Killing Carpenter Bees with Salt Shot

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I knew that I could count on the shooting fraternity to come up with some great sounding solutions!

rcmodel - “the gun will start rusting right in front of your eyes if you don't clean it with hot water every time you use it.”

I was a chemistry major and I knew that was a given, but it’s good that you mentioned it if others wanted to give it a try.

Walkalong - “Have you tried traps?”

Yes, I put out 12 of them and they do work well, but I have a serious problem and they are not enough to turn the tide.

ironworkerwill - “What about kosher salt? Larger grain size for momentum to carry a couple more feet.”

I’ll try the table salt first because it’s on hand. If I need a bit more distance I’ll keep your suggestion in mind.

BCRider - “What do the local exterminators say?”

There aren’t any out this way. The co-op is about as close as we get to an exterminator out here. They recommended traps and a bug spray that was not effective at all.

Aarond - That looks like it would be great fun, but I don’t think that the payload and velocity would be enough for these sturdy guys. It still might be a fun solution though.

fireman 9731- “My weapon of choice is a single action revolver chambered in 22lr loaded with Winchester or Federal shot shells.” “Its a little spendy but great fun” “The chemical option is Sevin insecticide.”

Those shotshells were effective about 50% of the time and they are spendy. I have some Seven insecticide on hand and I’ll give it a try.

oneounceload - “Or follow this advice: http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/Carpenter_Bees.htm

Some very good information about the carpenter bees and chemical solutions. Others would do well to check this out.

Their bore holes are easy to plug and paint, but the woodpecker damage is the far, far greater problem. Last year I was unaware of the bee/woodpecker activity on my shed - the destruction was unbelievable! I will take some pictures and if I can reduce the file size to the forum’s requirement I will post them.

Thanks for your help. I’ll get started on a multi-faceted approach in the morning….. Jack
 
Regardless, I don't think shooting them will make the slightest difference to them.
Fun for you, a minor set-back in thier reproductive cycle.
The more you shoot, the more whoopy they will have in the hive.

Plug the holes with dowels or silicone seal.
Cover exposed wood with aluminum siding or screen wire if possible.
Spray exposed wood with Ortho Home Defence spray by the gallon from Home Depot.
Find home base and poison it with bug spray, or gas, or oil.

rc
 
Last year the borer bees were at an all time high population level. I took a badminton racket and in an hour killed 56 of them. My wife sat there and laughed...and counted. Could have gotten more but I ran out of time. In the early sixties I watched my cousin shoot them with a .22 as they hovered at the barn roof peak... about a sixty foot shot. I tried...never got one. He didn't miss many.

My grand father had a dog that would kill every one he could his teeth on...fun to watch.

Mark
 
Not a gun, but I like brake cleaner, especially Berrymans brand. I have wasps, not bees. Brake cleaner with the straw has a good 10 foot range and works like a champ on the flyers and the nests.
 
Don't attempt to use the bug-a-salt gun.

Fun toy. Worked okay on flies. Got some spiders out-of the corner of the ceiling.

Won't kill your bees.

uploadfromtaptalk1428046730473.jpg
 
I would recommend using rice. I'm not going to give my load info here but if you PM me I will. My rice load will kill a mouse dead at 10 feet but doesn't damage drywall. Don't ask how I know, lol.
 
I too have problems with the carpenter bees. My solution is a .410 o/u.
I load .45lc cases using ~5gr of Bullseye or equivalent. (This spring I'm using up some Win AA-plus I bought a pound of 15yrs or so ago).
Over the powder, I use walnut hull tumbling media. I've also used corn cob and my favorite organic, biodegradable filler, "grits". I contain the media with card wads punched with my .452" Lee bullet sizer dies.Effctiv range on the bees is 30-35'. I can't see a difference in chokes, however with the full choke, rarely a wad will remain. Bu, shooting it out hurts nothing as pressures are low.I typically kill 150-200 a yr.
 
rcmodel said:
Plug the holes with dowels or silicone seal.
Cover exposed wood with aluminum siding or screen wire if possible.
Spray exposed wood with Ortho Home Defence spray by the gallon from Home Depot.
Find home base and poison it with bug spray, or gas, or oil.
Click to expand...

The carpenter bees bore a pretty good 1/2" diameter hole. Generally easy to plug with a 1/2" dowel.

It is an annual springtime routine to spray our log home with some kind of insecticide. There are several on the market that target carpenter bees. Two applications over a week or so seems to work the best.

Does a fairly good job but a few are adventurous and chew away. I usually find a carcass under the hole but they still manage to make a hole!

Killing them by physical means is fun but not very effective.

Wasp killer will kill the carpenter bees but will not paralyze them instantly like it does to wasps.
 
Dealing with carpenter bees

I can tell you several things about carpenter bees, because we have a LOT of them.

