Carpenter bees

Found sawdust from hole being bored that was hidden by the garage door either open or closed. Viewable only when door is open and then a crack about 2" for access. Tried spackle but she just knocked it out. Yesterday tried Liquid Nails and this morning it's still in place. DAGS and suggestions boil down to gluing in a dowel but access precludes that for us. Now to the big box for something for Fire Ants. Have read that Amdro (SP?) works for them. Moved from So. Calif to Georgia in December so we're experiencing more than merely a different spectrum of birds.

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nospambob
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Welcome to Georgia. Only been to California (San Fancisco) once, so my experience is limited, but I think that you'll find the climate a bit different - air gets humid enough in the mid-late summer that you'll wonder whether you're breathing or drinking . On a visit, my Brother-in-Law, who was living in San Francisco at the time, commented at our Labor Day cookout that he now knew why it's so green here. Lived here all my life myself and dunno if I'd like it anywhere else.

For Carpenter Bee control visit

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it is an article from the Ga Extension Service. They have a great newsletter that you can get free if you shop around the Extension Service site for the signup link.

Amdro works and works well in my experience. It also appears to be not really toxic to higher species - I had some ducklings following behind me eating the stuff as I put it out a few years back. They probably ate a quarter cup or so between the four of them and it didn't hurt em a bit. Wish I had seen them eating the stuff sooner though - had to re-treat those mounds.

You should note that Amdro is not an instant fix - it takes a little time between application and an empty mound. Dunno your level of infestation, but if you use Amdro to knock the number of mounds back drastically this year, you'll only have to treat a few here and there in the future as new colonies establish from queens flying in from surrounding areas. Keep a close eye on the edges and expansion joints of your driveway and concrete walkways - those are favored locations for fire ants to establish colonies.

You can buy stuff that keeps the fire ants down all summer (their claim, but I'm skeptical) and stuff that guarantees a quick kill, but I'd be afraid of the toxic effect - particularly if I had young kids. Fire ants are a *lot* less harmful (unless you're allergic to their sting) than the stuff that the chemical companies try to say you've gotta use to have a "safe" yard. Even though it's not fun to get mixed up in a nest of fire ants, they don't come out for your throat whenever you set foot outdoors like the ads on TV would have you believe.

Although I haven't heard of any releases in Ga, Fla has had several releases of flies to control fire ants and what I've heard is positive. As I understand, the flies are self sustaining in the wild now and spreading.

Hmmm - as I was typing, a new newsletter article came in from the Extension Service. Since you are new to the area, you may find the info useful. This URL will take you to the article -

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Hope I've been of help.

Later, Mike (substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)

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Reply to
Michael Strickland

For cbee's, should put moth balls in the holes before filling. Don't remember why but I guess it is so they won't make another entrance to the same chambers.

But I didn't know about the mothballs when I used plastci wood, and they haven't been back for several years.

I didn't print the URL, because I printed out all I thought I would ever need, but search on carpenter bee 'Michigan State university Extension' . If you find 10 pages of pretty serious material, you found what I found. You can add Xylocopa to the search words also,

Or maybe the whole first line "Two species of Xylocopa, or carpenter bees, occur in the eastern U.S. Xylocopa vinginica is found from Maine to Wisconsin and south to florida and Texas."

Does anyone know if it helps to have the words in the same order as the the website has it, when searching?

Cbees are unlikely to sting, have to be held and provoked, and the sting is mild. But I wouldn't assume this is true if I were on a ladder. Heck, even if one innocently flies in your mouth, it might be enough to knock you off. I had no problem. they weren't there all the time. Most of them were out when I sealed their holes. I guess they moved to my neighbors' -- is that my fault?

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mm

:) Have read that Amdro (SP?) works for them. Moved from So. :) Calif to Georgia in December so we're experiencing more than merely a :) different spectrum of birds.

Amdro can work , just a bit slow, but it can be helpful when spread like fertilizer to help keep future beds from forming. For existing mounds any general liquid insecticide , even diluted 1/3 of the label strength will be pretty much an instant fix to the existing beds, though time consuming hunting them all down.

Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!

Dancing dog is back!

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Lar

Another informative response Michael and a BIG thank you! Bee article was interesting and I'll get mail from them on gardening.

Ant mounds are near the road, about 150 yards away from the house. A few found the expansi>You should note that Amdro is not an instant fix - it takes a little time

Reply to
nospambob

Makes a difference if the words are enclosed in quotes, otherwise search engine *should* find any site with any of the words in them. Within quotes means exact match, without quotes means find these words. This holds true for all of the search engines I've used - YMMV.

Later, Mike (substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)

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Reply to
Michael Strickland

I've never broadcast it like that, it would be too expensive to cover the area I need to cover. Sprinkling some on the mounds as they turn up isn't too time consuming (good excuse to get a little exercise) and works well in my experience.

Later, Mike (substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)

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Reply to
Michael Strickland

You're welcome. I think you'll enjoy the articles they send out.

Sounds like you don't have a bad problem - only a few around the house itself. Even though it says 3 days to kill the queen (may actually be more than one according to what I've read), it'll take a bit longer for all the workers to die off.

Sometime around the middle of next month, take your Amdro with you on a walk around your property and sprinkle a little on any new mounds that have turned up. If you follow this procedure a few times each summer, you should never have a problem with fire ants - has worked for me. It's particularly important to take one of those walks first thing in the spring so you can knock the colonies out before they produce mating swarms - takes a few weeks after the weather warms in spring for the new queens and drones to mature. IIRC you need to do it when the temp is >65F.

I have several articles I've collected over the years about fire ants and their control. If you're interested, send me an email (address is mangled, but fixable below) and I'll send them to you.

Just remember that you'll never be rid of them completely because new queens will colonize your property from surrounding areas - and they can fly some distance, particularly if they can ride the wind on swarm day.

Later, Mike (substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)

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Reply to
Michael Strickland

If you have fruit trees or a garden, you might want to make a carpenter bee roosting (actually, egg-laying) board with straws instead of just killing them off. They're the best pollinators you can have, and really, really not much on stinging you, much less so than regular honeybees, wasps, etc. There are all sorts of kits available online.

Fire ants, though, I can't tolerate. I'm terribly allergic. I try to be really careful to make SURE they're fire ants - red, tiny, or red and black halved and tiny - before treating the mounds. The regular old solid-black ants (remember those?) if left alone will claim territory and help to keep the fire ants out, as long as you don't poision the good ant mounds.

I'm a chemical engineer and a gardener, so I prefer going the lowest-impact route. A solution of orange oil, a few tablespoons molasses, and a 2-3 gallons of BOILING water poured on a mound (you can add a few drops of dish soap, too) has never failed to kill a fire ant mound for me. Amdro HAS failed a few times, requiring a second-dose, etc. Depends on if you can safely carrry the boiling water.

It does leave a small patch of dead grass, sometimes, but that quickly goes away - and the molasses actually acts as a fertilizer, so your grass will come back even better than before - and no poison in the ground!

Samatha

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Samantha

I'm not sure. In the stream behind my house I see these migrating ducks. I'm scared to go back there, 'cause some are 200 pounds. Now I know why.

Reply to
mm

Must be something else working on those ducks, mine had no effects whatsoever

- unless it made em dumb. Seems they insisted on sleeping on the bank instead of the island I built for em and the local foxes have disposed of them over time.

Later, Mike (substitute strickland in the obvious location to reply directly)

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Reply to
Michael Strickland

IMHO:

I've found that leaving the hole open and dusting the inside with posion, works best for me. The female will come out, covered in dust. She will try an flee, but I've seen males jump her and get dust covered too. This way I got several bees with one treatment. With the hole open, later female will try and save time and investigate the hole, and become poisioned.

Since carpenter bees seem to rather reuse other holes than create new ones, if you can kill them immediately, then you shouldn't get new holes.

hth,

tom @

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Tom The Great

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