Just Back

Mary and I are just back from vacation in Cape Cod, so I have a few items to post after a week away.  We once again stayed at the little house in Chatham, she tacked the vacation week onto the end of her college reunion.  It made for a great week.

I've written about the town and this house before - we stayed there last September as well, but this was the first time in a very long time we took a full week off on an official vacation.  I think this fact had a lot to do with the old pups Gracie and Sofie, who we preferred not to leave with a sitter or to kennel in their old age, once they got past 12 or so.  In thinking about it this morning, we last took a week off together to head down to the Outer Banks in August 2007 - but there were a lot of things about that trip that probably led to us not doing a real getaway again until just now.

But enough of that rambling.  We went to the wonderful little town of Chatham, and we strung together some adventures and sightseeing, mixed in with visits to old friends and relatives.  So that'll be the ntaure of some of the posts.  First, however, I wanted to write about backyard nature - drawing some inspiration from Richard Louv's "The Nature Principle" - a book I wrote about a couple of weeks ago and read while we were away.

My observations focus on the little shed shown here, which actually belonged to the house next door.  It was literally close enough for me to reach out and touch it from the deck where I drank my coffee every morning (and spent the afternoons reading in the sun), so I had ample time to watch the goings on.

This was taken to show the carpenter bee damage.

The first morning activities were the robins and jays who were out and about at first light.  They quickly grew accustomed to me and soon were ignoring me - until later in the week.  After sunlight began to strike the side of the shed, a big old male carpenter bee, would show up and hover near the shed, his loud buzzing interrupted only by the appearance of female bees, birds, or other potential mates that invaded his space.  (BTW, I noticed a lot of traffic on the blog from searches on carpenter bees and their damage - those page views are referred to old posts I had...this photo of bee damage provides another update).

Late in the morning, and also in the cool of the evening, a couple of young bunnies would hop out from under the shed.  These guys were only 6 inches long or so, clearly only a couple of months old, but already weened and fending for themselves.  They'd hop out into the little side yard there and graze.  In the evening, as things cooled off, they'd play together or by themselves - I saw the smaller one do a series of half turns in place, and vertical leaps over there between blades of grass.

This reminded me of a passage in the Louv book, which I will summarize here - essentially, this is the introduction to the book.  Louv writes:

• The more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need to achieve natural balance.
• The mind/body/nature connection, also called vitamin N (for nature), will enhance physical and mental health.
• Utilizing both technology and nature experience will increase our intelligence, creative thinking, and productivity, giving birth to the hybrid mind.
• Human/nature social capital will enrich and redefine community to include all living things.
• In the new purposeful place, natural history will be as important as human history to regional and personal identity.
• Through biophilic design, our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, and town will not only conserve watts, but also produce human energy.
• In relationship with nature, the high-performance human will conserve and create natural habitat - and economic potential - where we live, learn, work, and play.

In a sense, sitting there watching the birds, bees, and bunnies, I had a sort of vacation laboratory to think about some of these concepts.  This comtemplative time brought home the importance of some of the connections I am fortunate to have out in Page County near the Hawksbill Cabin.  And as much as anything else, that time gave me a sense of urgency for completing the 75@75 project, which I will do this year.

But back to Cape Cod - an altogether different environment for our vacation, with both natural features to enjoy and not too distant from a small town and urban setting, which was also an import for the getaway.  More to follow for the balance of the week.

Here is an Amazon link to Louv's book:

The tell-tale, dime-sized hole

Over the weekend, I heard from Chris, safely back from his encounter with the Bison in Utah. He told me he had noticed some sawdust out on the deck - a sign that carpenter bees might be present.

His deck is unfinished, and was built three or four years ago. The wood is beginning to age, and it is not PT, so it is an attractive location for the bees. He probed around, and sure enough, found the burrow in this picture.

With only one successful burrow, seemed like the remedy I learned about last week might be the best way to deal with it - it's actually in yesterday's post:

"If management of the carpenter bees is necessary you can use a garden dust like five percent carbaryl dust and using a duster, puff the Sevin into the hole so the bees will pick it up on their trips in and out of the hole. After several days you can close the hole with wood putty. Then you should paint the wood to avoid the problem in the future."

