Carpenter Bees? Wasps? HELP!!!!

[tink38]

Okay, first I have to tell y'all that I am moving away from this rental in 2 weeks, so I don't want to hire an exterminator.

I've been researching this all day on the web, and I'm a bit creeped out. Here's what I learned today.

Carpenter bees bore into unfinished wood or rotting wood on the outside of a home. The males are very aggressive, but they can't sting you. They just hover in your face and buzz around your head. To intimidate you. (WHATEVER) You can tell them apart from the females by their black faces.

The females have yellow faces. They will sting you if you molest them (???) or irritate them. I also know that loud noises irritate them.

Does anyone have any advice on how to get them away from the house? They are actually swarming at the next door neighbor's house, so I can't really do anything to treat the real problem. I just want them away from me. By the way, she is 92 - tells me so every time I see her - so it''s unlikely that she will do anything to stop this problem.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[LK03]

That sounds incredibly scary. Never been stung (knock on wood) and I scream and run when I see bees/wasps/hornets etc.

 

[tink38]

Me, too!

 

[eclectics]

The barn in back of a store I used to work at was infested with them. I would go in and out of there many times a day and they never bothered me at all. I'm sure there were both males and females because they were a lot of them. Like you said, all they would do was just buzz around. I just ignored them and they never ever made a move to try to sting me. The thing is that I never saw them move more than a few feet from their nest holes! I have seen them in other buildings also and the same thing. They don't travel far at all. How close is your neighbors house? Maybe the ones you are having trouble with are bumble bees? They look an awful lot alike. Sorry, I guess I'm not much of a help as to getting rid of them. I never tried because they didn't bother me.

 

[Feralpeg]

We had a nest in our deck back in Missouri. They ate out a huge chunk of one of the side supports. I would stand at the window and they would fly up and hover on the other side just like they were staring at me. It really creeped me out. I called an exterminator who sprayed the board with something to kill them.

 

[jimmalru80]

They try to hold our relocated office building together every spring. Rather than hire an exterminator, we try to "control" the problem ourselves. Our tennis and badminton racquets do the trick. Have never been bothered by the carpenter bees and the insect control operation keeps us in shape. Another month or so and we are there.

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

I've had carpenter bees in the eaves of my house since forever. They never bother me. The yellowjackets, yes, but not the carpenter bees. They don't stray far from their holes. I HATE bees, they freak me out. I can deal with the carpenter bees, though. I have tried spraying their holes with wasp killer but it only worked briefly. Yes it killed them but more come back. I guess if you kept up with it, it might work. I've never had the patience to do it.

 

[tink38]

They try to hold our relocated office building together every spring. Rather than hire an exterminator, we try to "control" the problem ourselves. Our tennis and badminton racquets do the trick. Have never been bothered by the carpenter bees and the insect control operation keeps us in shape. Another month or so and we are there.

I am curious as to what they do when you swat tem with the badmitton racquet. I have not tried this yet. (I just go outside and hold the racquet in front of my face, LOL!)

Do they get angry? I know they hate it when you spray the wasp spray at them.

 

[kuusimo]

Here is a trick in a gardening book I have. I know it will work on the wasps, but not too sure about the bees.

Take a plastic bottle (water, soda pop...) and put a little raw hamburger in the bottom. Fill it with 1/2 cup of orange juice and place it where you would like the bees to go to. They will climb in and can't get out. Replace as needed

I did this and within a day I had to replace it because of all the wasps that were inside it. Now we have an exterminator that guarentees work so I just call them.

You may also call the person you are renting from and let them know. I think it should be their responsibility to get an exterminator out there.

 

[tink38]

Here is a trick in a gardening book I have. I know it will work on the wasps, but not too sure about the bees.

Take a plastic bottle (water, soda pop...) and put a little raw hamburger in the bottom. Fill it with 1/2 cup of orange juice and place it where you would like the bees to go to. They will climb in and can't get out. Replace as needed

I did this and within a day I had to replace it because of all the wasps that were inside it. Now we have an exterminator that guarentees work so I just call them.

