At the front of the house I noticed two new, perfectly round, holes in the mortar that hadn't been there before.
Then we saw some bees go in and out of them. Not good at all. I really don't want a bee hive in my house.
I'd heard of carpenter bees, but not masonry bees before. Of course, these could also just be some very enterprising carpenter bees looking to expand their horizons beyond wood.
Sadly for them, their horizons doth end where my domus begins, so the Megachilidae's Occupy Aaron's House Wall was going to be brought to a swift end.
So, I went out and got some foaming bee spray and applied it into the holes early this morning.
Note that foaming bee spray does just that - it foams in the hole. It then comes foaming back out of the hole at a very high and foamy velocity. Messy and all over the place, splash back on me, the deck etc. Good thing I had on safety glasses, but it did get on my arm so I spent 15 minutes washing it off thoroughly per the can label. Strangely enough it ran back clear/white foam from one hole but yellowy/dirty from the other hole - methinks that hole had the hive. (ML - you'll love this stuff for inflicting chemical warfare on your carpenter bee infestation).
I intend to apply it again tomorrow morning - but I plan to wear a rain jacket to protect against the splash back.
Then, in 48 hours I'm going to plug the holes with masonry filler and sealant. That should show 'em.
3 comments:
We had a similar problem at our domus with hornets 2 years ago. And we have a friend who is hyperallergic to being stung.
Hornets tend to go somnolent after the sun goes down, so that evening I took a squeeze plastic bottle, filled it with isopropyl alcohol, and injected it in behind the vinyl siding at two places (one of which required a ladder for access).
The next day, the lower infestation was a ghost town but the upper one was still quite active.
So I went to the local hardware store, where they recommended the foaming aerosol spray. Did it again that evening and it worked.
This year, the worst we have had so far have been ants in the house. They were leaving a pile of soil on the ceramic tiles by the radiator, where the hot water pipe goes beneath the slab. I sprinkled a bit of boric acid into the hole, and they were gone the next day.
These six-legged pests just keep reappearing and reappearing. But at least they can be dealt with and summarily banished.
Not always so with the two-legged varieties of pests.
I made the mistake of plugging the access the wasps were using to get under a portion of the house that wasn't part of the basement before I shot the hole full of wasp killer. Had wasps flying all over the basement within an hour - took days to kill them all and clean up the mess.
EO: Yep, insect intrusion is highly annoying, especially as they have us surrounded and outnumbered.
Jon: Some wise tactician said always give your enemy an exit where you want them to go. I did application number two today and soon the holes get plugged.
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