Termites

[rmaynard 15,483]

Anyone who is suggesting sprays, has no idea how carpenter bees go about destroying wood on homes. You may be able to attack one or two bee holes on accessible wood, but most areas where bees do the most damage is NOT accessible. Look at the crude drawing below.

 

 

The bees drill their holes into the areas indicated with red lines. On my house, the truss extension and the rake boards are approximately 14 feet long from the roof peek to the bottom. Once the bees drill their holes, they turn and start drilling lengthwise, deposit their eggs, then wait for spring for the new bees to emerge. There is no way possible that an existing colony of bees can be exterminated with brake cleaner or any other spray. The bees are relentless and will return year after year to keep drilling in new places unless all of the unprotected pine is either replaced with vinyl or wrapped with aluminum or vinyl.

 

The picture below shows how the damage occurs.  You don't see it happening because this piece of pine was covered with strictly cosmetic aluminum fascia. The bees drilled in from the back or the area between the aluminum and the pine and hollowed out the entire length of the rake boards.

 

 

 

[wh500special 2,184]

They are terrible creatures, Bob.  They were doing that same kind of damage to the purloins in my pole barn and to the deck boards at Mom and Dad's house.  They can chew through anything.

 

I think their only redeeming quality is that they hardly ever sting.  Well, I'm sure they are good pollinators too.

 

I wonder why there are so many of them now compared to in the past.  maybe they have taken the place of the fewer honey bees and bumblebees we have these days. I'll blame it on the Bradford Pear and Bush Honeysuckle.

 

Steve

[wallfish 17,000]

So each situation is going to be different as like Bob's problem type areas are completely different than mine. Mine is a shed not a house and there are no hidden spots like that all. They can only drill in spots you can see because it's all open. Nothing is covered. The spray shot I need is for the buzzing bees and it's not intended to use to try and end the war. Anyone that doesn't need spray to knock them down doesn't have them buzzing at your head every 5 minutes while your trying to work or even just walking by. They buzz me like I'm King Kong and even screw with me like a PITA teenager is operating a drone. They don't actually make contact but it's super annoying as they are constantly trying to get me to leave "their" area. 

Yes. it's an ongoing battle. The traps I built (like pictured above) worked to catch many but seemed to attract more every year, but maybe that's coincidence. The more that were put up the more that showed up.

I like the spray bomb idea but that means everything in my shed will also be toxic. Maybe I can spray the walls with something?

 

 

[roadapples 6,983]

Used to work for Eisenhower Inn near Gettysburg in maintenance. Someone who couldn't read knocked this sign down and it broke. This is a 3/4" board. Had my brother plane down one side, approximately 1/8". I have natural edge hemlock siding on my house.This is why I  hate carpenter bees...

[EB-80/8inPA 1,641]

6 hours ago, wallfish said:

Anyone that doesn't need spray to knock them down doesn't have them buzzing at your head every 5 minutes while your trying to work or even just walking by. They buzz me

I hear you.  Annoying doesn’t even begin to describe it.

[Horse Newbie 7,070]

On 5/11/2022 at 4:28 PM, rmaynard said:

Those pesky little munchers. About 20 years ago, we had termites. We contacted several pest control services only to find that they wanted thousands of dollars to eliminate the critters. So, being the to DIY guy that I am, I decided to treat the house myself. I purchased a jug of Permethrin and poured it around my foundation, just like the pest guy said he would. Success. No evidence of termites again for about 10 years. Then they showed up again in the basement bathroom. Seems they found the sewer pipe and came in along that, and found their way up the outside of the shower drain. Started eating the bathroom walls. Well, I tore out the shower, treated the area where the drain pipe came up, and sealed it with concrete. Treated the whole back of the house foundation, especially where the plumbing goes out. Again, success. Now 10 years later they are back. This time I'm not sure where they are coming in. So I bought a new batch of Taurus SC (what all the pest guys are using now) and am about to embark on my third and hopefully final dance with these wood eaters.

I wish someone had told me 45 years ago not to build a house on a wooded lot. 

May not have mattered if you built on a wooded lot or not… a lot of folks don’t think termites get up north, but they do.

 

Down south just about everyone I know has a termite protection plan with a pest control company. When we bought our house, shortly afterwards I seen signs of termites. We called a company and they treated the house. A few years later we found signs of them again in proximity to the first location.

The bugs had gotten in at a crack in the slab on an interior wall. They came out and retreated and repaired the damage to an interior baseboard.

Just a few months ago we had the perimeter of the house done again…