Carpenter Bees | 2 Sure Fire Solutions to the Problem

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Mary Johnson

Carpenter Bees – How to Identify If You Have a Problem

Carpenter Bee (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you have any wood on the exterior of your home, deck, or barn, you probably also have carpenter bees. And you don’t even have to be in the country or have a log cabin to experience this. I’ve seen carpenter bees drill their distinctive hole right in the middle of the wooden front door of our neighbor’s home when we lived in the suburbs. It looked like someone shot a bullet through the door – it was so perfectly round.

The photo above shows the distinctive round hole that they make. They then proceed to drill tunnels, often turning a sharp right angle from the entrance of the hole, that can weaken the wood deep within the log or board. In the tunnels, they lay eggs that hatch into larvae. The larvae turn into carpenter bees that eventually emerge through the same hole.

TIP: Do not plug up / repair carpenter bee holes until late fall so that all the larvae have hatched and the young bees have exited. Young bees exit by looking for the nearest light. If you plug up the hole and eliminate the light, they will just drill another hole to exit.

English: CARPENTER BEE IN BACKYARD (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Carpenter bees like the warm side of a structure. Ours like to drill holes behind the gutter that is against the fascia board on the west side of the house. The gutter retains the warmth of the sun and protects them from the rain.They are active in the spring and nest in the tunnels the rest of the year. Right now, they out and about. They like to hover right in front of me and stare me down – like they are little remote control drones. You can’t help but think they are little aliens scrutinizing our intelligence.

Two Great Carpenter Bee Solutions

Jim and I were out-and-about and came upon a log home manufacturer that had model log homes to tour. We asked them their advice on log cabin maintenance, just to see if there were any new tips we need to incorporate. Boy, were we glad we asked.

They mentioned carpenter bees as being the only real problem and they had two solutions: a trap that does not use any pesticide and a product called Brian’s Bee Butter that does.

Carpenter Bee Trap

Watch this video to see an effective carpenter bee trap that is engineered to do the job right the first time. They explain all the reasons that carpenter bees are attracted to their trap to make it so effective – it is really quite interesting.

I called to ask them some additional questions and learned that when the first couple of bees find your trap and die, they release a pheromone that attracts other bees. If you don’t want to wait for the bees to find the trap, you can speed this up by killing a bee with a tennis racket and putting it into the bee trap.

You can buy this carpenter bee trap for $19.95. (NOTE: I purchased two)

Brian’s Bee Butter for Carpenter Bees

The chemical solution to exterminate carpenter bees is a product called Brian’s Bee Butter that contains permethrin — the same product used to dip dogs & treat head lice in children. I’ve written about permethrin before as a good tick repellent / defense against ticks and I regularly spray it on my clothes before I go on a hike.

The video below shows you exactly how to use it. It comes with a syringe and you simply inject some into the individual carpenter bee holes. The permethrin is carried in a grease, according to the video, that not only protects the permethrin from breaking down prematurely (it normally only has a short life) but also keeps it from dripping so that it stays in the hole to continue to work as baby bees emerge throughout the year.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, I just learned that they are no longer able to sell the Bee Butter. They had been selling it for five years without any problem, but the EPA, in their ultimate wisdom, decided that they need to resubmit it for review since they were mixing already approved ingredients. It would cost $40,000 PER STATE! Another government intervention that is limiting small business.

Have any of you used these products yet?

Life is an Adventure!

Morel Mushrooms — a Novice No More

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Mary Johnson

Recently, we were invited to spend the day with long-time good friends Bonnie and Jim Neidhart at their son Paul’s 60+ acre woodland paradise in SE Ohio that he owns with his wife Amy. That’s Bonnie and her son Paul in the photo to the left.

Paul has a degree in botany (with a special interest in mushrooms) from Ohio University. If there ever was an expert to learn from, he is the one. We were told that the morel mushrooms had just started emerging the week before and they had saved some big ones for us to find. We were so excited.

At first, I couldn’t see them. Paul and Amy were spotting them immediately — and these were the BIG ones! Later, we started finding much, much smaller ones — maybe just a few inches tall — but I was improving. Amy said sometimes it helps to actually get down on the ground and look for the white stems. Also, she said that they like disturbed soil. And, indeed, we did find a number of morels around spots where they had previously cleared out brush. I later read that morels often have bumper crops in areas that has been burned.

