Carpenter bees

Traps and a tennis racket work wonders for me. It’s fun to kill those suckers.

Try a birdie racket. It’s lighter than a tennis racket so you’re able to swing faster.

I’ve given my recommendation for wasps and bees many times here but I get downvoted and ridiculed every time. Apparently I’m the only one here without a wasp and bee problem, though.

Lambdastar Ultracap 9.7

I spray all the exposed lumber on my barn twice a year with premetherin. Once the first non-windy day after I see the first bee, and again about mid summer.. It will kill some of them (you'll see dead ones lying around the next day) but more importantly it keeps them disinterested in boring new holes.

Viper works fairly well. If you can find the holes use Delta Dust blown into them, reapply 2 weeks later and plug the holes with dowels or there is a plastic piece I think for some electrical work that works perfectly too.

ETA the plugs were bugging me so I looked them up and they are not electrical but made for filling holes when doing things like termite treatments. They are Trebor plastic plugs. They are quick and easy to use and you won't see them on the normally vertical holes. You can get them anywhere (Amazon et al) but I found them cheapest on eBay a few years ago. I have 1/2" that worked on almost all the holes but had a couple that needed a 3/8" instead but I just sliced off a little from the side and pounded 1/2" ones in.

Hitting them with a racket is almost always useless unless you step on them once they are down. At most, it just stuns them. It just takes a minute to two and they just fly away.

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Hitting them with a racket is almost always useless unless you step on them

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They are some seriously heavy duty bugs. A bug a salt gun doesn't even bother them except at very close range.

With a racket or more often my hat, I really babe Ruth those bastards. With a racket they explode. With my hat, I have to power bomb them into the concrete. You can definitely kill them with a racket but you really have to whack the hell out of them.

Carpenter bees are pollinators.

I don’t kill them.