Jelly Cupboards and Jars

Ok, maybe not fine woodworking, but it is a piece of wood and did require some work.  Carpenter bees have been a problem here for years with several trips to Walmart for bee spray required every season.  Resilient little buggers seem to have become immune or they own stock in Walmart bee spray!  So, enter plans for a nifty little bee trap.  In researching the traps on the internet, i was convinced i’d be out there emptying the jar every few hours.  In theory, a bee enters the angled hole to the main shaft and seeing light descends down into the jelly jar.  Once inside, light is no longer visible due to the angled holes and the varmint can’t figure out how to get back out.  So with traps in place and a ladder at the ready to perform jar emptying tasks as required, we waited, and waited and waited.  A little frustrating to watch a bee fly around a contraption i spent a good 15 minutes constructing and crawl right inside a previously bored bee hole unscathed by the previous sprayings.  After some serious brain storming, the thought occurred, if the old bore holes weren’t available, maybe they’d explore the new holes provided.  Not wanting to make this an all summer project, a quick filling of the old holes with expanding spray foam and the traps were back in place.  Wow! after only a few hours I had my first carpenter bee trapped inside a jelly jar buzzing and unable to find his way out. (just hope peta doesn’t find out about this, maybe I can convince them that i take them to the park and humanely release them)  So far we’re up to six carpenter bees and a couple of wasps.  And only one has figured out how to find his way out.  One other one tricked me into thinking he was comatose then suddenly came to life and flew off as i tried to empty the jar.  Oh well, hopefully he warned the rest of his tribe to stay away from my damn rafters!

With the killer bee population under control, I actually did spend some time in the woodshop.  Was able to complete the jelly cupboard and replace the ancient press board computer stand that occupied that corner of the kitchen.

         

Much nicer if you ask me and actually pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Though the tin panels were purchased already punched.  Thought about punching the tin myself, but don’t have that much patience, or time.  I am pretty busy catching bees you know.

Next on the list, the medicine cabinet for the bathroom remodel that was completed back in April.  The blanket chests are after that, promise, kind of.

One last item of housekeeping here.  I finally broke down and upgraded my site to eliminate the annoying unsolicited advertisement.  So far so good.  Did have to change the dot com to its current Meanderawlwoodshop.blog

Well it’s been a few hours since last check, so I guess I better go out and take a look at those bee traps.

 

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