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We all love vinegar in our kitchen but after reading this post, you will also love vinegar in your garden. White vinegar is like a…
Two years ago I posted about some Carpenter Bee Traps that members of the Northcrest community purchased as part of a group buy. Here's the original post: http://northcrestmodern.blogspot.com/2010/04/carpenter-bee-traps.html I don't condone killing the bees unless they're a nuisance (in my case they make cheese of my house - with so much wood in the ceilings and eaves). This is one alternative that doesn't involve pesticides. What the bee holes look like Repaired hole, reopened by bees There were a couple of things I didn't like about the design of those traps - the main one had to do with durability - the thin plywood began to delaminate with exposure to rain, etc - also the wood surfaces stained and were getting moldy. Plus I just thought they looked ugly hanging there with this long set of bottles underneath. After one season of use So after I took them down and examined the results (above) of a season of use, my initial thought was that I could paint them and put some roofing felt on thier tops (I have two) to keep them out of the weather a bit - all that seemed like a lot of effort for something that's basically made of scrap wood, stapled together. I decided to make up something of my own design. My goals: 1) keep it simple in construction; 2) something easy to make; 3) with a minimum profile, and 4) durability to weather. What I came up with is a length of scrap tubafore, with a couple of holes drilled in it. The cap of a bottle would be glued into a countersink on the bottom, eliminating the need for two bottles. This was my prototype: I had this "Goop" adhesive laying around -worked well! Drill through the cap Last year frankly there weren't enough bees to really mess with the traps. I think the previous year's traps basically "did the job" and eliminated most from the house along with their progeny. This year they were out once again and in numbers, so I revisited my earlier redesign and put a couple up - both the original design and my new design, for a comparison. I did paint my prototype before hanging. Similar to prototype The results after a couple of days: As you can see, my new design on the right (this is looking out of a window under the South eave of my house) is just as effective as the original design. So I made a couple of variations of the design and put up some more: Including this "under mount" version near the downspout - also very effective: And the results thus far: And the original: I think I've gotten about 3 dozen bees so far - it's been 10 days or so. I think you can follow how I made these - very simple if you have a drill press and some Forstner bits but you can probably manage with a spade bit and 9/16" (for the bee hole) bit with some scrap wood. If you paint them (I used a coat of primer and one coat of the trim paint on my house) they'll last for many years - just remember to take them down when the bees are gone. -- John All content, including images and editorial, is Copyright © 2002-2012 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton.
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This is a blog about creating an Urban Homestead in Texas. About Gardening and Christian stewardship. About sustainable gardening.
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Join us on this journey towards banishing cellulite and reclaiming your confidence. Let's embrace self-love and create a body we feel proud of. #BanishCellulite #SmoothSkinGoals ------- Credit: @kathyhealthtips
Today I'm going to show you how Steve managed to be AWESOME by hiding all of our TV cords. He manages to be pretty awesome pretty often, but this time was even more impressive than usual. I will warn you. This post is going to be a lot of me sounding like I know what…
