Termites

[rmaynard 15,514]

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. 

[ebinmaine 67,641]

1 minute ago, rmaynard said:

wood eaters.

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

Hopefully you'll have good success again. 

 

We live in a forest and have never seen a termite here. 

Ants, yes. 

Those are fun. 

 

[rmaynard 15,514]

Just now, ebinmaine said:

Hopefully you'll have good success again. 

 

We live in a forest and have never seen a termite here. 

Ants, yes. 

Those are fun. 

 

Yeah, we had carpenter ants, and carpenter bees. Ants I caught early, but the carpenter bees ate all of my fascia boards on my house. That project to remove and replace all the rake boards, fascia, some of the soffits with vinyl was another expensive job. The repairs ultimately lead to having to replace the roof since part of the sheathing was also destroyed.

 

Reminding me again why I live in the woods?

[ebinmaine 67,641]

3 minutes ago, rmaynard said:

Reminding me again why I live in the woods?

Because trees are beautiful.  

 

No carpenter bees here either...

[wallfish 17,014]

Who has the remedy for carpenter bees?

The pusified dumbed down brake kleen spray they sell now doesn't do squat! Those things are laughing at me when spraying that junk at them. In the old days that stuff would take down any insect with barely a tiny dust drop touching them. Now they can probably drink it.

They like my pine shed and then the woodpeckers want the larva.

[rmaynard 15,514]

2 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

Because trees are beautiful.  

 

No carpenter bees here either...

Since I removed all of their source of nesting material, they have all moved up the street to a log cabin.

 

Me doing the bee removal.

[rmaynard 15,514]

2 minutes ago, wallfish said:

Who has the remedy for carpenter bees?

The pusified dumbed down brake kleen spray they sell now doesn't do squat! Those things are laughing at me when spraying that junk at them. In the old days that stuff would take down any insect with barely a tiny dust drop touching them. Now they can probably drink it.

They like my pine shed and then the woodpeckers want the larva.

See the reply above. The only way is to remove their nesting places (soft wood) and replace it with vinyl. Treated wood does not stop them.

 

[squonk 41,156]

5 minutes ago, wallfish said:

Who has the remedy for carpenter bees?

The pusified dumbed down brake kleen spray they sell now doesn't do squat! Those things are laughing at me when spraying that junk at them. In the old days that stuff would take down any insect with barely a tiny dust drop touching them. Now they can probably drink it.

They like my pine shed and then the woodpeckers want the larva.

Make sure you use CRC Non-Chlorinated brake cleaner. Knocks em out of the sky like anti-aircraft fire! 

[pacer 3,173]

26 minutes ago, squonk said:

CRC Non-Chlorinated brake cleaner.

 

Yes, search out the GREEN CRC labeled can (the red can is crap!), its still wicked! If in doubt, ck the label and see that it sez "flammable" Last year I was having trouble finding it and in a panic - thinking they would ban it -- I got on the bay and ordered a dozen cans! Oddly enough now I see it in wally.....

[roadapples 6,983]

44 minutes ago, wallfish said:

Who has the remedy for carpenter bees?

 

.22 pistol with bird shot  

[wallfish 17,014]

17 minutes ago, roadapples said:

.22 pistol with bird shot  

Are you saying smaller holes but a lot more is better?

Maybe for the lighting in there

59 minutes ago, squonk said:

Make sure you use CRC Non-Chlorinated brake cleaner. Knocks em out of the sky like anti-aircraft fire! 

Discovered the problem.

MAKE SURE you get the older stuff if you can find it! Just as suspected. They dumbed it down to less than 45% VOC. Older stuff is less than 10% VOC

 

[squonk 41,156]

THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT!!

 

Non flammable in the red cans. This is a brand new can I just bought. Shot down 2 wood bees just now.

 

[953 nut 55,324]

The best I've found is the Ace Hardware Foaming  wasp and Hornet spray. It will reach 30 feet and stick to the hole.

These traps work well too.

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/how-to-make-a-carpenter-bee-trap/

[Jeff-C175 7,202]

Handball racquet.  Neighbors might think yer nutz though.

 

Of course won't work if your problem is up high.  Mine is not.

 

I've also sat out on a camp stool with a shop vac and long wand.  Wave it around and they get curious and wben they get close switch it on.

 

 

[lynnmor 7,308]

1 hour ago, squonk said:

THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT!!

 

Non flammable in the red cans. This is a brand new can I just bought. Shot down 2 wood bees just now.

 

For cleaning parts, red can all the way, don't know how it compares for insect control.  We better lay in a supply of red cans before they are banned.

[formariz 11,987]

Here is what I do in the outside structures like the sheds. Those bees essentially bore right to the inside of board many times through it all the way to the inside. In any case what is left of wood on the inside is very little. At night when they are all inside I use a couple of insecticide spray bombs. Put them in and close door. Next morning you will find them on floor or they will die inside hole. Chemical will penetrate through what is left of board on inside. You will also be surprised of what else you find on the floor. Works great also for any infestation of carpenter ants. Chemical will keep working for a couple of months preventing reinfestation . I do it on a regular basis keeping all structures insect free specially free of buffalo crickets.

