Deadly on wood boring bees

.22 shot shells are cheap & effective.
May not be black powder, but it is a lot less wear & tear on my BP revolvers for quarry as insignificant as insects.
Although, the cream of wheat sounds as if it might be less intrusive of woodwork and painted surfaces?

I guess I'll add it to my list of black powder loads to refer to.

robhof

I'll have to give that a try, my wife thinks I look silly going to the mail box with a tennis raquet, but I love to hear the ping when I make contact with one.

Where I live, we don't have wood boring bees, but I have used this successfully on those mud-wasps everyone gets. Unfortunately for my roommate, I did this in the kitchen....

Remember boys and girls, if you leave black powder smoke smudges on white kitchen walls, it's YOU that gets to clean it! LOL

Sounds good, but then I have to clean it every time after I go bee hunting! I wonder if I could load up some .38 spl blanks of some sort without the blank-crimp. Maybe if I loaded powder, then cream of wheat, then topped it off with a floral foam plug and a bit of a crimp to keep the foam in. I might just try that.

By the way, cream of wheat packs really well. I do Civil War reenacting and I use cream of wheat in my Remington 1858s. 35gr BP, top off with cream of wheat, pack it down, top off with cream of wheat again, pack it down for all I'm worth, and that's it. Stays put all day long no matter what.

Mr. D said:

I wonder if I could load up some .38 spl blanks of some sort without the blank-crimp.

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Just use tape. It works, I've done it.

Funny, I just yesterday suggested getting a .410 to my sister in law to get rid of hers. Like the cost savings of cream of wheat vs. lead shot though!

The second I saw the title of this thread I knew exactly what you were talking about!

Over here we don't have wood boring bees, but we have craneflies. They look sorta like a daddy long legs spider with wings and a cigar shaped body. Like a giant mosquito that doesn't bite.They are harmless to humans but they are very, very annoying. When you are taking a shower they know to wait right up on the ceiling in a place where you wouldn't notice them, then they jump down like a kamikaze and attack you when you are trying to take a shower. They are evil little bugs, almost as bad as mosquitoes IMHO.

My load recipe for these little pests is I load my NAA companion with percussion caps, a little paper as a wad, and a pinch of grits or grape nuts cereal. It works sort of like a little shotgun!

Levi

I did a post on the very same subject a year or so back........got told by the "utterly less any sense of humor Mod's hereon" that I had too much time on my hands.

I used cow/rice in my 629 on the things. That was sport, but frankly, as destructive as the things are I'd really like to know what WOULD effectively kill 'em. One's we have are black and yellow, about the size of a nickle and bore right thru pine and cedar trim like a new drill. Shootin' 'em is OK, but I need something more on the order of a claymore!!!!

I need something more on the order of a claymore!!!!

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Yeah, but shooting them has GOT to be more fun!

Brake cleaner. It works better than ANY wasp/hornet killer. I've used wasp/hornet killer on yellowjackets and all it did was make them madder.
Shot some brake cleaner down into their hole and it killed them post haste.
It knocks hornets out of the air immediately.
Drops spiders from their webs like a lightning bolt of death.
Just as effective on carpenter bees. I've sprayed it into their holes and it ended their reproductive cycle immediately.
We had some hornets building a nest in the eaves above our front porch steps. My wife wanted to know what to do.
I grabbed a can of brake cleaner, climbed up the stepladder, and shot a blast of BC into the "construction site".
The hornet that was home at the time dropped stone dead, immediately, landing across the entrance(blocking it).

I may have to try playing racquetball with some carpenter bees this year. It sounds like fun.

I found brake cleaner to be very effective on "stink bugs". Keeps you from smashing them and releasing their stink. I don't think shooting them in the house is a good idea.

brake cleaner is a bit caustic... the majority of bug killers on the market nowadays use a natural insecticide called pyrethrum, it is the extract from crysanthemum flowers and is very safe and effective.....but dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with blasting away at them with a pistol or petroleum product.......ok yea there is.

Jaymo said:

Brake cleaner. It works better than ANY wasp/hornet killer. I've used wasp/hornet killer on yellowjackets and all it did was make them madder.

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Oh no, here we go again.... I read something on THR that get's me in more trouble with the Li'l Missus. Already buy a couple cans a month, good for blowing the "12th cylinder crud" off the cylinder pin on a Remington NMA (follow it with a little dab of Moose Milk). Also for blasting out the last of the Dawn dish soap-y water when cleaning.
The guys at O'Reilly Auto already think I'm doing something nefarious because I keep buying cases when they're on sale, too. I tell 'em what it's for, and they get that worried look in their eyes...

My favorite wasp medicine is still the foaming oven cleaner. Don't buy the expensive "Easy-xxx" brand, the store brand works fine. The foam gums up their wings, and they go to ground like a Harrier with both engines out. THUD.
Found this out by accident years ago when scrubbing my BBQ grille bars with the foam and a cup-brush chucked into my Makita drill.

When you load one of these with cornmeal or grape nuts it's good for indoors! Just make sure the woman of the house isn't around! She'll tan your hide!


I like to take mine into the shower with me, and use the load for craneflies. Of course I use plastic toy caps, they are cheaper than regular percussion caps and launch the load just as well!

I love derringers!

The OP solution is way better than insecticide or volatlile petroleum sprays, and the time to kill them is when they are scouting in the spring for new nest sites.

They're easy enough to kill once you find their hole, but isn't it a little too late then? They've already drilled a ½" hole in your soffit or your deck by then.

They are great opponents for shadow boxing. Hard to hit with the fist but they will dance and weave better than Ali ever could. My french bulldog keeps them under control. She loves chasing them and eventually gets just about every one.

Brake cleaner evaporates completely and leaves NO residue. Oven cleaner contains lye.

the majority of bug killers on the market nowadays use a natural insecticide called pyrethrum, it is the extract from crysanthemum flowers and is very safe and effective.....but dont get me wrong there is nothing wrong with blasting away at them with a pistol or petroleum product.......ok yea there is.

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pyrethrum takes about two minutes to work. The petroleum products are immediate. I know. I sell both in my sales job.

Starting fluid works great and leaves no residue. Just watch the flames. I'd advise against smoking while you use it.

FWIW...many aerosols now use propane as the propellant.

starting fluid and a spark from a bic lighter took care of the major spider egg and nest in my mailbox.

a short spray, close the door, and hit the little quarter-sized hole in the rear floor of the box..

blew the door off, and virtually vaporized the little spideys..

oldcodger, Haha - that's great!

To all, this is all fascinating, but it would probably be a good idea to return to firearms-related ways for taking care of troublesome insects. In that vein, I loaded up some cream of wheat "blanks" and tried them on my little buzzy pests. Worked like a charm! I used tape to keep it all in. I was pretty surprised at how loud it was. Nothing was packed in, so there couldn't have been much resistance. I'll have to test it by firing at a blank sheet of paper from 15 ft to see if it is safe and if it is, it could make nice homemade blanks if I should ever have need of such a thing. It was actually louder than necessary - I think I'll back off the powder charge a grain or two. That'll let more room for a larger payload, too.

I used to catch and play with the male bumblebees when I was a kid.
They don't have stingers, and are easily identified by the yellow dot on their foreheads

I guess the howdah loaded with cornmeal would be overkill??

40 grains of 777 under a .457 ball in the ROA would do the job, if I could actually hit them.
But, that reeks of "bad idea".

They even sell non-toxic cream of wheat for those who live in the condor protection areas.

That's funny, I don't care who you are.

I load 357 mag loads with 5gr of AA#2, a card disc, then fill with rice, then a card disc on top and roll crimp over it. deadly.