Oh God - horrendous stories here I will be 'more' ga ga than usual if I even 'see' one - beware everybody - there's a Patsy out there ! I got stung in an amusement arcade when I was 7 - my arm was resting on a ledge and I thought someone had left a cigarette on the ledge as my arm was burning. When I checked, there was a squashed bee thing stuck to me arm. I did scream and people gathered round me, but all they did was stare at it ! Get it off me ! I cried - as I went round the circle with me arm aloft - but still they stared and one woman said 'don't put it on me !' - so I did - and ran for them thar hills !
You ladies are so funny. At my home, every spring and fall the carpenter bees come out of the holes they bore into any pine or oak they can find. It didn't take me long to figure out why this house was built of cedar. My hubby and sons would look for bore holes after they went back to hibernating in the summer and winter. The boys filled the bore holes with a wood putty that was mixed with a heavy pesticide. When we first moved here the boys would take bats and swing at the carpenter bees as hard as they could. They sounded like hitting rocks, and they were so big you could see them fly across the sky.
We have wasps here all the time and when their nests get to be 6 inch in diameter I usually knock them done and let them start all over again. I do respect their sting as I have felt it many times. We have another wasp here that I respect even more it is called the tarantula killer it is large black wasp with red wings they are quite common here as are tarantulas. So far not been stung.
Most carpenter bees do not sting but they seem to recognize that they are seen as a threat, and will fly at you as if they were going to sting you. They are also usually solitary. I rented an apartment once that had a carpenter bee hole just to the right of the door. Some days, I couldn't get into my apartment because it would fly out at me each time. Even knowing that it wouldn't sting, I couldn't bring myself to do anything but run. Finally, I put a big wad of gum over its hole. It managed to get out but apparently didn't like the experience because I didn't see it again. Then I replaced the gum with some spackle or wood putty, I don't remember which.
@Ken Anderson - good advice I wonder if they realise they die if they sting you, next time I shall warn them
@Ken Anderson ,This old cabin had been deserted for around 20 years before we bought and rebuilt it. Thirty years ago this area was all country, so the carpenter bees had plenty time and places to build a colony. It took a couple of years to figure they came out twice a year. The first time we saw them there had to be a hundred of them all around the front porch. That's when the boys got out the bats. They thought it was funny. But you can anger them enough to make them bite. We had to take one of the boys to the doctor's to lance an infected bite. Mixing dry powdered insecticide into wood putty was the only thing we found that got rid of them.
Guess I'm lucky, I seldom see wasps or bees or ants or Mosquitos ...just rats, lol. I don't see them but hear them. Thankfully that's over also. What next? Don't tell me.
What next ? Exciting plans for the future You will think of me with my daily routine of going round in circles - won't you .............