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Post by Granny Smith on Jun 13, 2014 22:20:56 GMT -5
I think I'm going to try making one of these. We've got a whole lot of Carpenter bees this year!
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Post by Valerie on Jun 14, 2014 7:36:20 GMT -5
Does it kill them? Carpenter bees are great pollinators, especially for tomatoes and squash.  |
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Post by Granny Smith on Jun 14, 2014 18:21:19 GMT -5
I think you have the option of releasing them away from your house or dumping them into water with a little dish soap to kill them.
I rarely see the big bees in the garden, but those little bumblebees are everywhere. They're my main pollinator.
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Post by joanfromzone6 on Jun 30, 2014 7:55:10 GMT -5
the problem with that design is that you must take the trap down in order to dump the bees - i saw a very similar design that used the inverted bottle fastened to the bottom of the box - but - they then took two bottle caps, cut away the flat area (top or bottom, however you look at it) and fastened the two caps permanently together - then screw the modified cap/s onto the bottle attached to the box and screw a second bottle into that open cap - all the bees fall into the lowest bottle that you can then unscrew from the trap and seal with a third cap (or with your thumb if you want excitement) until you decide just how you're going to cook them - that way you don't have to mess with taking the trap down every time you want to empty your stash - you can make the whole thing less bulky if you trim off most of the upper bottle before attaching it to the box -
i've also heard that bee traps are more effective if they are fastened to the structure rather than hanging - the bees being more comfortable making their nest in something as solid and permanent as the building itself -
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Post by Granny Smith on Jul 5, 2014 19:34:07 GMT -5
Couldn't you attach the bottom bottle with duct tape?
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Post by joanfromzone6 on Jul 7, 2014 8:29:55 GMT -5
Couldn't you attach the bottom bottle with duct tape? well sure you could - but then you'd be messing with retaping it each time you emptied the stash and that can be a pain especially if your trap is mounted high - you'll need two hands to do the retape - one easy way to fasten the two caps together is to use a small screw-type hose clamp and then slather the outside with epoxy - sometimes plastic can be iffy with epoxy and it's really neat if you can find proper threaded metal caps as an alternative - good hunting - |
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Post by Granny Smith on Jul 7, 2014 20:13:02 GMT -5
How about if you just cut (melt) off the top of each cap with something hot, like a soldering iron or something? Then you could just glue them together. I'd use E6000. I haven't seen much that wouldn't hold.
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Post by joanfromzone6 on Jul 7, 2014 23:04:47 GMT -5
maybe use a hose clamp to keep both whole caps aligned and use a hot iron to melt away both cap tops at the same time - coming at it from the inside of one cap - might just weld the two together in the process of melting away the excess ?
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Post by joanfromzone6 on Oct 7, 2014 19:57:51 GMT -5
so,lady, did you ever make your trap / how did it work ?
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Post by Granny Smith on Oct 8, 2014 17:03:51 GMT -5
Nah, I got lazy and just started filling in the bee holes with Great Stuff. They finally gave up and left.
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Post by joanfromzone6 on Oct 8, 2014 22:21:42 GMT -5
well, i got further along than you did - in anticipation of making some traps next year i've already emptied several bottles -
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Post by Granny Smith on Oct 11, 2014 19:57:31 GMT -5
When I first posted this, I had some wood I was going to use, but the boys used it all when they built the coops for the turkeys. There is probably more of the right type of wood around here someplace, but that would involve walking up the hill and digging through the pile of wood from the barn. I'm too lazy to look for it.
Seems like, the older I get, the lazier I get. I should probably do something about that.
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Post by joanfromzone6 on Oct 12, 2014 7:28:51 GMT -5
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