My back porch looks like Swiss cheese with little sawdust piles everywhere so I went ham on the buzzing carpenter bees with some various implements, great fun and I got 12-15 or so. I’ve heard badminton racket is best, I don’t have one so I used a big metal spatula and a canoe paddle. I highly recommend this activity after a long day of work 

There's one in our front door that's driving us bonkers.

We had CB's making swiss chesse out of our wooden dog house. I got one of the electic cordless bug killers thing, set it at the opening of the dog house, the bees went away.

Thought we had carpenter bees because I saw some bees going into some holes in my garage ceiling so we called a pest guy. Turns out they’re actually hornets using a hole made by carpenter humans lol

The ones that fly at your face are male and they have no stingers.  I smack them with my palm straight down on the ground and step on them.  The females have stingers but they rarely leave the hole they ate in your wood so I spray them.  I have cedar siding.  Not a happy combo. 

17 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

Thought we had carpenter bees because I saw some bees going into some holes in my garage ceiling so we called a pest guy. Turns out they’re actually hornets using a hole made by carpenter humans lol

Screw that haha. I run like the wind blows when it comes to hornets 

I like to shoot them while they're hovering with my Remington 511 bolt action loaded with Aguila Colibris. Fun little targets.

13 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Screw that haha. I run like the wind blows when it comes to hornets 

 

Rural King in Halls Crossroads used to sell carpenter bee traps. My oldest son still lives in Knoxville. Like you, he had a carpenter bee problem. I suggested the bee trap and they do work.

My daughter gave me two small houses to catch them. They have a small Mason jar attached to the bottom. A hole is drilled at an angle in the side. When the bee goes in, he falls into the water and dies. Sometimes it takes them a couple of days to finally die. I hang these small houses above my back porch. I've probably killed fifty of these carpenter bees over two summers. When the water gets full of bees, empty it out and start the process over again.

I’m going to need a new bug a salt after this year. We are infested with them. 

Carpenter Bees are a PIA.  One took a liking to our back deck.  Every time we would plug the hole it would drill a new one beside it.  ?

Take head lice medication, (Rid) mix it with Vaseline, just enough that it does lose its viscosity and stays kinda thick. Put it in the hole, only a 1/4 of the bottom of the hole. The bees walk through and only goes a little ways a fall dead. If ya cover the whole hole they won’t try and go in ….. they just go somewhere else. Used this when I lived in NC, Florida get too hot in the summer and it melts out. 
They bees do a lot of damage, but when the woodpeckers find them, they really do the damage.

Edited April 24, 20233 yr by GRiver
Addition

Many years ago I was painting the front of my garage. A 2x4 had a hole in it so I started filling it with caulking and smoothing it out. A few minutes later I noticed the caulking was moving. Another few minutes and a bee came out covered in white caulking. I had to kill it for making me have redo the caulking again. LOL.

1 hour ago, GRiver said:

Take head lice medication, (Rid) mix it with Vaseline, just enough that it does lose its viscosity and stays kinda thick. Put it in the hole, only a 1/4 of the bottom of the hole. The bees walk through and only goes a little ways a fall dead. If ya cover the whole hole they won’t try and go in ….. they just go somewhere else. Used this when I lived in NC, Florida get too hot in the summer and it melts out. 
They bees do a lot of damage, but when the woodpeckers find them, they really do the damage.

Thanks!!!! I’ve heard spray wd40 in the hole but that just kills the bee, there’s still a hole. Sounds like the sticky defense may work better