?carpenter bees

**bluedog** · 04-29-2009, 05:43 PM

Do any of you folks know how to get rid of carpenter bees? Preferably something I can do myself? I have already filled all the holes I could find and painted again. They just laughted and I could hear them out there making fun of me!! I would like to avoid the expense of a professuional bug killer company.

**MoonMommy** · 04-29-2009, 05:49 PM

I don't know what other's will say, but I read last year (when I was worried about them) that they rarely do enough damage to ruin a house. Also, the males don't sting and only the female will get agressive and she stays in the hive which is in the wood. The on-line stuff I had read said that if you patch the holes and paint over them, that should be enough.

I would be interested to know what others will say however.

**sabrelvssammy** · 04-29-2009, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by bluedog

Do any of you folks know how to get rid of carpenter bees? Preferably something I can do myself? I have already filled all the holes I could find and painted again. They just laughted and I could hear them out there making fun of me!! I would like to avoid the expense of a professuional bug killer company.

i am so glad you asked this....i was gonna hop on here tonight and pose the same question...just got done painting the eaves on my garage and the little buggers are having a hayday....(and they are not impressed with the 'remodeling' going on in their home.... )....

i thought about filling the holes with caulk....will that work...anyone??? help us !!!! please....thanks.....

**thefrug** · 04-29-2009, 08:23 PM

why would you want to kill them??? MY carpenter bees keep all the nasty bees away! Sure they play sentry and say HALT who goes there ( buzz at my head and face me checking me out), but they leave me alone and I leave them alone. It's what the males do. They're always fighting each others for territory. Try to see if they don't go after the other bees. Mine even go after hornets now! I love em. They pollinate your gardens too.

**sabrelvssammy** · 04-29-2009, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by thefrug

why would you want to kill them??? MY carpenter bees keep all the nasty bees away! Sure they play sentry and say HALT who goes there ( buzz at my head and face me checking me out), but they leave me alone and I leave them alone. It's what the males do. They're always fighting each others for territory. Try to see if they don't go after the other bees. Mine even go after hornets now! I love em. They pollinate your gardens too.

i don't want to kill them....i just want them to go away.... they are boring giant holes in the eaves and damaging my garage.... i can't have them tearing up my house.....they need to move...!

**Debbie-cat** · 04-29-2009, 08:51 PM

We had carpenter bees once in my eaves at my home. They were eating the wood right through! What we did was tore away the wood until we found the female bee. Once her nest was disturbed she left and never returned which in turn the males left. We fixed the damage and that was that!

**spyzvixxen** · 04-29-2009, 08:57 PM

No clue how to ward them off either. We have a bunch in the bush by our front doorstep and those lil suckers like to hover but that's about it. They don't attack. We did have some in our old apartment eave, but only one hole. Before we knew what kind of critter was in there, Vic decided to spray some raid up the hole & tape it shut overnight. The next day, 2 dead ones came out. We never had another problem.

**Pemberleyan** · 04-29-2009, 09:55 PM

One problem is if they really infest a wooden area, then the woodpeckers can come in to eat them and they REALLY do some damage. This happened on a nearby house. Thankfully we have mostly cement siding, but they are starting to damage our porch.

**frugalwarrior** · 04-29-2009, 11:30 PM

www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/carpenter_bees.htm
Looked interesting. I have never used this sight but they even have an inquery phone number.

**sabrelvssammy** · 04-29-2009, 11:38 PM

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-ri...enter-bees.htm

so i found this site informative.....

**Momto2Boyz** · 04-30-2009, 10:44 AM

Depending on how big the holes are, you can get some gauze and soak it in bleach, then stick it in the holes. I guess they don't like the bleach and it'll keep them away. Then anything in the hive, can't get out and they'll die off.

We did this when we had yellow jackets (thousands of them) nesting under our siding. We talked to a pest control guy and he said it was our least expensive option and to try it first.

It worked great for us with they yellow jackets, so it might work for your bee problem!

**bluedog** · 04-30-2009, 07:17 PM

Wow!thanks for all the replies and I looked at all the sites. think I will try the bleach poked into the holes! Question will be, will I get all the holes,there are A LOT! According to the sites they don't do "sructural damage" but at my house the cross pieces on the front porch are so weakened that they are falling in! I agree that they are harmless to people and have thought they were kinda cute in a bumbly way but this is too much!

Wonder if vinegar would work like the bleach? It's good to discourage ants. Hmmmmmm

**ahmom** · 05-01-2009, 01:12 PM

We have carpenter bees too. We use badmitton rackets and whack them dead. We never had one attack or sting.

**Thevail** · 05-02-2009, 02:38 AM

I just relocated the stupid queen from our garage to the stump of an old tree. They all moved and seem happy now.

**HandyMom** · 05-02-2009, 05:59 AM

I had them really bad in my eaves. When they were replacing my siding they had to remove that section of wood and the crew was scared when they took down that wood. It was full of holes and the bees! They had to replace it and they sprayed bee killer on the wood they took off. I think they've come back and found some unpainted wood under my front deck, right by my front door they are hovering around. Mine don't chase away the wasps or hornets, though. It's scary coming out the front door with all those stingers diving at you so we usually use the back door instead.