I still like the carpenter bee chamber, but for limited issues like this one, a smaller scale solution seems best.

Carpenter Bees - Bad this Year? - Multiple Sources

Judging from the page views and traffic on the blog, there is a lot of interest in carpenter bees. I didn't have as much information here last year - there are a few more posts now that I have gone after the bees for almost two years running.

So this spring, the visitor counts are running from 5 to 10 weekly. There have been a few personal emails about the Carpenter Bee Chamber (and we get their entry as an Adsense post in the left hand column from time to time).

About the same time that I started posting on the bees this year, there were hits from states NC, KY, OH, MO and IL. Now they are coming in from further north; I had a visitor from WI this week. And they are still running at about the same pace, and probably will into June.

I did a search and found another interesting source of information about the bees, posted below. Comments and insights about carpenter bee experiences are always welcome here at the Hawksbill Cabin!
===

If you notice large bees buzzing around your yard you may think they are bumblebees, but they are not. You are probably seeing the carpenter bee. If they seem to be "in your face," these are the male carpenter bees, which are harmless because they don't have a stinger, but they still cause many people to scream and run to the house.

Carpenter bees build nests in bare, unpainted softwoods. Often they will drill holes in the two by fours of a shed or garage. Painted wood and treated wood is less often used for their nests. The bees you see now have been overwintering in these nests and are now looking for mates. This process will continue into May.

The female may just clean out the old nest and reuse it or she may create a new nest, which will have a nice round entrance hole, which will go straight into the wood a short distance and then it will branch off into one of the chambers she will create to lay her egg. This egg will be placed on a food source of pollen and nectar and then sealed into the chamber. These will develop into an adult carpenter bee, which will emerge in August. At that time we don't notice them as they feed on nectar and then overwinter in their chambers.

So far we haven't mentioned much of a downside to the carpenter bee. The downside is if they can bore holes in large numbers in structural wood that can weaken the structure. They also can destroy the visual affect of certain woods like a porch beam.

If management of the carpenter bees is necessary you can use a garden dust like five percent carbaryl dust and using a duster, puff the Sevin into the hole so the bees will pick it up on their trips in and out of the hole. After several days you can close the hole with wood putty. Then you should paint the wood to avoid the problem in the future.

From: http://www.echo-pilot.com/news/2009/0429/garden/053.html

Battle of the Species: More on Carpenter Bees

I had a question from a reader about the Carpenter Bee Chambers I bought last year – so I wanted to add some information about them.

I am sparing the gory details of all the critters that were trapped in the chambers – I had flush mounted and soffit mounted units installed. Lots of smaller bees, and a few spiders, but no carpenter bees.The jury is still out for me on the chambers. I still think they are a good idea, but I am going to write to the guys at Carpenter Bee Chamber about what I experienced. They are good about responding.

Here's what I think happened in my case - 1) I treated the cabin with an "industrial" pesticide called Tempo (see this morning’s post). This is normally not something I would do, but given the extensive termite damage we'd repaired I couldn't stand the thought, especially after seeing the damage to our other buildings. I installed the chambers after this, so maybe it reduced the effectiveness of them.2) Because our outside woodwork is stained a dark brown color, I also stained the chambers so that they wouldn't stand out as much, because last year's "hot spots" were all near the front door.

Again, the chamber guys advised against this. After I've heard back from the chamber guys, I'll post their answer on the blog. I hate carpenter bees, and I will do whatever is necessary to reduce their numbers and get rid of them from my cabin.

Still, they are welcome to live elsewhere on the property, just not in or on the main house. This year seems to be a big bee year already. I don’t remember it being this bad last year.

A final note, for anyone who is already stepping up into the battle - if you are already seeing damage, you've got to kill those bees before they reproduce. The offspring are programmed to come back from where they hatched...there will just be more next year.Did I mention I hate them?

