A small, but fairly high section of our house is infested by carpenter bees. We have swatted a couple dozen with a badmiton racket. The nests t
(holes) hemselves are about 12 feet high. It seems like the best solution is to dust the holes with Drione powder, however, I can’t seem to find an applicator with a long extension. Does anyone know of one. Also, it seems that at this time of year, in Maryland, they may not have started drilling new holes yet. Any recommendations as to the best means of eradication and control?
RAID makes a wasp and hornet killer that kills those things dead and is made with natural plant enzymes…I’ve used it, it has a LONG reach. just spray it in there in the evening and watch them crawl out dying in the morning.
Saw some of those at my son’s place in MD. Man those are disgusting. He just uses the tennis racket.
the powder doesn’t really work all that well, as its impossible to really get it all the way in the hole. The hole you see could be the entrance of a channel that is several feet long (no kidding, I’ve pulled siding off my house and split it to find channels from top to bottom of 12 foot boards).
Unfortunatly the only way to really get rid of them is replace the piece of wood and keep everything well painted. At the least, fill and patch the holes and paint well.
On holes you can reach, WD40 kills the bees inside.
They might be best if left alone, for you and the structure. Google it.
Did Google it. Yes, they are harmless to mammals and good pollinators. Yes, you only see them for a few weeks. However, where they are boring is in a relatively thin section of cedar that is part of our screened in porch. There is not a lot of wood there, so it is easy to see how they could pretty much destroy it. I would rather have them dead and leave the pollination to other species.
Also from google, it seems that killing them this year will not stop a continued infestestion next year. The best recommendation seems to be to plug every hole you can find with steel wool. Evidently they only have one entrance and exit hole. The problem is the height,
Call a guy. That’s what I did, and it worked great. Then repaint the wood.
(Shit. I still have to put on another coat. Thanks for reminding me.)
–Cliffy