doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com wing shooting wood boring CARPENTER bees!!

I have a big problem with the carpenter bees down here in south west Georgia as well. About a month ago, the wife and I were standing on the front porch and a few of them kept buzzing by. I reached inside for a little S&W Model 422 .22 caliber automatic that I keep loaded with snake shot. I walked back out and told the wifey to plug her ears. I waited for one to come hovering around again and dusted him at about 8 or 10 feet.

Of course then I got carried away and started stalking them all around the house till I had burned up about half a box of shells.

Not much range out of 4" barreled pistol, but I know I was averaging better than 60%!!

Where do you guys live?! I'd have the local constabulary down my neck in a New York second if I started shooting in my neighborhood!

You'll screw up a silencer with .22 birdshot. The shot fills the baffles.

Then how do shotgun silencers (moderators) work?

High Standard Sharpshooter, 22 shot shells and my split rail fence = Great fun in the spring on Bore Bees. The HS becomes a single shot but it's fun nonetheless.

Dog gone it, I still haven't seen what one of these bees looks like. Pics please!

I don't know how shotgun suppressors work. Never seen one except on "No Country for Old Men." I do know that the fine shot in a .22 shot cartridge will ruin a silencer, however. They're welded together, and you can't take them apart for cleaning. I would imagine a shotgun suppressor has smaller holes in the baffles than the size of the shot.

As the pics show, this is a large bug about 1 1/4" long as an adult, and close to 1/2" across. The body is heavy and gloss black except for yellow hair on the thorax. As someone has noted, those with "white faces" are alleged to be harmless and non-stinging; but these things are intimidating enough that I never had the brass to find out for myself. These things use their mandibles to bore the neatest holes you can imagine in a piece of wood; each, like the bug itself, approximately 1/2" in diameter; and I'm always amazed at what they choose to bore. Besides wooden buildings, they will even bore small things like wooden rake handles; and several times I've started to use a rake, or shovel, etc and have the handle snap because one of those rascals drilled and hollowed the handle. At one time treated wood was safe from wood borers; but since arsenic was eliminated from the treatment formula, treated wood is not a solution either. After my old lab lady passed on, I lost my desire to own another dog; but noticed after she was gone that all the carpenter bees swarming the kennel area disappeared. Was there a relationship there? Don't know; but do know that shooting/swapping these things as they whiz by, or hover can be addictive. As a kid living out in the country where many of the old farm houses were constructed of unpainted wood, everyone had more than their share; and for entertainment we kids would pop those buggars with BB guns as they paused to hoover. In the late 70's there was a high-dollar gun shop in Atlanta called Atlanta Outfitters; they had some fabulous double guns, all of which were far out of my meager budget. But I stopped there on one occasion and had the privilege to examine a .22 rim fire best quality double rifle (a Westley Richards, I think?); and now that we've decided to make a sport out of carpenter bee shooting, I can't conceive of a better weapon for the purpose.

topgun and Genelang,

Both of ya'll should know what heart pine looks like, you know, fat lighter? Carpenter bees won't mess with it. My home was built out of heart pine in 1875 and there's no sign of carpenter bee damage, nor termites for that matter, in any of the old original wood. Guess they just don't care for that rosin between their teeth.

Stan