Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Carpenter Bees

i used aerosol bee killer for two years, got rid of them but they still returned for a few years after that

Cool. I'm going tomorrow to get one of those, too.

Scratch that. Just ordered one off Amazon for $9.97, free shipping.

Looks more real than ours! we just stuffed a medium size paper bag with balls of newspaper to hold the shape, tied the top shut and hung it on the porch.
I think one of her friends on Facebook suggested this. Like I said I was more than skeptical, but thought “well hell, it don’t cost nothing”.
I was very surprised. Even on the other side of the house the damn bees stayed away. My badminton racket layed dormant.
Let us know in a month or so, but I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t cut them down by 75% or more.
7mm

Cool idea. May have to try that.

DF

I went to the University of YouTube this morning to see how to build a trap. Real easy to make out of a 6" long 4x4 and an empty jar. We'll see how it works when the little buggers return.
My neighbor swears by the paper bag method.

HOLY Cow! 65.00 for gas checks?!!!
is that per 1000?
if so I am sitting on a gold mine in my attic. had 2 cases of 10 boxes of 1000 when I closed my shop so I kept them. have used one box.

I don't need no kung fu flu money, I can jump start the economy just selling gas checks!

Yep, per 1K. They only had one box of any brand, I needed em any way. Every once in a while you just gotta take your fuqkin

but as for the bees I used a tennis racket that was battery powered. swat, sizzle, squeak, and done. well done if you held down the button. had a buddy saw me using it on flies wanted to know how powerful it was. stuck his tongue on it and burned a tic tac to game on this tongue.
he's a good guy but not too brite!

After reading this thread, and posting on it, earlier today, I sent my son a link to the salt gun outfit, suggested it might be a good way to shoot his carpenter bees. He sent me back a video of my grandson shooting them down with a salt gun. Seems like he's always one step ahead of me.

It's a simple thing to make a set of punch dies and make gas checks out of soft drink or beer cans. With a little practice at getting the right spacing, I can get 40 or so from each can. After emptying a 6-pack or three for raw material, my work does get a little sloppy, though!
Jerry

There are several different models of the salt gun. The little one for flies doesn't look to good for the mighty Carpenter Bee.
Which model are y'all killing bees with?

Tried some 12 ga 7 1/2 field loads today. More fun than it should have been!

Also, tried some 22 shot shells and they worked just fine too.

As far as the fun-o-meter goes, beats the C^^^p out of spraying them with insecticide!

I face a bigger problem than most of y'all boys. I have a lot of wood for the carpenter bees to chew up, and their buddies the woodpeckers.
There is a log cabin here in Madison County that I have seen that was torn up by woodpeckers, there were holes and gouges, 3 foot long and 8 inches high.
So I have been battling carpenter bees for 24 years. I have 3 of the traps and they kill a lot of bees. I have killed some with the Single Six and that is fun!
And I have slaughtered them with the badminton racquet, on one day, ten years ago I killed 74 of 'em. I have gotten some damage from the woodpeckers, they made a hole 2 inches wide and a foot high in a post, and in a collar tie they made a hole 14 inches long and 3 inches high. Thank God for some reason they stay away from my logs.

And several of y'all said that a paper bag would run them off. I have some plastic horned owls, now it makes sense that the woodpecker would be scared of the horned owl and these plastic owls do a pretty good job of running off the birds.
But that a little bug would know that the paper wasps are an enemy, and would stay away from a fake paper wasp hive, that was hard to believe.




So I tried it anyway. I stapled this bag up 3 days ago. Normally, a sunny April day and 70 degrees, I would have about 80 carpenter bees. Just went outside, I saw one bee and I killed him with the racquet. Now there are no bees. This paper bag works!

Our place is in Mitchell county and I have yet seen one there. Not there much in the spring though.

Like I said, when Penny brought it up, I thought “oh sure.. this is bound to work”!
Glad it’s working for you. Let me know how that Kobalt mower is working out. I’m thinking pretty hard about it.
7mm

Hornets are hell on carpenter bees, when I pulled all the cypress off the house last year hornets were in the Bee tunnels, I’m guessing they were after the nests.
Ronnie