Battle of the Species (Carpenter Bees): 2009 - the first encounter

This weekend, Mary had a girls' nite out, so I headed out to the cabin to do my annual carpenter bees battle. To all of my Facebook friends, thanks for your kind words of encouragement!

Also, by the way, what I am about to outline here is not a green or sustainable approach. I have had to compromise on this for this item because of my past experience with wood damaging insects at the cabin. Long time readers will know about the extensive termite damage we had to repair (check the label "big projects" for details) - so I am not about to let the carpenter bees get out of hand.

Before I get into the details about what I did this year, here is a photo of me in the protective gear...rubber gloves, breathing mask, plastic eye goggles (sunglasses are under these), hat, and long pants. It was too ridiculously hot for long sleeves on Sunday, with temps in the 90's...use your own judgement on this if you decide to do what I did; the pesticide advises complete skin coverage.

Here is a photo of the pesticide I used last year and this year. This bottle costs about $35 at the co-op. It is concentrated, and you only need 6ml to mix a gallon. If you can see the little blue lines on the measuring cup on the upper left of the bottle, that is the second line of that.

When I got it at the co-op last year, one of the selling points was the use of this stuff on chicken coops, the large buildings where chickens are farmed in Page County. I am pretty sure most of the success I had last year in limiting bee damage was due to this - I'll be writing about the Carpenter Bee Chambers soon too.

The next photo is a picture of all the gear I used. My Gorilla ladder, the tool kit for taking down the old chambers, spray bottle, pesticide, and protective gear, all shown on the brick terrace. This area around the front door, protected from most elements, has seemed to be the hot spot for bee activities.

This year, I focused my spraying around the edges and soffits of the cabin, especially in the area where the standing seem metal roof is turned down over the trim and soffit boards. I have seen bees hovering around looking for nesting areas, and they seem to end up under the metal this year. So the entire circumference of the house was doused in this way.

The second hot spot this year is by the little screened room by the master bedroom. I noticed bees going under there last week, so I sprayed all of the wood work along the front of the house, including this area, being careful to stay away from certain areas. For one thing, there is a little bird's nest above the screen room, so I made sure no misting could get up there.

It does seem to be an intensive season for carpenter bees this year. I am not sure that I am through with them yet for the spring. For one thing, I noticed some activity back near the shed, but did not get to that over the weekend. I may relocate the carpenter bee chambers there next weekend.

More to come, I'm sure!

Battle of the Species (Carpenter Bees): The Plan for 2009

At the Hawksbill Cabin, spring means the return of carpenter bees. These bees are the reason we started the whole "Battle of the Species" category...even though we've also talked about snakes, poison ivy, and beavers along the way.

So as we're beginning to think about the project list for the year (likely will post something on this later in the week), I am also remembering some of the steps I need to take to deal with carpenter bees before I see them.

First thing - get a couple more carpenter bee chambers. I trust that these things work (http://carpenterbeechamber.com/) and will be taking down the ones from last year soon (photo is of me installing a soffit mounted version last year.

Next one, go through the carpenter bee ultra-toxin spray application. This stuff is concentrated so that 6ml makes a gallon of insecticide. Professional grade...they mix up 50 gallon batches for chicken coops. Here is an action photo of Chris geared up to spray!

I'll be checking for drill holes and repairing them - the last step. There just isn't much you can do after the steps above...except to keep a badmitton or tennis racket nearby. You'll only get one at a time this way, but it is very satisfying. Here is a bee casualty photo.

There are photos of bee damage in some of the past entries (see the Carpenter Bees label). Thankfully, due to the measures we implemented, no further damage has occured. And with this planning ahead done, we're ready to give 'em hell this year too.

Some old books

Last year, during the first few weeks at the cabin, we undertook some early demolition efforts that complemented the roof work and other major projects. One project dealt with getting rid of a lean-to that was added to the little shed in the back yard - many of the panel boards had visible termite damage and there were also plentiful signs of carpenter bees (and woodpecker damage).

This little cabinet was mounted under the lean-to, and it was filled with old books. They'd been outside for some time and showed the kinds of damage you would expect from this rough handling: stains, mildew, and tears in the covers and some pages, even some damage from insects.

