Carpenter Bees Solution

My barn was infested with CBees. I read a post on this board suggesting putting bubble gum in the openings, another suggested painting them. I tried spraying red paint (spray can, Wal-Mart $0.98), They I tried expanding foam into the holes (dripped all over, ooozed out and left interesting effect in th barn ceiling rafters and a real mess on me).

A neighbor suggested fuel-oil and I bought a gallon of diesel for $2.75 and sprayed the ceiling using a garden sprayer. Really Soaked everything in site. Next day - still had bees. So, I sprayed another gallon (covering some spots I missed and making sure everything was dieseled completely. Next day, still some bees hanging about. Maybe fewer, hard to tell as they are not easily distinguishable, one from the other (save those that got sprayed with the red paint on day one).

Now, a couple of weeks later, there are No Bees in the Barn.

And, I also tried another trick. I broke up a few old roofing shingles and put them in the bottom of a wide-mouth jar. Then, covered them with diesel fuel and let it sit like a container of Sun Tea.

Makes a really good stain for OUTDOOR projects kids are not likely to chew. I put it on and let it soak into the wood, then repeat until it looks as if the wood will absorb no more. Let it sit in the out of doors until it dies to the touch, then "install it."

No way to tell yet if the properties of the ingredients of this "stain" will protect the project for years and years, but I think it may do quite nicely. It appears that the bird feeder sheds water like a duck.

'course, I may expire soon from the toxins . .

Reply to
Hoosierpopi
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Not if you smoke next to what you did.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

How can you be sure that the diesel fule caused the carpenter bees to leave? Maybe they were about to leave the barn anyway!

Reply to
Larry W

Tue, Jun 19, 2007, 10:29am (EDT-3) snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (Hoosierpopi) doth sayeth: My barn was infested with CBees. I read a post on this board A neighbor suggested fuel-oil and I bought a gallon of diesel for $2.75 and sprayed . Maybe fewer, hard to tell as they are not easily distinguishable, one from the other (save those that got sprayed with the red paint on day one).

Good man. ALWAYS believe every single post you read here.

You must have missed the post about using alchol tho. For the bees, but a little later for yourself is never bad.

Next time paint numbers on them, so you can keep an accurate account when your report back.

I found a site a long time back that says if you hang a chunk of

2X4 or similar up, outside, with about 3/8" holes drilled upwards at a slight angle, the bees will congretate there and leave structures alone. I've not tested that theory, nor heard feedback from anyone that has.

JOAT If a man does his best, what else is there?

- General George S. Patton

Reply to
J T

You ought to. Killing bees is totally unnecessary.

Reply to
Mike

Maybe I'm jumping into the middle of something, but bees are a long way from carpenter ants, which by their very nature, are very destructive.

Not sure which is worse, termites or carpenter ants, but with either one, it is time for a fumigator.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

We used Timbor on our boat house. You can get it on line or maybe at a local exterminator. Bora-care is another. It's borax based so a box of

20 mule team borax from the grocery store might be cheaper. It's also good for termites and a good wood preservative. I know of a wood fence installer that sprays it on every job
Reply to
Jody

And if you were thinking of honeybees, just about as far away in usefulness as a carpenter bee, as well.

That said, dousing a barn in diesel fuel is a pretty stupid way to try to eliminate them... :(

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Reply to
dpb

Yep ... we use an environmental pest control company that sprays the entire frame, top to bottom, of our new houses with a water soluble borate powder.

Reply to
Swingman

Keep it up guys, US Borax, in Boron, CA, is a good customer.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

with the deaths of most of the wild honeybee hives, carpenter and mason bees (with are native to America, unlike honeybees) are the major wild pollinators again

Reply to
Ralph E Lindberg

On Jun 20, 8:32 am, Ralph E Lindberg wrote: > In article , dpb wrote: > > Lew Hodgett wrote: > > > Mike wrote: > . Killing bees is totally unnecessary.

  1. Nope, not sure if it worked or it was their time to leave. 1a. Will have to wait and see what happens next Spring.
  2. Did not kill the bees, they flew off.
  3. The distractor post with holes sounds interesting, but they liked the INSIDE of the structure - none bored through the outside. 3a. Holes would (need to) be about 1/2" for these bees
  4. Hard to fumigate a barn like mine as it is not sealed
  5. "Hmmm, Borax." I heard of a salt solution and recal spraying same in Florida for termite protection.
Reply to
Hoosierpopi

A cigarette will not ignite gasoline, let alone diesel fuel.

Reply to
HeyBub

No, but a diesel-soaked timber will surely burn nicely from what may have otherwise been an easily controllable fire... :(

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Reply to
dpb

Lots of carpenter bees on the crape myrtles. Well maybe not carpenter bees but they are bigger than the honey bees that stung me as a barefoot child walking under the apple tree that was dropping fruit. Bigger than the honey bees Dad, brother and grandfather kept.

Reply to
Jim Behning

Those may be bumblebees, which are also beneficial as pollinators.

Reply to
B A R R Y

Know there's a problem in some areas, don't know about "most"...saw a study results indicating a multitude of causes, largest of which seemed to be "unknown"... :(

I did look and found that carpenter bees of more use as pollinators than what I had thought--interesting to know.

Reply to
dpb

All the honeybees! - about 20% around here (NE USA) seems to be a cyclical die off according to the local beekeepers.

Reply to
TH

I get some e-mails from time to time from a bee keeper in North-Central (Ashland County) Ohio indicating a loss of local honey bees.

Here in SoCal, the Africanized bees have arrived.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

RE: Subject

When I was a kid, my mother would pick blackberries and make blackberry preserves.

She would pour the preserves in pint canning jars, then pour a paraffin seal over the preserves to seal.

We lived out in the country, in the middle of a woods.

One year, carpenter ants got into the house, found the preserves, and bored thru the paraffin seal and into the preserves.

Probably lost at least 2/3 of that year's jars.

Hell of loss.

I don't have much sympathy for carpenter ants/

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

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