You may also call the person you are renting from and let them know. I think it should be their responsibility to get an exterminator out there.

Interesting combo!

Unfortunately, the landlords are DH's dad's cousins. And we lived at their house rent free for four months after Hurricane Katrina.

So I am not going to ask them for anything else. Plus, we are moving to our new house in 2 weeks. I think I'll stick to standing out there with the badmitton racquet and the wasp spray.

Either that or I'll smoke in the upstairs bathroom.

 

[gypsydoodlebug]

We had SOME kind of bees in the bedroom wall of our old house. I could bang on the wall and could hear them swarm. I was pregnant at the time and would use that little ultrasound-like machine that lets you "hear" the baby's heartbeat to listen to the bees. Never did work on the baby, but boy the buzzing was super loud through that thing. Bet I looked like an idiot holding that up to the wall instead of against my stomach!!

We had an exterminator come in and he used an icepick to bore about 20 holes in my wall. He stick the nozzle of some spray in there and shot them to heck and back. Quieted them right down, kinda like Simon Cowell does to those poor American Idol contestants..

BTW, the guy said if they were honey bees, we'd see honey eventually pour through the holes. We never did. Luckily. He said if they were honey bees, they couldn't kill them and instead we'd have to pay to have a specialist come in and tear out the drywall to protect the honeycomb because they're protected or something. And the honey can damage the wood, too.

 

[stevenpensacola]

Our tennis and badminton racquets do the trick. /QUOTE]
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has ever used a tennis racket to swat carpenter bees. My neighbors must have thought I was nuts....swinging the racket crazily at seemingly nothing.

If you ever need to drill the most perfect 1/2" hole you could imagine, just catch a carpenter bee and point him to where you want the hole drilled....

It used to really agravate me to see them chewing our house apart....so out came the old Prince Tennis Racket, not like I was using it for anything else.

 

[Beth76]

Take a plastic bottle (water, soda pop...) and put a little raw hamburger in the bottom. Fill it with 1/2 cup of orange juice and place it where you would like the bees to go to. They will climb in and can't get out. Replace as needed

How do you dispose of this? Or do they all just die within a day? I can't imagine going anywhere near a bottle filled with wasps.

 

[nkjzmom]

We just discovered some carpenter bees boring their way into our newly built wooden playset! I honestly thought they were climbing in and out of a hole that was already there...it was so perfect.

How will we keep them away from that? "Here kids, take these rackets out when you're sliding".

 

[Feralpeg]

We just discovered some carpenter bees boring their way into our newly built wooden playset! I honestly thought they were climbing in and out of a hole that was already there...it was so perfect.

How will we keep them away from that? "Here kids, take these rackets out when you're sliding".

After the exterminator killed the ones in my deck, he sprayed the remainder of the deck with something. He said it would keep others from nesting there.

 

[andromedaslove]

I used to love to sit on my Mom's front porch and watch the Carpenter Bees. They would dig their perfect little holes in the wood, it was really neat to watch them do it, you just had to make sure you weren't sitting under the hold or else you would have sawdust (or would that be "bee" dust) all over you by the time they were done. We never had any of them bother us.

Dana

 

[kuusimo]

How do you dispose of this? Or do they all just die within a day? I can't imagine going anywhere near a bottle filled with wasps.

They are dead inside, and there were no other wasps outside. After a couple days (I REALLY made sure they were gone) I put the cap on and threw it in the trash that was going out that day. I think mother instinct took over because normally I would have been scared to death, but I had a baby at the time and knew it had to be done.

If you have a lot, there is nothing that says you can't put a few bottles out there.

 

[canwegosoon]

I love the bottle idea...We had boaring bees growing up, and when they got into the house my mother would vacumn them up , but you could spray them at dusk when most are back in their hive.

 

[minkydog]

My brother swears by WD-40. He says you just spray it in the hole