We found them quite interesting. There are two or three sets from several owners. Most have a location incribed on the front cover from West Virginia. We haven't been able to track down any of these former owners through Google searches, but we'll try again someday.

As far as what to do with them, we haven't decided that either. We took them down from the cabinet and laid them out to dry in the sun, and we now store them in the garage where they are out of the direct elements, but not in the best environment. A used book seller told us restoration is not worth the effort on these, as once mold has started there isn't much you can do without a museum's facilities and curatorial expertise.

So we are holding them for now, maybe we'll cut out and save the graphics and printings (the WW1 set has a number of maps and prints that are interesting, for example).

Carpenter Bees - at the Hawksbill Cabin we'll tell you all you want to know about 'em!

I had exchanged notes with Carey Winston at http://www.carpenterbeechamber.com - for those who are following this thread with an interest in the bees, the damage they do, or his product you can check it out on the site.

In his email, he offered a couple of interesting tidbits about his product and some helpful advice, so I wanted to pass it along:

In the product information category: "...the chamber is not filled with fly glue - this has been a formulated sticky bee bait, and the wood has also been treated."

He noted that I had stained the product which may compromise the attractiveness of it to bees....so we are going to keep an eye on things here.

Battle of the Species - A New Weapon Against Carpenter Bees

Here is a close up of what the early stage of carpenter bee damage looks like - the perfectly round, dime-sized hole. These holes can appear quickly, as the bee can set up shop and have a cozy little burrow completed in less than 24 hours. The real damage occurs once they have laid eggs and larvae appear, as the new generation will be programmed to come back to the same place, dig further, and start a grandchild generation in the hole, eventually leading to structural damage.



A friend of ours in Alexandria had tried this product - the Carpenter Bee Chamber, and found that it worked on some problems they were having with their house. Then an ad for the product showed up in the Google ads (over in the right column) a few weeks ago and I decided to try it as well.

There are two styles, one mounts vertically on facing boards and the other mounts flush on overhanging soffit areas. We bought one of each. I stained them to match the new wood and planned to put them up in some areas around the front door where I noticed a lot of activity - and where apparently a couple of bees had survived our pesticide application a few weeks back.


Here's an action shot courtesy of Mary. Now I know all my friends in Alexandria are jealous of this new ladder...if you come out and visit I will let you climb it.

The traps are made out of pine and have the series of holes drilled in. Along the back, a groove has been routered in, and filled with fly glue. Leads to the motto - "once they enter, they never leave."



Finally, here is a close up of the chamber installed. In this case, after I put some insecticide inside the hole pictured above, I filled it with wood filler and installed the trap over it. After putting the traps up, I kept an eye out for newly arriving bees, but didn't see any...it's something I'll be watching for over the course of the summer.

Battle of the Species - The Carpenter Bees Return, continued

It’s a small thing, a carpenter bee carcass, but when I found this one on Sunday morning, I was swept up in a big feeling, one of gratification, satisfaction, dignity, one of…victory.

Immediately on our return from Home Depot and unpacking, we got straight to work on the bee battle. After setting up the ladder, I donned the mask and gloves to begin treating the new pine facing boards with Chris observing. After some experiments on how to apply the chemicals in the wind so they would not blow back in either of our faces, we really made traction on progress.

At this point I would like to repeat the concentration ratio of the chemical treatment we were using. When I write 6 milliliters, it may not be clear how much that really is. In the bottom of a one gallon jug, this amounts to three drops the size of your thumb nail – and the one gallon solution is adequate for 1,000 square feet of application!

After some misguided spraying on my part, Chris decided he wanted to take over for me – while I went inside to wash off the stray drops that had landed in my hair (despite the hat) and on my face (despite the mask). Here are some action photos of him applying the insecticide to the facing boards, both from underneath and then from the roof, which proved an easier vantage point for a lot of the work. The new ladder worked well.

We mixed a second gallon for application to the outbuildings. I was less concerned about these, as there is past damage to them, and I hadn’t just months ago paid for new facing boards to be installed on them. In fact, I’d prefer that the bees go there.