[Jeff-C175 7,202]

I've also found that the fumes from "Plastic Wood" will kill them.  Go out at night and plug the holes with it and they'll be entombed in a 'bee mausoleum'.

 

 

[Handy Don 12,237]

5 hours ago, rmaynard said:

Reminding me again why I live in the woods?

Them bees are here in the 'burbs, too.

[wh500special 2,188]

The Green can is a just a mixture of a handful of light solvents that evaporate almost completely.  Certainly not healthy stuff.  
 

The red can is tetrachloroethylene.  A chlorinated solvent.  That class of materials tends to have fantastic

solvent properties but also tend to have wide ranging health and environmental effects both acute and chronic.  But they are mostly non-flammable and evaporate completely.  
 

I think tetrachloroethylene is also still  commonly used as dry cleaning fluid.  I would expect it’s not going to be available to the consumer forever since it’s quite a real liability.  Most other chlorinated solvents have conclusively been found to be toxic, poisonous, or carcinogenic.  Or all of the above. It seems like that eventually it too can end up on the same list. 
 

Anyway, it’s also a nerve agent. It absorbs rapidly into fatty tissue and through the little pores that bugs respire (breathe) through on their bodies and shuts down their nervous system.  Since nerve activity is (sort of) an electrical process, the effects propagate thru the bug almost instantaneously.  Hence the ability to knock them out of the sky. 

 

I don’t know this for a fact, but you’d probably expect the same nerve suppression activity in other animals too.  Which may be why inhalation overexposure causes extreme drowsiness and impaired judgment before you pass out. But the dose would need to be, obviously, a lot bigger.  And since we don’t breathe through our bodies it take much longer to get into our system and skin contact isn’t as bad. 
 

But use it sensibly nonetheless. 
 

Most wasp sprays are also nerve agents, by the way.  But some of them work opposite the way in that they cause all the nerves to fire at the same time and not cease until the bug dies or even well after it’s dead.  Quite a grisly way to go. 
 

I would guess the green non-chlorinated brake cleaner just suffocates the bug by depriving it of oxygen.  Again, straight through the body and into the circulatory system.  I would guess the old vs new efficacy is just a coincidence of removing whatever VOC was in there before.
 

The term Volatile Organic Compound, by the way, is a more comprehensive title than just a generic hydrocarbon that evaporates readily.  VOC’s are photochemically active ( meaning the UV light in sunlight causes them to chemically react with things)  chemicals that cause ground level ozone and smog when they react with nitrogen oxides which primarily come from vehicle exhausts.   It’s not intuitive, but not all things that evaporate readily are VOC’s.  Acetone being a good example of one that’s not a VOC:  it’s a volatile, organic compound but not a Volatile Organic Compound. 
 

The interplay for chemicals with the body and with the environment are fascinating lines of study. It’s a shame the science lags implementation of these things usually by several decades, usually well after bad things start to happen. 
 

I had a plague of carpenter bees at my last house in the pole barn timbers.  I tried all kinds of stuff to get rid of them.  I wish I remember what ended up finally working but it was something from the farm store that smelled horrible. I think the odor drove them out.  Hopefully I didn’t leave a superfund site in my wake. 
 

Bugs and critters seem to get worse the further south you go.   I suspect their populations are inversely proportional to the depth of the frost line.  It’s getting warmer, eventually they’ll get to @ebinmaine
 

Steve

Edited May 12, 2022 by wh500special

[ebinmaine 67,641]

7 hours ago, wh500special said:

warmer

Excellent post Steve. Very informational. Thank you.

 

I make no claim to be a climatologist. It seems that depending on the charts graphs and maps you look at, the state of Maine is warming the fastest of the contiguous 48 states.... by a long shot.

We could be in for an interesting ride.....

[squonk 41,156]

I had these 2 guys in the shop. They were absolutely anal about things being clean. They were rebuilding a Chrysler rear axle and went through 2 cases of Mopar brake cleaner. I had to leave. Couldn't breathe in there with all the doors and windows open. Took a couple of hours before it cleared out.

[EB-80/8inPA 1,655]

I’ve heard that those chlorinated carb and brake cleaners produce some incredibly nasty combustion bi-products.  Do not burn.  If they fire off, do not breathe!

[wh500special 2,188]

2 hours ago, EB-80/8inPA said:

I’ve heard that those chlorinated carb and brake cleaners produce some incredibly nasty combustion bi-products.  Do not burn.  If they fire off, do not breathe!

 

They do.  The primary one is Phosgene which has been used as a chemical weapon.  It causes the lungs to fill with fluid.  Apparently an exceedingly painful way to go.

 

Phosgene is also the byproduct that tends to lead meth cookers to their demise in their ramshackle labs.  That and explosion.

 

Steve

[wh500special 2,188]

I want to make it clear that I'm not making any recommendations or telling anybody what they should or shouldn't do.  Just bringing up some things that aren't common knowledge about some of the stuff we have at our ready disposal.

 

As a general rule, anything organic that has Chlorine in it is potentially dangerous.  Minimize exposure, try to find substitutes, use your brain, etc.

 

Steve

[Handy Don 12,237]

12 hours ago, wh500special said:

plague of carpenter bees

Our contracted exterminator uses a powder that is effective for a year or so. The technician was very frank that his company hasn't found a "permanent" solution to which his company is willing to expose customers.