Bee Season

[Mike SC Hunter]

I have two Carpenter Bee traps that I use, made of untreated pine wood, a rectangular shaped box with a 1/2" diameter hole drilled into each side, with a clear empty Gatorade bottle attached at the bottom. I hang the traps, one at each end of my house.The Carpenter bee finds the hole, crawls inside, sees daylight at the bottom and flies into bottle. Bottle fills up with dead carpenter bees, replace bottle with new one.
But I must say, papajohn's Bug-a-salt looks like more fun.

Built one like yours and hung it on my porch all summer.......Caught 1 bee....Apparently doesn't work everywhere. Glad it works for you.

 

[Roadtrash]

When I was living in South Carolina I would sit on the back deck on a hot afternoon with a cold beverage and a pellet rifle and have a ball with'em. Never was a shortage of the things but I didn't mind they were fun to shoot.

 

[papajohn428]

When I was living in the boonies (away from home for the first time) I bought a few pellet rifles and started looking for targets of opportunity. There were a lot of yellow jackets around, and I knew they loved Orange Crush because if I opened a bottle of it outside they would be all around me in no time. So I poured a little on a railroad tie 35 feet outside my living room window, sat on the couch and sniped the little buggers while watching the baseball game. I probably killed a couple hundred that summer, but never seemed to make a dent. It was good practice!

 

[BearBio]

I've never had a problem with carpenter bees but I do have a lot of pollinators around (I have a pollinator garden). I plant a lot of mints-such as pappermint, oregano, catmint, etc. I also have a few bee houses hanging around for the Mason's Bees, If you're worried about any effect on pollinators, plant a few mints for them and hang a couple of bee houses for them to hibernate in.

Fresh and freshly dried oregano and peppermint are an added treat.

 

[LVSteve]

Aside from that issue, the reactive target issue sounds like a blast. I remember seeing an article in a shooting magazine years ago where the writer was assassinating dragon flies with .22LR shotshells. Don

How asinine is that? The other name for a dragonfly is mosquito hawk. Dragonflies and damselflies are highly beneficial insects both in and out of the water as they eat the larvae and adult stages of many things we don't like such as mosquitoes, gnats and midges.

 

[gunlovingirl]

How asinine is that? The other name for a dragonfly is mosquito hawk. Dragonflies and damselflies are highly beneficial insects both in and out of the water as they eat the larvae and adult stages of many things we don't like such as mosquitoes, gnats and midges.

Once in awhile last year I would notice small clouds of tiny gnats in the back yard, and there were usually a couple large dragonflies putting on an aerial display as they fed on the gnats. And then I have all the huge red wasps. I've heard they have a really nasty sting, so as long as they leave me alone, I'll leave them alone.

 

[Onomea]

I read an article recently about how dragon flies are one of the world's greatest predators. Very high kill rate when going after bug chow.

I used to snipe water bugs on our stream with my BB gun as a kid. Not bad bugs... just fun to snipe.

In Robert Ruark's Old Man and the Boy books he has the old man say, "All boys are bloodthirsty young savages." True enough!

 

[Sebago Son]

How asinine is that? The other name for a dragonfly is mosquito hawk. Dragonflies and damselflies are highly beneficial insects both in and out of the water as they eat the larvae and adult stages of many things we don't like such as mosquitoes, gnats and midges.

There's a special place in hell for people that intentionally kill dragonflies and I for one WON'T be there ...

 

[Rintimtin]

I go old school on the wasps at work. Once I got stung cutting some brush I took that wasp out with extreme prejudice. Cut off his head and put it on a tiny little stick I let the other wasps know I was not to be messed with. I only sting when stung.

 

[LittleCooner]

Shooting with "rat shot" is a lot of fun, but today I sprayed a very large log home with the real stuff to watch them die. They do to much damage to houses and out building. Premethrin from the local outdoor garden and seed store will keep them away until next year. Also after a spraying, they will not light at their old den hole, only hover a few feet away to look at it and wow, boom, another bites the dust, reload and keep looking. The ones here that question their death do not understand what a pest their are, like warf rats and mice or wood ticks, the only good carpenter bee is a dead one.

 

[papajohn428]

I used to practice my shotgunning skills on dragonflies until a buddy told me that they eat their weight in mosquitoes each and every day. I haven't shot one since!

 

[charlie sherrill]

I have several outbuildings. I go through them several times a week looking for the sawdust trail left behind by carpenter bees. The hole they dug is just above the sawdust and it gets a shot of waspbomb whether they're in there or not. Not only do they drill 50 caliber holes in anything wood, they leave sawdust on whatever is under them. I have killed over a dozen in the last few days by swatting them with my cap and stomping their remains into the ground. If they're good for anything I'd like to know what it is.