After we finished, we sat down to an excellent dinner of rib-eyes, kale, and roast potatoes, all cooked on the grill. A victory cigar for me, a fire in the firepit, and a nice Old Vine Zin completed the celebration. We speculated on the effectiveness of the treatment, and to the potential damage the chemicals might have done to us, but went to bed satisfied with a job well done.

Still, as that article from Texas A&M warned, the diligence was just beginning. The treatment will keep the bees from starting new holes, but unless we had sprayed them directly, bees in existing holes, or which happened to be away hunting pollen while we were applying the chemicals, would be unaffected.

The next steps are to identify still active holes (hot spots!) and pursue those bees to the death. And I have a secret weapon that I am going to install next week. More on that in a future post.

It was gratifying to find a bee carcass already the next morning, and upon our return last weekend, another two carcasses lying there. I added two to the tally with well-aimed spraying (one was boring a nest in Jesse’s sawhorses – at least it wasn’t targeting the house!) and a perfect flyswatter swing. I gave a gallon of the solution to Terry to put on their house, and to my Page County neighbors who might want to try this stuff, you’re welcome to a gallon or two as well.

I just need to reserve two gallons for the fall application.

Battle of the Species - The Carpenter Bees Return

A few weeks back, as I was sitting on the brick terrace enjoying a morning cup of coffee, I heard the familiar steady buzz that indicates the return of the carpenter bees. I’d seen them among the azaleas earlier in the season, but had yet to spot any active boring or nesting activities. Now here they were, actually beginning to drill into the new siding we’d just installed at the front of the house after the roof replacement.



In beginning my tale, I would like to cite the wisdom of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, part of Texas A&M, which says, “…ordinarily their tunneling is of little or no consequence. However structure repairs may be necessary if colonies are present years after year in the same timber. Effective control includes prevention, persistence in locating the nesting site, and insecticide applications.”


Another point I’ve learned is that the nesting sites serve two purposes, as a place for the larvae to hatch and mature, but also for over winter shelter. Successive generations will return to the same nest, extending the network and the damage, leading to potential structural damage.
All of these thoughts came to mind as I sat there with a cup o’ joe.








Fortunately, my friend Chris was visiting, and although we planned to do a short hike in SNP, he immediately saw the urgency of tackling these pests. So off we went on our project – first step, to acquire supplies to do battle. We figured we needed some heavy duty insecticide, and I knew we’d need a ladder for this – a good one, OSHA Type 1 (load capacity 300 pounds!). Off we went to breakfast at Farmboys, and then to the co-ops for advice on insecticide.




Breakfast did not disappoint, and neither did the advice we received at Southern States (http://www.southernstates.com/) where we learned our friend Kenny is recovering (get well soon, Ken). I was told, “we’ve got one thing, it’s very effective, but it is expensive.” I told the clerk that we were talking about saving a five-figure investment, so I was willing to look at what he had.


Unfortunately, I don’t have the name of this poison handy. But it is highly concentrated stuff – they use it to treat chicken coops throughout the county, where they mix it up in 50 gallon batches! I laughed when the clerk told me that. The square footage coverage told me I’d need only one gallon. Heading for the calculator for some math, we figured that six milliliters were needed per gallon. This package was the 50 gallon size; it cost $40, but it was all they had, and I figured “if it’s good enough for the chicken farms, it’s good enough for the Hawksbill Cabin.”

We shopped for a ladder, next step. I wanted one like the one I borrowed from some neighbors in Alexandria recently to clean my gutters, an extension job that could go up to 16 feet (and OSHA Type 1). Nothing doing in Southern States, the Page Co-op, or Wal-Mart. We were resigned to drive to the Home Depot in H-burg, adding two hours to the adventure.



After a custard stop (Chris recommends this one, near the Wal-Mart in Luray, by the way – especially, say, if you have just gotten stitches at the Luray hospital for a bizarre firewood chopping accident – we’ll leave that for another day) we headed off to follow the GPS to the Home Depot in H-burg.








