OT Wood Bees

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Heyseed

Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

Need to replace the roof an an old building. The wood bees have made swiss chesee of the rake boards around this thing. What is the best thing to spray them with. The place is humming with them now and I would prefer not to mess with them while I"m up on the ladder and roof.
I have a pump sprayer and have been looking around the garage at all the possible poisons.
Thanks

 

Janicholson

Well-known Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

Brake Clean, or Electric motor spray or carb spray all work radically, they evaporate quickly, but drop them on contact and take out all in the nest with one spray into a hole. Jim

 

OP

OP

H

Heyseed

Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

Thanks Jim, But I was hoping for something that would cover more area. I have about 80 feet of length to spray.
Kev

 

Janicholson

Well-known Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

Do it this evening while they are home and sluggish. Jim

 

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bingo

Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

Get a old 22 rifle or pistol and buy some 22 rat shot (shot shells) when they buzz around and stop in mid air you can blow them away.

 

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BillinCentralMO

Well-known Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

You can get insecticide in a gallon jug at Home Depot or Farm Supply store. Much cheaper than brake cleaner. Go in after dusk and soak down all those boards. Do it again next spring. It worked for me. Cost less than $20. Aerosol spray is too expensive.

 

OP

OP

H

Heyseed

Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

Billin you remember what the brand was?

 

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Mark - IN.

Well-known Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

I guess that it depends on the type of wood borers you are dealing with. Some, yellow jackets, you don't want to mess with. I get those guys building nests below ground level in fence posts. They are damaging, and they are just down right mean, those guys. Then again, I get some wood borers that I don't believe sting, at lest I've never been stung by them. They are about the size of huge bumble bees and a nusance. They don't sting, I don't think, but I usually find them by accident when I happen upon saw dust laying under deck railings, barn trusses, things like that. They come back every year and never use last years nesting hole, those guys.

If you run up against yellow jackets, have meat tenderizer mixed up and ready. It takes out about 90% of the sting pain almost immediately, but that remaining 10% still smarts for a couple of hours. Them guys are just plain mean.

Good luck.

Mark

 

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OP

H

Heyseed

Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

Thanks Mark, I have delt with both kinds. These are the borers. I have never been stung by one either, but there are hundreds of them on this roof job and I don't need then in my face. I have a lot of wood to remove and replace.

 

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Daryl in PA

Member

• May 13, 2013

• #1

http://www.carpenterbees.com

 

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PJH

Well-known Member

• May 14, 2013

• #1

I spray my cattle with a product called "Insectrin". It's a liquid, and you mix it with water. When I mix up a batch, I'll have a little left over, and I go around the barn spraying it into the carpenter bee holes. It kills them. Thins the herd, you might say.

 

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JerryS

Well-known Member

• May 14, 2013

• #1

For the sheer fun of it, keep a badminton racquet with you at all times.

Don't worry about them stinging you; I'm not sure they even can sting. What they can do, however, is severely weaken a structure with their long tunnels in wooden support members---even treated wood.

 

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ohiojim

Well-known Member

• May 14, 2013

• #1

if you can get to them the best i have found is half a cotton ball soaked in gasoline pushed into the hole at dusk....

 

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Captndanm

New User

• May 14, 2013

• #1

I think you are talking about carpenter bees. Generic malathion works good. Spray in the hole if you can.

 

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pete black

Well-known Member

• May 14, 2013

• #1

Google carpenter bee traps for plans to build one. Simple, easy, effective.

 

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Texasmark1

Well-known Member

• May 14, 2013

• #1

I use the same spray I use for fire ants. Bayer, in a turquoise container, red label has a general purpose pesticide that sells for about $13. HD has it. Put your sprayer on mist and just let them fly through it. Spray one day and wait a day or two and pick off what's left. Usually once or twice a season works for me.

Mark

 

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Northvale - PA

Member

• May 14, 2013

• #1

I use a tennis racket. Swat them right out of the air. They do not bore into oak.

 

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BillinCentralMO

Well-known Member

• May 14, 2013

• #1

No and the jug is at our other place right now. I seem to rcall reading the ingredients on a couple in the store and it was the same ingredient in all the ones at Orscheln's Farm Supply. I won't have an opportunity to look for that jug until this weekend. I was in the barn I sprayed last August about a week ago and they aren't coming back , yet anyway. Amazing the damage they can do.They ate one whole board off the back wall. I have used the tennis racket too but wanted a more permanent solution. And I'm no tennis pro either.I'll try and post back here if I can find that jug back. Label said Carpenter Bees right on the front , not just the fine print.

 

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

• May 14, 2013

• #1

Borite