Is it difficult to get pollination in a greenhouse ? The carpenter bees are working so hard on my satsumas outside that it is embarrassing the none existing honey bees.....I even see a wasp doing it ! I knew that the carpenter bee could do it , I just didn't know how well they could do it or so it seems so far....my house is taking a beating but the citrus seems happy ! In Alabama you can forget about the old literature saying they don't like painted wood or cypress. The carpenter bees do fine on both and are very destructive....

A little bit of air circulation will do a lot of good. Carpenter bees ? Get the tennis racquet out, it's a blast.

I have 40+ citrus varieties inside my greenhouse. Except for two varieties of Clementines that I use GA3 on, I don't do anything for the other varieties. They set a crop every year. - Millet (299 BO-)

Laaz: I played tennis in college a long time ago. I know which end to hold and what to do with it ! I actually hurt when I swing and miss sometimes !
Be careful because if you miss too much they can strike back and they hurt. When I do connect I try to find them before they get up and fly off.....they can just be stunned. They sorta pop when you completely take care of business.

Millet: What do you and others credit for your pollination ? I think you have too much big stuff to bother trying to do it by hand and I though bees were necessary. I know success can be as few as 10% of blooms pollinated but I can't wait to see how the carpenter bees are really doing when the dust settles at my place, so to speak .....

Thank you both !

Tom almost all citrus are self fertile and don't require bees. - Millet (299 BO-)

Laaz: I feel your pain. I am in the same boat. There are two great products if you google carpenter bee traps. An Alabama product completely unaffilated with me is at carpenterbeesolutions.com
A man in a rural town has an invention he calls a carpenter bee trap that looks like a bird house. He also sells what he calls bee butter that is a permetherin poison mixed with vaseline or some like product and it is not poisonous to people or most pets that I know of. You put just a little bit in all existing holes and it gets on their wings and kills them. There are videos on you tube. I have used both products and they work great but I don't think there is any way to completely kill all the carpenter bees . I was not kidding about swinging at them with a tennis racket so much it hurts my arm but that does work too. My youngest daughter's friend was bitten (or stung) on the hand and he was very unhappy. Me, not so much !! You do need to be careful, if provoked they do hurt.

Millet: Thanks as always for your insight as well as all the other advisors here.

Laaz: Your web site is wonderful, thank you for all you do too !

Carpenter bees are a pain, my dogs grab quit a few & the rest are as I said... Blasted with the racquet. They can do quite a bit of damage on old homes with wood siding.