A note for the record, if you need to go to a Home Depot, this is the one to go to – it is a super deluxe store, and there is plenty of help. Advice and car loading are available. I guess this is where they got the reputation, because you certainly can’t get this kind of service in Alexandria. The ladder selection – awesome, we had three to choose from. Finally, settling on the Gorilla model, we headed for Stanley.


Arriving back at the Hawksbill Cabin at 5:30 pm (thus always with Home Depot projects!), we assembled our gear:
Insecticide: check!
Sprayer: check!
Ladder: check!
Heavy duty latex gloves: check!
Breathing apparatus: check!

The battle was about to begin…

Battle of the Species - It's about to get ugly

As many of our readers know, one of the joys of owning a cabin in the country is frequent encounters with nature. I suppose that one could be called a naturalist, or even an environmentalist, for taking on a project such as the Hawksbill Cabin – we respect the environment and do our best to consider the impact of our actions while we are out there; and we respect the heritage of the place at the county and community level and we’d like to contribute to efforts to preserve these things. We have altruistic goals that offset our other selfish ones.

For me though, there is also the simple matter of a man needs a place to go where his fellow global travelers won’t accompany him. When I speak of global travelers I mean my fellow species – those that don’t quite understand the concept of a symbiotic relationship…snakes, termites, and carpenter bees among them. In the next week or so I have a new tale I am about to unfold, a tale that will comprise the sixth episode of the ongoing Battle of the Species.

For now though, for our readers’ convenience, here are permalinks to the past installments in the series.
http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2007/09/battle-of-species-introduction.html
http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2007/09/battle-of-species-part-1-carpenter-bees.html
http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2007/10/battle-of-species-2-snakes.html
http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2007/11/battle-of-species-3-termites.html
http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2008/04/snake-in-laundry.html

Life IS Good

Looking down into Luray from Skyland last year was the start of a great adventure for Mary and me, and we are continuing that tradition with this year’s projects at the Hawksbill Cabin. Among the first people we met in Luray are Andy and Howard at Evergreen Outfitters – http://www.evergreenoutfitters.com/.

We came into town the day of the Luray Spring Fest in 2007, and besides enjoying the street scene, we stopped at the Farmers’ Market, and right next door, Andy and Howard’s store. We were drawn in by the fact that there were a couple of dogs hanging out – their adopted companions, Lilly and Martha – see http://www.evergreenoutfitters.com/meet.asp , but what really set my imagination going was their story of having moved to the Valley from Northern Virginia. (Although we missed the fest this year, Evergreen Outfitters sponsored a “Disc Dog” event. I am sure Lilly and Martha enjoyed that!)




Andy and Howard at Evergreen Outfitters


Their friendly store, helpful advice, and gear have been one of the high points of our experience so far. This Saturday Chris and I stopped in as we set out on our carpenter bee adventure, which I’ll post about later this week. Turns out, they’ve had to do some rounds with these pesky insects, too; there was an interim recommendation that involved a sports racket, which I had heard about from others, including our neighbor Terry…everyone who uses this technique is enthusiastic about it…but Chris and I were after something a little more industrial, since there are already six bore holes in the new siding.

As we took off for the farm store, and subsequently H-burg, Andy and Howard gave me a copy of the little book by the Life is Good guys – it’s full of quotes that remind me that "the glass is half full." And when it gets down to it, that’s exactly why we bought the cabin, and why we like the valley so much. Here’s another quote from the books – “the road to a friend’s place is never long” – thanks guys and see you soon!

Preliminary Project List for 2008

In a couple of past posts I've mentioned some of our prospective 2008 projects. We've begun to make progress on two of them - estimates are in for completing the paneling in the addition, and the pool estimate is being put together as well.

Here is the list of interior near term projects, meaning they are the focus for this year.

