Where theres a need is there a product ?

Order a Crossman vigilante from AOA. Buy the salt Mag's from Bug-a-Salt and your good to go. It's co2 powered, so it has more power than the "regular" pump one. And it's half the price!! And fun....

177 salt shooter.JPG
 
Why not just spray the area down with a potent insecticide?
These are not bees that need to be protected, are they?

just my 2 buzz
A lot of good ideas posted , thanks I’m gonna try a few.
As far as bug spray , the bee and wasp spray I used to get from work
( a bucket in the air is not a good place to bee, Haa) it won’t kill the
carpenter bees. I don’t know why have tried often
 
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Yeah I researched pretty well. It’s really short range, like 3 feet.
Coarser Kosher salt gives a little more range but a more open pattern. I got one last year and just gave it to my grandson with two provisions, not to shoot his dog and not to shoot it indoors.
 
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I found the best tool for wood bees is a tennis racket . Garage sale very few $$ . Only fuel needed is a beverage or two.
Better yet is a badminton racket. Much lighter and nimbler than a tennis racket...you can swat three times as fast with it. We keep one on hand camping for yellow jackets around the table, on the boat and in the duck blind for those big nasty wasps that nest in the bamboo. It's pretty entertaining thwacking them out of the air!
 
12 shot is available

but how to contain it ?
Someone else suggested felt cleaning pellets. I never thought of those. load one felt pellet then pour some #12 down the bore. As long as you keep the gun pointed up you're fine, otherwise load a second felt pellet on top of the bird shot from the muzzle with a cleaning rod. A powerful .22 cal PCP should launch some #12s and a cleaning pellet or two with sufficient energy to kill bees. This is starting to sound like fun! Maybe to keep it safe, load the first felt pellet from the muzzle with a cleaning rod, pour in the shot, load a second felt pellet on top of the shot with a cleaning rod, THEN cock and make your gun ready to fire.
 
Last week those sum beechs were all over our tool shed. I took 5 with a fly swatter. Then I read an article on them. The males can't sting but the females can. Now ain't that the truth. They bore holes in unpainted wood. Then the females crawl in and lay eggs. Then they leave. The article went on to say to spray the holes wet with WD-40. It is supposed to kill the eggs. They will nest again in late summer.
 
As far as sprays for carpenter bees, you will need something with Fipronil in it. Fipronil is the active ingredient in Termidor and you can find the same ingredient in other sprays such as the one below. It's marketed mainly as termite/ant/roach killer, but works on anything that crawls or flies. It's particularly good on the Asian ladybugs that infest many areas here in Western NC. I can spray once in the spring and once in the fall and that's it.


The Gamo 'shotgun' is a good option. I've had one for years and it will do ok for carpenter bees. My weapon of choice for carpenter bees around the shop where I dont spray has become either an electric airsoft or even one of the gel blasters. The airsoft can damage siding; especially if brittle, but the gel blaster has enough oompf to knock them out of the air without doing any damage to the siding. Pair either of those with a bottle of bourbon and you have hours of fun!
 
We always used a crappy .22 revolver with shot shells on the front porch of the trailer.. The felt cleaning pellets have some serious power, I know they'll dent drywall 🤣
Not exactly airgun related, but I'll chime in on this... I have tested many guns with rat shot and by far the best pattern I've gotten is with a Rough Rider revolver... Until I picked up a little smoothbore cheapo .22 and it patterns like a champ. When I see a carpenter bee at the top of my roof or have been failing miserably with the airsoft, I'll grab that and it's game over as long as it's far enough away that I dont hit the house. Have used it to take chippers out to 20 yards as well. Had experimented with using post it notes to make shotshells for a DAQ 50 cal and those did well, but not as well as you'd expect. The rifling just messes with the shot, even when encased in the post it note.
 
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Order a Crossman vigilante from AOA. Buy the salt Mag's from Bug-a-Salt and your good to go. It's co2 powered, so it has more power than the "regular" pump one. And it's half the price!! And fun....

View attachment 557872
Waiting you can use bug a salt mags in this?! No way!
 
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so I reload my Gamo varmint garden shotgun shells . I normally reload with BB 3-5 .. to retain them I have a 16 p nail ground flat on the end for a ramrod..
I use the potato starch packing peanuts, just pinch off like a 1//4 peanut and put in the shell and tamp down for a base,I start with it primer down if you were to imagine it as a cartridge.. then your shot.. followed by another piece of peanut packed down..I have never had them fall apart, even carrying in my pocket..
I suppose you could even reload with salt or rock salt..
but if you want pistol, while it's expensive ammo, just use a separate magazine in your reximex with felt cleaning pellets.. they are plenty accurate at close range..
I don't think there's anything wrong with shortening a Gamo varmint garden shotgun because it's just a air gun but likely it'll be too hard to cock..
I have a lathe in my machine shop so it would be easy to bore ( to fit Gamo shells) out a brake barrel spring pistol but the rifling is going to mess up the shot pattern..
Mark
 
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what pistol and that looks like a SSP cylinder ? if so where did you get it ?

ROHM Twinmaster Action Co2. The laminate grips are from my other Twinmaster. It's a double action semi-auto 8 shot .177. I got it at Sportsman's Warehouse 10-15 years ago. I don't believe they are made anymore. I also have a Twinmaster Top. It's the same gun but it is a precharge pneumatic. I think that is where I got the grip, I swapped them. I'd love to get another set of those grips.
 
I use the potato starch packing peanuts, just pinch off like a 1//4 peanut and put in the shell and tamp down for a base,I start with it primer down if you were to imagine it as a cartridge.. then your shot.. followed by another piece of peanut packed down..I have never had them fall apart, even carrying in my pocket..
Brilliant... never thought of that! Thanks!
 
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Brilliant... never thought of that! Thanks!
I think I might have dropped and lost one shell but it is really so easy to reload them, and like me I wanted larger shot and had BB so it was extremely cheap.. plus unlike cardboard wads, they would be small and hard to handle.. the peanuts just dissolve and disappear.
Mark
 
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