. After the start of nesting, the ones you see hovering are the males out competing to breed. The males are fun to kill but the females are your target. The females hang close to or inside the galleries.

The serious damage is done by woodpeckers drilling for the buzzing bees in the gallery. Stop the bees and you stop the woodpeckers.

Replace or caulk up wood that has old galleries. If caulking, use a GOOD silicone base caulk. Latex does not always stop them. They will drill right through it.

Then, You need to put up traps. Place traps where you observe the bees hovering around eaves and such. Place many traps out and monitor them. Some traps will never catch a bee. Move it to a different location. Some traps will catch many bees. Leave some dead ones in the reservoir each time you unload it because they are attracted to the hormones left in the dead bodies. I have some traps the fill up many times over in a season.

If you can get to the carpenter bee gallery entrance hole, it is best to treat the gallery with a commercial foaming spray like spectracide carpenter bee spray. One can also treat the gallery opening with a home-made "Bee butter". I found the recipe on the interweb.
I fill a  large syringe without a needle with "bee butter". Use a length of tubing on the tip of the syringe to place a small bead of the "bee butter' at the gallery entrance hole. Upon entering or exiting the hole, the bee will get a small amount of material on itself. This is enough to kill them quickly.

Possibly spray with citrus oil as mentioned in an earlier post. I have not tried this approach but will try it.

Pay your kids to swat them with a racquet ball or tennis racket. I put a racquet on different length length bamboo poles to reach the high fliers. I keep the racquets in easy reach or access for when needed.

I also load a .62 caliber smoothbore blackpowder pistol with old polishing media or grits and do a little wing shooting.

I see a few Carpenter bees each year now and attack at all angles. However, I no longer have the swarms destroying my house and out buildings. Each year that you diminish the local population means fewer will return to your specific location the following year. However, there will always be some searching for new locations and these are the ones you will also need to pay attention to each year.

Good luck on your BEE WAR!

DanL

[JD Guy]

We also battle the carpenter bees. Traps do work but as stated above you will have to move them around to find the best "catch" locations. I don't know if it's true but have been told that the plugged hole just encourages the bees to chew out the other side. I've not tried this however. I like the idea of something citrus that's not harmful to helpful insects like honey bees. Thanks all for the information.