It can't turn around so it turns into the shaft on it's way out of the trap. At the intersection, the bee is at a bottleneck. The trap works by having the bee climb up the slanting hole from the side of the 4x4 until it reaches the main central shaft. The holes on the side of the 4x4 will angle upwards so they intersect with the main central hole that has been drilled up from the bottom of the 4x4. We will be drilling a hole on each face of the 4x4 as well as a hole on the bottom. So when the bee finds the trap they will gladly climb up into the holes drilled. While these bees CAN burrow into a piece of wood quite effectively.they are also not one to pass up taking the easy path. The idea is to present the bees with a piece of softwood (something they are instinctively attracted to) with holes for them to crawl into. On the surface, this trap is a chunk of pine wood with holes drilled into it and a mason jar attached to the bottom.ĭrilling the holes in the wood is where the trap comes together. At the end of the video I even include footage of the traps first catch! His solution was simple and elegant.a carpenter bee trap!Īs he discussed being able to catch and kill over 20 of the pests within the first day of installing the traps I KNEW I had to make one for my yard too.įor those looking for a similar solution, or just intrigued to know more.follow along or watch the build video I've included. Among the things he discussed was a way to deal with these flying fiends. Later that day my friend, who had bought a log cabin nearby, was telling me of the precautions he was making to protect the cabin. My thoughts were as follows:ġ) What kind of crazy bees to they breed here in the south?Ģ) How am I gonna keep these beasts from chewing their way through my porch? I watched in REAL TIME as it began to burrow. Suddenly the thing started picking at the post. It landed on the wood post near me and crawled around. But then one day I was sitting on my porch and relaxing as I watched what I THOUGHT was a bumblebee. For the most part it's harmless.I mean they're just bugs after all.

I was not ready for the influx of bugs I'd get moving to the south. I'm a California boy that recently located to TN. Carpenter bees have an annoying habit of burrowing into wood and eating up the internal structure of fence posts, decking, eaves, etc. For those who interact with these winged devil-spawn on a regular basis then you know that this isn't your friendly neighborhood honey bee. Carpenter Bees! For those not familiar.well good for you.

Log cabin shop carpenter bee