Addition portion of the house:

• Insulate (to R18) and panel ceiling, panel over old adhesive mirrors, and add recessed hall lighting and outlet
• Insulate walls with blow-in insulation
• Install MBR door
• Install hallway closet doors
• Fix moldings on window vent and baseboard in MBR
• Relocate dryer vent (currently vented below house)

Original/stone portion of house:

• Relocate electric box and complete necesary rewiring
• Repair living room outlet near fireplace
• Install weather stripping on front door
• Replace kitchen counter lights
• Install new window A/C units in main room and MBR

And for exterior projects we have the following:

• Complete pool retrofitting and necessary repairs
• Relay bricks on front terrace and repoint retaining walls
• Remove built-in planter near pool and repave with bricks
• Replace foundation board on rear exterior of addition, install new flashing
• Remove remaining siding on facia boards, repair any damage, and stain to match the rest of the house
• Rescreen porch
• Repair carpenter bee damage on window and door frames
• Repair porch and ramp to rear entry where needed
• Replace exterior light fixture
• Install new drain cover at rear door
• Reattach downspouts to stone walls and bury new black drain tubes

There are a few prioritized long-term projects, but with the completion of this list we will be substantially far along with everything.

Battle of the Species Part 1 - Carpenter Bees

Battle of the Species – Carpenter Bees

The subject of today's blog post was a toss-up. I have a lot to report on the repairs and renovations, but will save that for another time. I’m moving ahead with a report on one of the pests that we’ve identified around the cabin – carpenter bees, or more specifically, the eastern carpenter bee – “Xylocopa virginica”.

Telling, in my opinion, that the word Virginia is part of the name of this species. These two photos show some carpenter bee damage, at the pool cabana and in the old wood shed.

According to Wikipedia, carpenter bees nest by boring holes in wood dwellings and can become minor pests. They use chewed wood bits to form partitions between the cells in the nest. They have some other unique and interesting behaviors -

The male bee visits flowers only to feed himself, spending the rest of the time hovering in his territory, and investigating any movement. There are amusing stories of their attempts to mate with birds or other insects flying through their territories, or of how they will chase small pebbles tossed through their airspace, checking it out as a mating prospect. The males do not sting – are not even equipped to sting.

Females spend the majority of their time gathering nectar and pollen to provision their nests. They stay inside the nests and defend them vigorously, and have a painful sting. Also, the bees don’t like painted or treated wood.

After hatching, the new adults break through the partitions and crawl over each other to escape to the outside world. Apparently they continue to live in the tunnel, preparing to hibernate. Since previous nests are the primary nests each year, blocking or poisoning nests can often backfire on the homeowner, by encouraging the carpenter bee to bore new nests. Over time the burrowing of these new holes may weaken structures.

A second kind of related damage can occur from carpenter bee activity…woodpeckers relish the larvae and will peck away at the surface of the nests to get at them. I suspect we have primary damage (round holes) from the bees and secondary damage (crevasses and trenches) from the woodpeckers, which you can see in the wood shed above.

The web is full of solutions for dealing with them. Apparently, they are especially a pest to owners of log homes; in some places they are valued as pollinators; etc. Very interesting stuff, so we don’t want to completely get rid of them, we just want them to stay away from the dwelling. We talked to the former owner who’d done a lot of research on the bees and had a strategy for dealing with them (aggressive poisoning and steel wool), and we had a consult with a bug guy about them, who treated a couple of the infestations. There was much carnage after he came and went, as shown below (from near the cabana)…..













Also, there is an innovative product some Alexandria friends have used:
http://www.carpenterbeechamber.com/ There are a couple of fun videos on this site about the product.

Our approach is going to be complex and thorough. Typical of a management consultant, it is a four-pronged strategy, hypothesis driven, mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive:
1. Demolish known infested structures that are not part of the main dwelling and can be disposed of…we accomplished this during the 2 September visit, and I have exciting video of the action to post, soon as I figure out how to upload.
2. Treat known infestations to break the cycle of hatch/nest. Also, recently completed, per photographic record above.
3. Buy some of those bee boards and place them in current locations to attract the bees away from our good wood.
4. Finally, we are going to prop a board or two of old infested bare wood away from the house where we would prefer the bees to stay. They will build their nests in the wood I supply for them and stay away from the house. We’ll have a symbiotic relationship.
We’ll have a follow-up next spring, when bee season begins again.