Well in addition to record pollen I am battling record carpenter bees(at least 3-4 times as many as last year).I want to keep cedar look but with a synthetic siding.Anyone looked into this?Am also going to replace asphalt shingles with a metal roof .Open to ideas.

Tennis racket works great.

tennis racket + kids + pay per kill = less carpenter bees

I have tried everything to get rid of them...............next stop, vinyl siding

Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest.

Hilarious!

I got 30 this past week with the racket.

I used to do that as a kid.  I remember one bush in front of our house in particular that always had a hive there.  Go up, hit bush with racket, start swinging like crazy.



 

You need to work Kids + Air guns into your equation.

I've used a 2x4, but this works equally well.



 

The speed at which those fuckers can bore into wood is impressive.

I had some on my garage at my old house - ended up using deck sealer on the parts they had gotten into.

A hive of capenter bees....

I know;I let it go.

I thought last year was a banner year for those critters (Xylocopa virginica ), but this year is insane too.

Just did some reading  on these things, since I have a few hovering (males) near my garage, I did not know only the female can sting, and,  they cannot see red light..... hmm.......

.22lr ratshot.

Bayer Insecticide for Carpenter Bees. Mine are boring into the ground. Terminex guy said he had never seen anything like that.

Jesus was a carpenter.

So the bees are divine?

Update:just went out with a Prince 110 I got at a garage sale for a buck.Males are easy.Now I am hearing mass activity in the walls as if the force had been disturbed.But at the same time a bunch of black and white wasps are now going into the holes.Are they going after the bees?I didn't think carpenter bees had predators except maybe woodpeckers. Thanks for the suggestion,Cletus.

Bug spray + lighter = win.

Drione for bees.

Ive noticed that the bees keep the wasps away.  Id rather deal with the bees cause they wont bother you.

My wife hates them and has order some sort of traps.  Best I can tell they are hollow boards with holes and flypaper.  We'll see, when they arrive.  Not cheap.

I call those hornets

Not a good idea to bring a tennis racket to a hornet fight.

If monobia quadridens (Mason Wasps:)

then no––-they do not prey on carpenter bees, but they like to live in the wood borings made by the bees.  Used to have some around here, but a bunch of polistes metricus (Northern Paper Wasps) drove 'em out.

That's them man;thanks!

Holy bees!!



 

Wasps, hornets and yellowjackets-oh my!

You'll think different when you can't even get near the doors to your house;my wife is very susceptible to anaphilactic shock.

or your fists, they'll just sting your fists

Personal experience?

They are all in my back yard. Between the water barrels, trough and the kids with there badmitin (no they dont play badmitin) rackets we kill off about 10 every 1-3 days. Does not even dent the population. My youngest sone (8) holds the record, 5 in 5 swings. Only good thing is they only go after my wood pile and wood fence. They seems to not like the Thompson water seal until it has set for about 6 months then they are right back at it.

I used to be––-as in, almost died a time or two (but got over it for reasons I do not understand,) and during childhood my dad made sure to introduce Northern Paper Wasps (the polistes metricus referenced above,) into each new home we moved into in the CONUS (I'm a Marine brat,) as they tend to drive out other stinging insects and do not themselves pose a problem unless the nest itself is attacked or disturbed.  Just a thought if other means do not work.  
And there should be plenty of them in FL if you can get someone who can relocate a nest or two (one for the front of your house, one for the back is how Dad always did it) in the mid spring time––-around early April for most of FL should be good.




ETA:  The college kids living around are troubled every spring and summer by honey bees and yellowjackets stinging them, and there are carpenter bees galore in Uptown NOLA, but my house, and the one to the South and the two to the North and the one to the East, are (outside of one migrating honey bee swarm a few years ago,) completely untroubled by these things, because I do not mess with the NPW nest on the North side of the house near the front, or the one on the East side that is directly above my back door (that I use all the time.)  This place used to be troubled the same as the rest of the area, but when I moved in and saw how bad the bees were, I stole a NPW nest and half a dozen wasps from my old place and stuck it on the side of the house (they abandoned that site when they came back the next spring, but they stuck around the house, establishing the two nests on this house and at least one on my neighbor's to the North,) and the bee problem went away.   (Admittedly, I got stung four times capturing the nest and some workers, but I count it as pain well spent for the trouble free years since.)

This was one last year. Quick and hearty eaters they are. The ones at my place differ. Some are al most completely black and some look just like a muttled bumble bee. I have seen both coming out of the holes in th  fence posts.

Bayer Insecticide for Carpenter Bees  is best on them.

But get a NEW bottle every year to mix up.  I used some this year that I had left over from last year.  It lost all its potency.


–– John

Carpenter bees=non fuzzy thorax (abdomen?) hell I don't know.

my weapon of choice is a 5 gallon paint paddle stir stick.
nothing is more satisfing when you make a solid connection and move in for the kill when the bee is down

Bah.  If you aren't gonna go the all natural route with wasps, at least try this:  mix 1 part Ivory dishwashing liquid with 12 parts water––-put it into a spray bottle, and you will kill any insect with it (but it is not harmful to people or pets––-or spiders, for that matter.)  For yard use get one of those lawn fertilizer sprayer things and fill it up with 50/50 Ivory and water and hose down the place with the insects you want to kill.  

***Note***  If you are gonna use this on American Cockroaches (periplaneta americana) or male Oriental Cockroaches (blatta orientalis,) make sure you hit them on the underside––––if you hit the wings it will not have any effect other than causing them to drop out of the air if they are flying at the time (for ACs, male OCs don't fly very often that I know of.)

Ivory diluted this way breaks down the insects' chitin and clogs the spiracles, resulting in death.  (Also note that increasing the proportion of Ivory does *not* increase the mixture's lethality––––it slows down lethal effects, and is useful only when playing with hornets, as the heavier mixture is more likely to cause them to be unable to fly and drop to the ground, meaning that you will then need to stomp on them to kill them.)


ETA:  Actually, 1 to 12 might be stronger than is needed, depending on what insect you are trying to kill.  For example, I use 1-12 for everything, and it handles anything I need it to handle, but it can take 30 seconds to a minute to kill an American Cockroach in the house––––-if said American Cockroach is in the pool, swimming around and trying to get out, then a single spray into the water next to the roach will kill it in (seriously) 3 to 6 seconds.

I didn't step on them,just whacked them into the yard.Does this mean they will hold a grudge tomorrow?