Carpenter Bee Load

[cr2]

I'm pretty serious about killing carpenter bees around my shop. They bore holes in the fascia boards, and generally undermine the strength of any outside wood. The fly swatter has always been my favorite tool because it's light weight and quick. It swats them out of the air before they know what hit them. Most days I walk out on the deck and wait for them to come check me out. At first they are pretty dumb and hover right in front of me. Problem is, after 8-10 kills they get smarter and stay a few feet out of reach. A few years ago I made a spring loaded wooden gun that shot a light weight disk with about 50 nails protruding from it. It wasn't completely successful, but I did manage to impale a few bees with it.

My latest weapon of choice is low tech shotshells in my 357 magnum revolver. I use my usual 38 special powder load, pack it down with a wad over it, then add 75 gr. of #9 bird shot covered by another wad. A rolled up piece of paper surrounds the shot in the case. After crimping the case, I drip 5 drops of wax from a burning candle on top to seal it all up. The wax runs under the crimp so the ball of wax is captured making a pretty neat package. The picture below shows the pattern I'm getting at 8 ft. I still use the fly swatter when I can...those are freebies. But when they are out of range, it's well worth the nickel it costs to shoot them down.

Yeah, I know...there's something that's just wrong about blasting bees out of the sky with a 357 magnum revolver....but it sure is fun!

[Jupiter7]

Nice. Sounds like good medicine for wasps too.

[bruce drake]

You need to change your avatar to BeeKiller...

[Bonz]

I use a kids tennis racket

[Mumblypeg]

Daisy Red Rider BB gun. It sharpens your rifle skills....

[Pb2au]

I have been at war with those suckers for years. Every time i think I have cleaned them out, here they come again. Apparently my garage tastes great to those this beasts.
As discharging firearms is illegal in the city limits, I use cardboard tube I found. I am lousy at baseball, but have a pretty good batting average on carpenter bees.

[rsrocket1]

I love the Black Flag bee/wasp killer spray, it kills them in mid flight. I don't know what type of toxin it uses, but until this type of stuff came out, I've never seen an insecticide work so quickly.

[Shiloh]

I love the Black Flag bee/wasp killer spray, it kills them in mid flight. I don't know what type of toxin it uses, but until this type of stuff came out, I've never seen an insecticide work so quickly.

Where's the fun in that??

Shiloh

[osteodoc08]

I just use the same brake cleaner I use to clean my molds.They have been boring into my deck posts. Pesky bees.

[owejia]

I live in a log house and like you have been at war with them for years, to old to swing a badmitten racket. Instead of lead shot I load .5cc scoop of powder, over powder card board wad and fill the case with tumbling walnut media and then use another over shot card board wad, and use finger nail polish to seal the wad to the case. I've loaded 45 acp for my 1917's and 38 spl and 45 colt. I just buy my wads from circle fly wad. I load and shoot a couple of thousand a year, and they keep coming back every spring. About the longest shot I take will be 6 ft. Even made a set of dies to compress the wads and walnut media with. About the only shooting I do anymore. That walnut media really polishes the bore of my revolvers.

[uscra112]

Gee, this sounds like so much fun that I could wish I had some here.

[bangerjim]

Looks like fun, but aren't you making more holes than the bees do??????????????? HA.....ha!

I load 38spl and 45lc with similar loads but use #4 & 7 shot with 4-5gn TightGroup. And cap it off with a reversed Al GC with a tiny crimp.

Fun to shoot from my Judge also.......and MUCH cheaper than those pesky 410 shells!

banger

[webfoot10]

I use a Spanish .50 cal smoothbore muzzleloading shotgun I got from Dixe Gun works. A half thimble of 3f bp a card wad and a thimble full of
uncooked rice, works well out to 10 ft range, Not to loud and no chance of hitting anyone down range. A light loaded .410 loaded the same would
also work, I would try it with just the primer for propellant till I found out what works, The primer could be noisy in the city limits, as you don't
want to draw any attention to your sport.

[trys357]

Build one of these last year and caught @ 30 of them

[DougGuy]

If you got a garden, leave them bees alone! They are great pollinators. I have them all in the 2x4s in the roof of my lean-to and if it starts falling in I will just give them $20 worth of fresh Douglas fir to work on.

Yesterday I was putting up chicken wire on the corner of my enclosed garden, and they are right there in my face, right within inches of my hands, curious little buggers!

[rsrocket1]

Honey bees are good. Carpenter bees and yellow jackets (meatbees) are not good. Yeah, we leave the good bees alone. In fact, we have a big patch of lavender that they love and we love to just sit and watch them work.

[HABCAN]

Seed tapioca is the charge-of-choice..........it doesn't penetrate hard surfaces, just dusts. And, you don't really need to seal that top wad. BTDT.

[Nueces]

I heartily recommend the Bug-A-Salt, a pump action pneumatic salt gun:

http://www.amazon.com/Bug-A-Salt-Fir.../dp/B00AB88UDA

I've used it in the house against house flies and fruit flies and outside against wasps. It's light weight and long enough to give good aiming sense without sighting down the thing. Like shooting a long barreled Winchester 97.

Also sets the 'tone of the house' when visitors see it for the first time sitting on the kitchen counter.

[dondiego]

Don't know about carpenter bees but bumble bees are better pollinators than honey bees as they come out when it is raining while honey bees won't. I think I lost my hive of honey bees this spring though.

[BNE]

I thought my family was the only one who did this. It is great fun. Kind of like miniature sporting clay shoot. Just be careful because toes bees tend to dart around so fast you might end up shooting your house!