Bad bugs, yeh. Junebugs, ladybugs, I leave ’em alone, or help ’em outside. Anything that bites me, eats my clothes, or craps on my food, I go on a blood-hunt like Borellian Nomen. I’m particularly sadistic towards mosquitoes, as I’m like sugar to them.
The racquets crap out over time (dielectric breakdown, usually, from the HV), so get spares…
Ha! I so wanted to get one of those when they came out…
https://m.harborfreight.com/electronic-fly-swatter-61351.html
$౩.26 at Harbor Freight. These work great and it’s EXTREMELY satisfying to get a good zap out of a fly…
I’ve had a few of these, great fun, especially for getting pesky mosquitoes and flies
Tingles a bit if you accidentally catch your finger though :person_facepalming:
Then a relative from South Africa who used it when she was over visiting bought my over next time she visited a couple of ones they sell out in Cape Town.
Wow, their ones don’t just zap, they blow apart whatever insect you hit with a loud band and a huge blue spark, a few insects have even burst into flames and smoke :laughing:
You certainly would not want to catch your finger on it though, it’s more akin to a stun gun than a bug zapper
Sounds like fun. Where can i get a couple? :smiling_imp:
I have a few of those “electric tennis rackets” at home and the office. Picked them up at Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc… Saw this on Banggood. Been meaning to order a few for giggles. Rechargeable Bug Zapper.
Regarding yellow jackets/wasps, dish soap and water in a pump sprayer does wonders. Some people swear by Dawn. I’ve had success with cheap Kirkland stuff.
soap is much safer than taking on a nest with a zap racquet.
if you hit them at night its a 100% kill.
if you use very hot water to make it it kills all the brood too.
any eggs that still hatch will die from lack of care by the adults.
at night they are also cold and slow.much lower risk of getting stung.
KIWF!!
- But in Hawaii, it would probably light our grass shacks and skirts, too…
dont forget that its the males that are flying around.
if you are fast just grab them out of the air.
i can get them about 90% of the time even if they change course during the grab.
males have a yellow square on their face.
looks like an led die LOL.
spike em into the pavement or dump them into soapy water.
i prefer the spike and stomp.
Gotta get some of that 22cal 12 shot. Seems it could be handy.
Digging the soapy water idea. I've received 3 paper wasp stings already this spring.
Not even. We camp a lot in the Mendocino NF, and have had to chase out nitwits who were shooting at random into the forest several times.
Had a bullet bury itself a few feet from a 6-year-old, which got me moving.
In short, the method is to walk in on them holding a ham radio, reading off their license plate and vehicle description and getting a “we copy” back from the speaker. Then talk to the people with the guns.
Reminded me of stories from childhood in North Carolina — I was out in the yard playing when bullets started coming out of our back woods and bouncing off the stone house. My dad (not long returned from WW2) snatched me up and tossed me inside, then charged into the woods waving his pickaxe and hollering.
He came back with two rifles. The nitwits had been shooting up the “Home Site, No Shooting” sign at the back of our property woodlot.
They dropped their guns to run faster.
So I was told anyhow. Too young to recall that.
But it’s left me willing to run toward trouble, figuring most trouble has some nitwit coward attached to it.
Let’s see what Google turns up:
“Oh, yes, let’s race towards the gunfire…”
— Rodney McKay
That was enjoyable! I would like one of those guns.
Tons of carpenter bees are always hovering around right below the roof where the wooden facing is.
Unfortunately I do not think the Condo. association would appreciate it!
Like Speed4goal said…… it is nice. 
These bees can do a lot of damage too. I had an old Cedar log (12” x 5”) laying in a flower bed one time. I used it to hide a key under in case I ever got locked out of the house. One afternoon late I noticed a carpenter bee light on it & disappear.
Sure enough the log had 2 perfectly round holes in it…. one on each end on top. I happened to have some Diazinon already mixed up in a sprayer. So a bit after dark I plugged one hole then stuck the sprayer nozzel in the other one, filled that log up & plugged the hole.
Next evening after work I put that log on a work bench & gently split it in half with a hatchet.
I was flabbergasted…. it was slap full of dead Carpenter bees. I counted 157 in that one little log.
They will eat your house up if given a chance……
Boaz, thanks for posting the video. Entertaining. RobertB, I was just telling my father-in-law I wanted to go out and grab a 380 for carrying in my pocket. He goes to his car and pulls out a lockbox which he insists I keep. It’s got about the smallest 22 I’ve ever seen in it…looks like something a James Bond girl would pull out. Anyway, he’s got several boxes of hollow points and a full box of that rat shot in your pic. I told him you can shoot bees with those
These are like oversize flying termites. I’ve replaced numerous fascia boards where they had eaten away most of the wood inside. They go for unpainted wood and if everything is painted where no woodgrain shows you won’t have a problem but if there’s any unpainted wood they will find it. They also go for smooth holes of the same size they make (1/2” or 13mm, and slightly larger) but they won’t enter a rough hole with splinters. I make a trap and hung it on a house I was working on last year where there were several dozen of them on the back deck. In two days time they were almost all in the 2L bottle. I’ve since learned that these traps are most effective early in the season when they are looking to make the ‘nest’ to get a mate. After their mating time is past they aren’t as interested in the holes but you’ll still get some of them.
Lost of fun swatting them with a yardstick (meterstick). If you miss, they go back to hovering in the exact same spot so you get another chance. All those will be males and they are hovering to protect their territory which will be close to their mate’s nesting hole so if you see one hovering instead of just flying around you’ve got problems. After a couple years exposure to weather, the chemicals in treated wood will not kill them. They might sting if you held one in your closed hand, but otherwise they don’t sting. Get too close and they will fly straight at you to try to scare you away, same as they do with rival bees. I haven’t seen nearly as many as last year or the year before but i don’t know why.
Nasty buggers these are, and they cannot simply be ignored or you’ll be paying someone like me hundreds or even thousands to repair your home.
Phil
Carpenter bees (several species) aren’t imports/invasives, they’re a genus that includes several native species. The males don’t sting.
They’re not the only insect species disappearing. It’s a puzzling concern:
https://www.google.com/search?q=insect+decline
Your figuring is probably right much of the time. :+1:
But what are you gonna do the day you figure wrong? 
Are you gonna be prepared when the trigger person you confront decides to kill you? Hopefully so, but if not…. it might be something to consider.
Best to do so though only if you are prepared & ready to join in.