This has nothing to do with smoking, except it keeps Carpenter Bees from bothering me while I'm smoking, and they work so good, they give me more time to smoke.
A couple people asked, so here it is:
These things work so good, I have to tell my smoking buddies.
The first few years in my new log house was a constant fight with Carpenter Bees. They don't drill into the logs, because each log is the center of a tree, and the cell structure of a 6" X 8" log is too tight for the Carpenter Bee. They love my heavy facia the most, since it is a full 1 1/2" thick. They also drill through my 3/4" soffit---then find out it's too thin to build their nest, and move on. They drill into wood about 3/4" deep, then they make a right angle turn with the grain of the wood. Then they'll go with the grain for 2', 4 ', 6 ', and sometimes even farther. Then they lay their eggs in that tunnel. They don't eat wood, so poisoning the wood doesn't do much. Once they drill & lay their eggs, you can squirt certain dry dust chemicals (carbaryl---as in "Sevin" and "Devil Dust") in the entrance of the hole. Then you leave it alone for 48 hours, giving the mother time to get it on her, and drag it into the hole to the eggs. This will kill the babies. Then after 48 hours, you can plug or fill the entrance hole. This is all the damage they do, until the woodpeckers come & tear up your wood to get the larvae.
So the first few years I was hitting any that I could reach with a badminton racket, and shooting anything I couldn't reach with a BB gun (pumped light enough to not hurt my house). Then dusting and plugging 8 or 10 holes every Fall.
Then I did an experiment. I took two leftover 1 1/2" X 11" X 4' boards, drilled a bunch of 3/8" holes in one side of each of them, and set them on my firewood rack, with the holes pointed down.
Sure enough the Carpenter Bees moved into the holes I drilled & started going with the grain to build their nests.
Then when most of the holes were full, and it was nearing the end of the season, I slapped the two boards face to face (In the early morning, while they were home), wired them together, and put them in the burner barrel. Didn't even bother to blow taps!!!
Then I saw the trap (below) for sale on the web. Just going by the picture on the web, I made 10 of them over that Winter, but I couldn't figure out what would make the bees go into the trap & get into the bottom, and why they wouldn't fly out. Sex lure??? Poison??? HMMM---So I ordered one for $25 to find out what I was missing, before the bee season starts. I got my $25 POS (poor workmanship for $25), and found out there is nothing else needed. The Carpenter Bee goes in the 1/2" hole because it is there, and she is both curious & a bit lazy, so she will make use of the fact that you already started her hole for her, just like my "two board method".
Also, once the bee goes into one of the 3 holes in the trap, she walks in & falls down into the bottom bottle. Here's the part I didn't know before buying one. Once the Bee gets into the bottom bottle, the walls of the bottle are too slippery to walk back up, and the place where the two bottle necks come together is too narrow for her to fly up & out.
The ones I put at the very peak of my house work the best, but the ones on the lower ends of my facia do pretty good too. The sunny side is the most productive. This is my third year, and I caught over 200 each of the last two years. I'm hoping the number starts going down soon, meaning I got most of mine & many of my neighbors'.
Mine are a little smaller than the ones that guy was selling, and I'm not selling them , so I don't think I did anything wrong in copying & telling you guys. The picture on the seller's site would be enough to go by for building one anyway.
Hope some of you can make use of this,
Bear
Note: Here are my Upgraded Carpenter Bee Traps. Much nicer looking traps:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/155465/carpenter-bee-traps-upgraded
Here are some pics "Bview"
My arsenal ready to go in Spring:
Angle view to aid in construction:
I just drill a hole & slot on the back of each one. Then I put one Deck screw in the facia, to slip it on:
I made these all from the slats from used pallets:
I also drill one small hole in the bottom of each bottle, so water drains out.
I put a new bottle on every year, because dead sun-baked Carpenter Bees smell just like roadkills.
A couple people asked, so here it is:
These things work so good, I have to tell my smoking buddies.
The first few years in my new log house was a constant fight with Carpenter Bees. They don't drill into the logs, because each log is the center of a tree, and the cell structure of a 6" X 8" log is too tight for the Carpenter Bee. They love my heavy facia the most, since it is a full 1 1/2" thick. They also drill through my 3/4" soffit---then find out it's too thin to build their nest, and move on. They drill into wood about 3/4" deep, then they make a right angle turn with the grain of the wood. Then they'll go with the grain for 2', 4 ', 6 ', and sometimes even farther. Then they lay their eggs in that tunnel. They don't eat wood, so poisoning the wood doesn't do much. Once they drill & lay their eggs, you can squirt certain dry dust chemicals (carbaryl---as in "Sevin" and "Devil Dust") in the entrance of the hole. Then you leave it alone for 48 hours, giving the mother time to get it on her, and drag it into the hole to the eggs. This will kill the babies. Then after 48 hours, you can plug or fill the entrance hole. This is all the damage they do, until the woodpeckers come & tear up your wood to get the larvae.
So the first few years I was hitting any that I could reach with a badminton racket, and shooting anything I couldn't reach with a BB gun (pumped light enough to not hurt my house). Then dusting and plugging 8 or 10 holes every Fall.
Then I did an experiment. I took two leftover 1 1/2" X 11" X 4' boards, drilled a bunch of 3/8" holes in one side of each of them, and set them on my firewood rack, with the holes pointed down.
Sure enough the Carpenter Bees moved into the holes I drilled & started going with the grain to build their nests.
Then when most of the holes were full, and it was nearing the end of the season, I slapped the two boards face to face (In the early morning, while they were home), wired them together, and put them in the burner barrel. Didn't even bother to blow taps!!!
Then I saw the trap (below) for sale on the web. Just going by the picture on the web, I made 10 of them over that Winter, but I couldn't figure out what would make the bees go into the trap & get into the bottom, and why they wouldn't fly out. Sex lure??? Poison??? HMMM---So I ordered one for $25 to find out what I was missing, before the bee season starts. I got my $25 POS (poor workmanship for $25), and found out there is nothing else needed. The Carpenter Bee goes in the 1/2" hole because it is there, and she is both curious & a bit lazy, so she will make use of the fact that you already started her hole for her, just like my "two board method".
Also, once the bee goes into one of the 3 holes in the trap, she walks in & falls down into the bottom bottle. Here's the part I didn't know before buying one. Once the Bee gets into the bottom bottle, the walls of the bottle are too slippery to walk back up, and the place where the two bottle necks come together is too narrow for her to fly up & out.
The ones I put at the very peak of my house work the best, but the ones on the lower ends of my facia do pretty good too. The sunny side is the most productive. This is my third year, and I caught over 200 each of the last two years. I'm hoping the number starts going down soon, meaning I got most of mine & many of my neighbors'.
Mine are a little smaller than the ones that guy was selling, and I'm not selling them , so I don't think I did anything wrong in copying & telling you guys. The picture on the seller's site would be enough to go by for building one anyway.
Hope some of you can make use of this,
Bear
Note: Here are my Upgraded Carpenter Bee Traps. Much nicer looking traps:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/155465/carpenter-bee-traps-upgraded
Here are some pics "Bview"
My arsenal ready to go in Spring:
Angle view to aid in construction:
I just drill a hole & slot on the back of each one. Then I put one Deck screw in the facia, to slip it on:
I made these all from the slats from used pallets:
I also drill one small hole in the bottom of each bottle, so water drains out.
I put a new bottle on every year, because dead sun-baked Carpenter Bees smell just like roadkills.
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