My concern is applying anything in our heat here. It will be over 100 this week, cooling down to the 90s next. ; / No humidity.

My other concern are my bees. I have an old fence post that the big black bees took over about fifteen years ago. I plant lots of bee friendly flowers for them and I dont want to harm them.

Any suggestions? thank you in advance.

For your big, black bees--are you asking about a way to reclaim your fence post without killing the bees? I would hazard a guess that those are carpenter bees. Do you have visible holes in the fencepost that are about the diameter of a quarter?

Jackie

Now that all that old stuff is gone, I realize that we rarely see leaf-cutters, now. I sort of miss them, too.

Jeri

Flaura-I dont want to reclaim the post-I love watching the big fat bees. The are so funny when they are bright orange when covered with pollen, diving into the holes. I didnt know the name of them tho.

Well my problem is solved-I will look at the roses with their "bee lace" leaves with new appreciation.

Thanks again-
Sue

Now--leaf cutters, on the other hand--I've never seen one. I only see the leaves after they've visited.

Jeri

Sorry about your deck flaura=these bees have been here forever and although there are other posts they have only stayed in the one post.

Here is an interesting and concise article on leaf cutting bees. You learn something new everyday.

I really do have too many various carpenter bees, though. I am thinking of putting up the houses near their favorite haunts. It's not like I could possibly attract more of them, lol :D

I had one burrow into an old rake once! She bit me when I finally grabbed the thing to move it elsewhere (I didn't know she was in there). They can bite very hard!

I have a possible solution to your carpenter bee problem. Our local Ace Hardware store has a shingled ... oh, I don't know the proper name for it ... roof eve ? over the entry doors to the store. The carpenter bees attacked them this year to the point where some customers were afraid to enter the store. (They didn't know that carpenter bees don't sting). The folks at Ace sprayed the shingles with Terro Carpenter Ant spray and the bees were gone in a day.

I have the same kind of eve on my woodshed/garden shed and no matter how careful I have been trying to block them, some bees still get inside the garden shed portion. (What a mess !) This year, the bees started attacking my redwood picnic table. I didn't have time to stop and paint the dang table, but when I learned what Ace had done to solve their problem, I bought a can of the ant spray. The bees left my table alone for the rest of their active season after I sprayed it.

I hope I find time to paint the table later this year. However, ant spray is still cheaper than paint.

Smiles,
Lyn

That would be far better than deck stairs that are turning into swiss cheese.

I am wondering if you could time it so that you are spraying when most of the insects are dormant and if it will last. I have been told that the best defense against carpenter bees is paint, but the bees don't read.

A friend of mine had the redwood siding on her house attacked by carpenter bees and put a very thin coat of Thin-set concret over the wood, then the primer and painted. She hasn't any problem with the bees since she finished the job.

Smiles,
Lyn

Also, I was only spraying the underside of the picnic table and benches. The top is covered with a tablecloth.

Smiles,
Lyn

I think BJ's use of the Thin-set concrete to cover both the wood and "caulk" any seams or joints might be the next step. It's still cheaper than replacing a whole deck.

I do know that regular caulking does not work.

I have improved my batting average with a fly swatter when they dared approach my picnic table while I was out there ... lol.

Smiles,
Lyn