Get a load of this: I've been hunting BUMBLE BEES!

[kc0pph]

If you want them gone you need to get a fogger and spray them. There will be 1000's of them you can not see. My suggestion is coveralls with gloves and a ski mask with no mouth opening and goggles. Tape over every seam with good ol duct tape and go after them with a fogger. It will be up close and personal. Drench everything with the fogger and then grab the liquid spray and just soak everything. They will be gone and no more holes in your shed.

[kweidner]

carpenter bees are pretty much harmless except to your wood. We shoot them with .22 and rat shot. lots of fun. had a group in one of my columns. took a few years to shoot them all. waged war last year with the rat shot. not one in my yard this spring! biggest group i have ever seen is 20 or so in one hole. they don't build hives like regular bes and they don't seem to sting.

[Max Heat]

Originally Posted by kweidner

carpenter bees are pretty much harmless except to your wood. We shoot them with .22 and rat shot. lots of fun. had a group in one of my columns. took a few years to shoot them all. waged war last year with the rat shot. not one in my yard this spring! biggest group i have ever seen is 20 or so in one hole. they don't build hives like regular bes and they don't seem to sting.

They may not sting, which is definitely a GOOD thing, but they WILL buzz you about the face and head, trying their damnedest to intimidate you. I once did get un-nerved and abandoned my position, after 2 of them ganged up on me, buzzing me un-relentingly. I had no idea that 20 of them could share a single hole. From what I have observed, they all seem to make their own individual holes. And I don't think I've ever seen .22 rat shot, but I do have some .22 bird shot (#11, I believe it is). The problem is, at a per-round cost of 20-30x that of a .17 cal pellet, it isn't very cost-effective to use them on bees, being that there seems to be such a large number of them.

To be totally honest, I have not been out there every day like I said I planned on doing. I've dispatched dozens and dozens of them already, but the reinforcements that they keep sending in just seems to be unending, almost like waves of chineese, I guess you could say. I am frequently running out of ammo before I run out of "enemy combatants" to shoot at, and it's starting to tire me out. But the "not 1 in my yard this spring" statement IS keeping me in the fight, giving me the hope that I will be able to say that NEXT spring.

[Chugiakbilly]

I hope you "bee" killers have stocked up on a life-time supply of fruits and vegetables. Bumble bees, Carpenter bees and Mason bees are the last line of pollinators on the planet. Honey bees are nearly or completely extinct in many countrys. Our pear and apple growers in Japan have been forced to hand pollinate the blossoms for the past 5 years which has greatly increased the cost of Asian pears. Other fruits like strawberries, cherries, grapes and plums can't even be grown in many areas. I was surprised to find out that over 3 out of 10 spoonfuls of what we eat has to be pollinated. Keep your sights on the wasps and give the bees a break. Keep your powder dry.

[RDM416]

Max Heat, Thats funny...... and brings back memories. When I was 12 or 13, my cousin and I used to shoot those things with our bb guns. My grandma's house had a long front porch with a porch swing at one end. We used to sit in the porch swing and shoot those bees. It was great fun and great memories!

[Max Heat]

Glad I could stir up some happy memories for you!


As for Mr. bee lover, I bet that if YOU had the carpenters doing unauthorized work (of the destructive variety) on YOUR buildings, you would be thinking differently.

[silvertip44]

Max, I'm with you. I sit on my back porch and shoot them with my old Sheridan .177.
Don't pick one up when you knock it down. They are not aggressive but they can sting.