As far as fighting them for sport, by far the best thing I have ever found is a badminton racquet; (they're extremely light and you can swing one about 3 times faster than the so-called "electric fly swatter" or even a tennis racquet; (I tried that also ) If have nothing better to do, and you really like to kill these little buggers, (who doesn't? ), just get a 2 ft long heavy rubber band, you can stretch it out, take aim, and cut them in two from 2 or 3 feet away from their hole as they come out. (It's a lot less effort that swinging even the badminton racquet ); One more thing; about 90% of the adults that you see are the females that don't have stingers; I'm pretty sure that I read that the males DO have stingers, but I'm not positive of that; I never had one sting me even if some of them can.

Also........unless you're a trained entomologist, these things look a LOT like several species of bumble bees; the great big bumble bees can definitely sting, but they aren't all that aggressive; the smaller bumble bees are BY FAR, the worst type of bees to mess with! I inadvertently got too close to a nest of those things once and the whole swarm chased me for almost half a mile before I found a deep enough place in a creek to dive into! Even after holding my breath longer than I ever had before, those %$#@&%$ things were still flying around in circles, waiting for me to come up! I ended that encounter up with about a dozen extremely painful stings.

If you are really serious about depleting their numbers, you may as well forget about killing the adults! For every adult you kill, there are about scady-eight zillion eggs already "about to hatch out" in the LONG tunnels these things make.

And someone mentioned woodpeckers; I can tell you this about pileated woodpeckers; they LIVE on larvae of all kinds; and believe me....they know where to look for them! Actually, they only "look" to see where the adults are going to lay their eggs; and believe or not, their auditory senses are so keen that they can hear the larvae (grubs) as they wiggle around in their holes.

I have an 18 inch section of an 18 inch dia log on my front porch that has several 2 in. X 6 in X 5 in deep holes in it made by pileated woodpeckers in my woods. They can do a LOT of damage when they hear larvae in a tree (or in your house )

To "get rid of" (or drastically reduce the numbers of carpenter bees ), go to home depot and buy a gallon of "sevin"; you squirt the sevin in the tunnels; don't try to fill them up with wood filler; the adults will come back, crawl into the tunnel, and they get traces of the insecticide on their feet and legs, then carry it into the brood chamber where the eggs / larvae are; after a time the adults will succumb from the insecticide also. try to get the sevin in every hole youn can find; bees usually bore their holes in and around the soffit and facia boards; once you have treated all the holes with insecticide, (and depending on your house ), probably the next best thing to do is cover all of the wood surfaces with either aluminum or vinyl.
 
Pine-Sol and water on whatever they are boring into. About a 4 to 1 mixture. Will last about a month. Soak it down good...
 
Down here we call them "Forty Caliber Bees", from the hole size. I used to go after them with my old Tanfoglio TA76 western revolver, loaded with CCI snakeshot. Very expensive now!
I need to try that air pistol trick. I think a felt cleaning wad with salt, or maybe Quinoa, a gluten-free grain with a diameter of about two millimeters.
Gamo now makes a pellet shotgun, using reloadable mini shotshells! A bit expensive just for bee popping, but it has other garden pest uses. Same principle as the old .22 smoothbores of the '60s and '70s.
 
On long days in the bunker we would pull the bullets out of .223 ammo and just use the primer in our M16's to kill flies and other flying pests. Ammo didn't cost us anything.
 
1. Treat every gun as if it's loaded.
4. Be sure of your target and what's beyond it.

Be careful, I guess. Nothing in this thread would be allowed with my guns. Well, except sniping a bee hovering over the roof of a barn, knowing there's nothing for over a mile away. I'll give a thumb up for that one. :)
 
I've got them around here too, they make the most perfect 1/2" hole just like a drill bit..!!!
Doubt if this would be very effective, but was reading a while back about a guy loading walnut media in 38 spl's????
Don't know what they were for, but if you tried to work a load for them, they may work up close???
It wouldn't hurt the gun or maybe even what your shooting at??

I load 38 spl's and 357 mag's with various shot, from #4's to #9's.
I alway have them around and used for something.

I may try loading some walnut media just for the heck of it.
If your a pretty good shot with your revolver, try some Glue-lets with no powder.
I made mine with some #9 shot in the nose of the mold, then squeeze in hot glue with big sprue because it shrinks a lot.
I found that they hit much harder with a small amount of #9 shot in the nose and possibly shoot straighter.

You will at least have 5 more shots in case you miss with the first one.:D
(((((((( WEAR SAFETY GLASSES )))))))
When shooting these, they CAN bounce back...!!!

TxD
 
Kosher salt is just salt that was blessed by a Rabbi.
"...2.5-3 inches long, big wings and a stinger that's like .75 inches long..." That's an ATF drone. snicker.
"...have traps (12) that are getting some of them..." Keeping the pelts?
 
That's funny. All salt is considered kosher. "Kosher" salt refers to what it was used, to remove blood from meat to be cured. It generally has a larger grain size than table salt and lacks anticaking ingredients.
 
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