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Wednesday's Wisdom For Woodturners May 1, 2019


lew

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@lewthanks for the great article. In other news lots of dead bugs thanks to the bora care and I’m back to working in the shop again. But now I have to play catch up since I was out for almost 2 weeks. But I have three days to build 40 boxes plus various hand holds and bee keeper stuff for the tops and bottoms. Never a dual moment. 

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That is actually a rather highly debated topic on weather the bocacare can or can’t hurt bees. But no one wants to try it out on a live colony. Not that I think anyone should anyway, it’s one thing to kill a infestation another thing to try it out on insects just doing what they were made to do. What is known is that it has no immediate effect on Carpenter Bees or Carpenter Ants. They can get sprayed and keep on trucking. The problem is what happens when the bee colony sweats there hives to fight off other bee related issues. It could in theory seep out of the wood and into there water supply. That would kill them for sure. Now did I spray the hive parts, nope I covered them before I treated everything else. But in the mean time I haven’t wiped up all the pesticide (once dried it’s harmless to humans and pets, but the kids and pets aren’t allowed in here till after the hives are out and the pesticide cleaned up) so if the bugs happen to get off the hive parts they will die on contact. That and I honestly don’t think they infested that lumber theres no evidence of it anyway.

 

But that brings up some interesting natural methods of controlling and eliminating them. Some use a ceder oil mixture, orange oil mixture, a combo of both and of course building the hives out of western red cedar and other true cedar lumber. That is because the eastern red cedar and others trees that have cedar like qualities (I’ll see if I can find a link to post that goes more into depth on the subject) aren’t really cedar.

 

But instead are part of the juniper or cypress family. Just depends on the each tree and region.  But non cedar trees arent effective at pest control. If I remember the natural oils are different. Or something like that.

 

With all that being said I’m probably wrong on all of the above information. My brain is on information overload from learning about various wood boring insects. So feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. 

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13 hours ago, Mijohnson1984 said:

That is actually a rather highly debated topic on weather the bocacare can or can’t hurt bees. But no one wants to try it out on a live colony. Not that I think anyone should anyway, it’s one thing to kill a infestation another thing to try it out on insects just doing what they were made to do. What is known is that it has no immediate effect on Carpenter Bees or Carpenter Ants. They can get sprayed and keep on trucking.

I have been fighting Carpenter bees in fence posts (the same 3 posts) every year for maybe 5 years. Thought I got them last year mostly by waiting at post and knocking them down. I found it interesting that the same poisons that work on most instects do not work on them . Now the question is does the Carpenter bee killer also kill honey bees?

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21 minutes ago, Gerald said:

I have been fighting Carpenter bees in fence posts (the same 3 posts) every year for maybe 5 years. Thought I got them last year mostly by waiting at post and knocking them down. I found it interesting that the same poisons that work on most instects do not work on them . Now the question is does the Carpenter bee killer also kill honey bees?

Maybe these would work-

buildacarpenterbeetrap590.jpg.57e24168c3e0d91e72da8a2e91373e54.jpg

 

https://www.myfrugalhome.com/how-to-build-a-carpenter-bee-trap/

 

Of course you could use the lathe to turn the top part round :D

 

For most "mean bees" I use wasp and hornet spray. Kills them on contact.

Edited by lew
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@Gerald it most definitely will. From what I read it messes up there ability to fly correctly. So they end up dieing from dehydration and starvation. I could be wrong I’ve read a lot and may have pesticides mixed up. But they do make traps for carpenter bees like the one @lew posted. Then you could just relocate them instead of killing them. It also seems to be the more effective to trap and move, then killing them. 

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1 hour ago, lew said:

Maybe these would work-

buildacarpenterbeetrap590.jpg.57e24168c3e0d91e72da8a2e91373e54.jpg

 

https://www.myfrugalhome.com/how-to-build-a-carpenter-bee-trap/

 

Of course you could use the lathe to turn the top part round :D

 

For most "mean bees" I use wasp and hornet spray. Kills them on contact.

Tried that and caught two. Wasp and hornet spray will not work on carpenter bees, tried that. So only the carpenter bee spray in the hole , plug the hole and watch for return in evening and get some batting practice.

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34 minutes ago, Gerald said:

get some batting practice

:D

 

Don't know if it works for the carpenter bees but for yellow jackets I wait until dark. Light one of those flame tiki lights and put it near the nest. Smack the nest, run as if the devil was chasing you. The bees see the flame and fly into it. Don't go back for a while and definitely wear shoes.

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In the oil fields, we grunts were tasked with getting rid of Yellowjacket nests any where near an electrical box. We had a quart oil dispenser with a long spout we kept full of gasoline for cleaning tools. That thing would squirt a healthy stream for 10+ feet. We'd squirt the nest, light a rag on a steel rod and set the nest ablaze. Then run to the truck and hightail it. 

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2 hours ago, Gerald said:

Tried that and caught two. Wasp and hornet spray will not work on carpenter bees, tried that. So only the carpenter bee spray in the hole , plug the hole and watch for return in evening and get some batting practice.

 

Automotive brake cleaner is instant death to most insects you spray it on.  Drops them in flight.  Just be careful what you spray it on.  It can eat some plastics and paints.  Comes with a straw.  Insert it in bee hole and spray.

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Lol @Gene Howe I remember breaking out on a kelly rig out in midland, tx. Good times, good pay, but we had tarantulas instead of bees. They would show up for evening tower started, hundreds of them just crawling everywhere. Umm..... Did I mention I have a phobia of spiders. Hard to throw chain when they where on the drill floor. But that didn’t happen to often, maybe cause it was too noisy.  Company man used to say they were attracted to the vibrations from drilling. But I’m Not so sure about that. 

 

As for the bees or other pest problems check out domyown.com they have a ton of commercial grade pest control items you can buy for home use, plus helpful articles and advice. 

Edited by Mijohnson1984
I didn’t proof read as always
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@Mijohnson1984, we were a maintenance crew. Closest I ever got to a rig was working on a pulling rig. Summer work between college terms.

We get a few Tarantulas up here in N. AZ. They like our patio screens.  Maybe we'd have more but, our house doesn't vibrate much.:D ours are not near as big as those down south. Traveling south out of Nuevo Laredo, we saw one on the road that, I swear was as big as a dinner plate. 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Mijohnson1984 said:

My vacation over in Iraq we had camel spiders all over the place. They are creepy and big as dinner. They like to chill out in your shadow. 

I seen pictures of those, they are creepy!

Since we are telling bug stories, my time in Panama I ran across a Tree Roach for the first time during the first week in country, about 6" long, I was coming out of the Enlisted Club after a few beers, well, and shots, I was done, walking out saw this long thing looked like a stick on the sidewalk, and crouched down to see it through my blurred vision, I got closer and said "hey little buddy" and the danged thing reared up on its rear legs and hissed at me! I flew back a body length and landed on my butt, and sat there thinking, Welcome to Panama! Crazy bugs and reptiles in the tropics.

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