My final triumph was actually coming across a new patch on their property that they had never explored before and finding 10-12 morel mushrooms there!

The two bowls to the left show our day’s bounty. Note the differences in sizes.

Since I had never prepared morels for eating, I was all eyes when Paul went through the preparation.

Step 1: Paul first soaked the morels in salt water. This was to flush out any critters that might be inside.

Step 2: Then he cut the morel mushrooms in half. Don’t skip this step, because even then, he found a slug in one and a dozen or so ants in another.

Step 3: Heat some olive oil in a skillet on medium heat and toss in the cut mushrooms.

Step 4: As they cook, you’ll notice moisture coming out. Paul likes them to be less watery, so he continued to let them cook.

Step 5: Perfect! The moisture is gone and they are nicely browned.

So… is the flavor of morels worthy of all the hype? Yes. Definitely yes. Good bye button mushrooms. Hello morels.

Here is a good website to learn more about morels.

Thank you Bonnie, Jim, Paul and Amy (and kidlets Maya and Ethan) – for memories that will last a lifetime. Life is an Adventure!

Beech Tree Leaves Turning Color – Is it a Sign?

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Mary Johnson

I am noticing the marcescent (long-clinging) leaves of the Beech Tree turning color to a paper-thin (almost translucent) light tan.

It is spring and the old leaves have to drop before the new ones can come out. The time is near.

Northern Spice Bush Blooming Now

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Mary Johnson

Last week I noticed a yellow blooming bush in the sunnier areas of the woods that were in the process of healing from select cutting from a few years ago.

Being from Ohio, it was not familiar to me. I knew it was not forsythia. My research was turning up candidates such as “witch hazel“. Friend, Pat, who was with me on another hike, suggested ”yellow honeysuckle”. Neither guess was ringing a bell yet as the blooms did not match. I decided to sleep on it.

I got a clue after reading about one shrub whose bark, when scratched, had a lemony scent. Bingo! This distinguishing feature made all the difference in the world in identifying it as the Northern Spice Bush.

I still have not learned to use all of my senses when observing new plants – touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting (usually never, out of fear of poisoning).

Life is an Adventure.

Red-Eyed Vireo Bird Nests

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Mary Johnson

Apparantly, ’tis the season for Red-Eyed Vireo bird nests. Jim found the first of three this weekend while on a hike on our land. I’ve never seen a bird nest like this and I was excited about researching it. They are sweet little nests, barely suspended from a fork in a tree branch or rose bush, but alas, no eggs. They must have already flown the coop.

The photos I’ve included here are of two separate nests (three + three). Both of these nests were fairly close to the ground — 4 feet or so. The third nest (not pictured) was high up in a tree at perhaps 15 feet.

At the time, we had no idea what kind of bird made them. In my research online, it looked like they might perhaps be Boston Orioles, but something wasn’t quite right — the Orioles’ nests were much longer and hung more like a sack, than ours did.

I came across The Birders Report website that helps with egg and nest identification. They gave this email address (larry@thebirdersreport.com) if you needed help. “Larry” asks for the following information to facilitate the identification:

The city and state where the nest was discovered
The habitat and location of the nest (i.e. deciduous or pine forest, grassland, marsh, farm or city and nest was in a bush or tree, on the ground, in my potted plant or in the seat of the tractor)
A description of the nest, what the nest is made of and its dimensions
What the eggs look like, color, size, shape and how many eggs in the nest
If you can get a photo of the nest and eggs, with a coin in the photo for size comparison, it will facilitate the identification.

I immediately sent off an email with my photos and I had my answer later that evening. This is what he said:

I’m pretty sure this is a Red-eyed Vireo Nest.
Their nest is suspended in a horizontal fork of a shrub or low tree branch 5 to 10 feet up. It is constructed of vine-bark strips, thin grasses, rootlets and birch bark, bound with spider webs to twigs at the rim.

Yes, that definitely fit the description of our nest! It is amazing how education can open your eyes. I had not observed the spiders’ web nor the bark. Nor did I pay particular attention to the orientation on the branch. This is what thrills me about learning new things.