In this article, you will find how to build carpenter traps and baits. With the information you find here, you would be able to make certain types of wood bee traps yourself without needing an extra hand.
Carpenter bees, also known as Boring or Wood Bees, can cause severe structural damage in your home over time if not managed properly.
Though they are not known to eat the wood, they drill holes on it and through that, create tunnels on the inside. Sometimes these tunnels can be up 9 feet long.
How Dangerous Are Carpenter Bees Around The House?
Having carpenter bees around the house can be dangerous. Though not all carpenter bees are known to inflict harm on humans, the females on rare occasions do.
They can inflict a very painful sting especially when provoked. The males do not possess this ability, they only hover around people to scare them.
Another reason, which is the major reason carpenter bees are dangerous around the house, is the structural damage they cause.
Carpenter bees are attracted to soft, unpainted, or rotting wood. Though they also attack painted wood that doesn’t always happen. This is why you find them constantly hovering around wooden structures: fences, roofs, and others.
They excavate holes and tunnels that can go as far as 3 yards on anything wood around the house. This is where they usually lay eggs and store food for their young ones.
Since carpenter bees have the habit of coming back to the same wood they’ve nested before to drill more holes, over time the impact of their activities will begin to affect the wood. Left untreated, the structural damage can be severe.
The best way to manage carpenter bee infestation is to do it while it is still early using environment-friendly methods. This is where carpenter bee traps and baits come in.
Do Carpenter Bee Traps And Baits Truly Work?
Sometimes it can be difficult to believe that having a little plastic can and one piece of wood with holes bored on it will help eliminate these pests. But the truth is, such traps and baits work.
Though not always as fast as we expect but they truly work, if you give them the time. You can’t set it up today and expect all the carpenter bees around your house to be gone by tomorrow morning. You have to give it time.
Another factor that determines the effectiveness of a carpenter bee catcher is the type. While the homemade types are effective, you can’t always compare them to the commercial types that have been carefully designed to attract and trap insects.
Though some homemade carpenter bee baits and traps can work just as much as the commercial ones.
Homemade Carpenter Bee Lure and Traps
What can you put in a carpenter bee trap to attract them? Let’s find out.
Carpenter bee traps usually consist of softwood, a plastic jar or bottle, and a lure. The lure is applied on the wood and inside the bottle or jar to help attract and keep the carpenter bees trapped.
LIST: Traps And Baits For Bumblebees
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Wood Bee Catcher
Two holes are drilled on the wood before it is attached to the jar/bottle.
While the first hole serves as an entrance, the second hole leads to the jar. Since carpenter bees are known to also enter holes drilled by others, it won’t be difficult for them to think that the hole on the outside of the wood is one of theirs.
On entering the hole and following the light coming from the other end, they will enter into the trap which is the bottle or jar. That is where they will remain until they die.
Some people do not always use commercial lure or bait to attract carpenter bees. But not doing that will mean that it will take a longer time before you achieve tangible results with just the trap.
Choosing A Wood Bee Trap: What To Consider
Several factors are to be considered when choosing carpenter bee traps and baits to be used around the house.
Those factors are carefully explained below:
Environment-Friendly
If you are going to use a trap with insecticides to eliminate carpenter bees from your house, you need to go for traps with natural ingredients. There are several of them you can find out there.
You just need to search in the right places for them.
Carpenter bee baits with natural chemicals are often safe to use at home. So while buying commercial baits, ensure that you read the information on the product label. If it is eco-friendly and approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), feel free to use it.
Brand
While there are several pest control brands out there dishing out products daily, you need to go for those that have gained the reputation for making effective products.
You don’t want to waste your money on carpenter bee traps and baits that don’t work.
A common way to know if a brand is worth your money, is to take a look at what its customers have to say about them. You can easily find this under the user reviews section when you click on the product on sites like Amazon.
Check out the ratings and the user reviews, and then make your decision from there.
Price
Price is another very important factor when it comes to choosing a carpenter bee bait or trap. You need to choose a product that works based on your budget.
The reason for that is because you may require to get more than one of those carpenter bee traps if you want to control the infestation on time. Sometimes you may need to get up to 6 of them to put around the house. The more lure you would need to apply on them once or twice a week.
If you do not consider the costs, you may eventually find yourself stuck in the middle of the infestation and not being able to deal with it completely.
How To Make Carpenter Bee Traps At Home
Carpenter bee traps can be constructed at home using very simple materials. It is easy to construct and can be done within just a few minutes. You will find how to do it below.
What you will need to construct it are pieces of softwood (works best if it is unpainted and weathered), a plastic jar or bottle, a lure ( can be commercial) nails, and a hammer.
Building Carpenter Bee Traps
- Make a box using the wood and nails
- Drill a hole on each side of the box
- Choose a side that will serve as the bottom when you hang it. This is where you will attach the bottle or jar.
- Apply the lure inside the holes and close to them on the outside. Also, apply it inside the jar or bottle.
- Attach the jar/ bottle below the box and hang in wherever you want using a rope tied to the roof or a hook. You must make sure you place the trap close to where you have seen the carpenter bee’s nests.
- Once you have placed the traps, give it a few days and check it. You may not see any visible result the first day but do not panic. Within 2 to 4 days you will start seeing it. The good thing is, once the carpenter bees have discovered those holes, they keep entering into the trap until a whole lot of them are caught in it.
Preventing Carpenter Bees
While you may not be able to completely stop carpenter bees from flying around your house, there are certain things you can do to stop them from resting in it. Some of those things are:
- Paint the surfaces of woods around the house. Carpenter bees hardly ever attack painted woods.
- Treat unpainted softwood outside the house regularly. Sometimes you may have to store them in a different location after treatment.
- Install carpenter bee traps and baits all over the house, especially for those whose houses are completely made of woods. Install as many of them as you can around the house and regularly check them to dispose of the dead bodies of those caught.
Best Carpenter Bee Traps And Baits For The Money: Top Picks
In case you do not want to go through all the trouble involved in making a carpenter bee trap yourself, you can buy the commercial types and use them to manage the infestation.
Below is a list of carpenter bee traps that work very effectively.
Mac’s Carpenter Bee Trap
Mac’s Carpenter Bee Trap is one of the best you can find out there. It is made to look exactly like the natural nest of carpenter bees so they can easily enter it.
According to several user reviews on Amazon, within a few days of hanging this carpenter bees trap, it caught a whole lot of them. If you need something that you can use to save your home from being taken over by those carpenter bees, this is indeed one of them.
Feel free to check it out on the online store now.
Donaldson Farms Carpenter Bee Trap Lure
This is a kind of bait normally applied to carpenter bee traps to help attract and kill pests. It is made of natural ingredients that carpenter bees love to feed on.
You will need to apply it close to the holes on the outside of the trap. You will also apply it close to the holes on the outside of the trap. You will also apply it inside the trap and the bottle or jar.
Within a few hours or days, you should start seeing results right within your trap. A lot of carpenter bees will be caught in it.
This is one product many users testify that truly works on Amazon. You can check it out yourself and see.
One Of The Best Carpenter Bee Traps, Patent No. RE46.422
Many users that have bought this product on Amazon testifies that it truly works. It may take a couple of hours or days but you will eventually find many of the carpenter bees trapped and dead.
According to user reviews, this trap works best when used with a lure like the one mentioned above or hummingbird food.
Conclusion
Carpenter bee traps and baits are some of the most effective ways of preventing and stopping carpenter bee infestations.
Whether you choose to make one at home yourself or to go for the commercial types, you will find the information here helpful.