April 21, 2010
I have Carpenter Bees very high up in an open shed. I have read the info on effective chemicals but I am concerned about my young cat. There is no way to keep him out of the area (no door) and no way to keep him shut in the house either. He seems to be pretty sensitive to everything – do you have any ideas? I park my car in there and they are covering it with sawdust everyday.
As explained in our CARPENTER BEE CONTROL ARTICLE, direct treatment of the nests must be done with DRIONE DUST. If you watch the video on this product, you’ll see it’s like smoke. As a very light and airy product, it will stay in the hole and then blow away so there is no way it could “find” your pet cat or have any impact on something so far away from the nest holes when used properly. If the holes are more than a foot or two above the cats head, the dust would simply dissipate before it could reach the ground and based on your message, the treatments would be done quite high up in the air which makes it even more improbably anything could happen. This means you can either climb up a ladder to dust the nests or use the DUSTICK for easy access from the ground.
However, the liquid spraying with CYPERMETHRIN would pose a hazard to you and your pets if you are directly underneath the area being sprayed and it starts to fall down on you or them. As explained in our SAFETY VIDEOS, pets and children must be out of the area when doing this treatment. Once it dries it won’t pose a hazard and in general, cats will avoid the area when you’re using it since they don’t like getting wet but this is a decision you’ll need to make regarding safe use around your pet. If you aren’t able to restrain it and you don’t feel comfortable treating with the liquid, here are two suggestions.
One option would be to use a paint roller or paint brush to make the application with the Cypermethrin to any wood surfaces. This would enable you to make controlled applications with little or no run off. The net result would be the treatment could be done without any danger being presented to you or your pet. It would take longer to do but your safety concerns would be addressed.
The second option would be to forego useing the Cypermethrin and instead opt for the INSECT REPELLENT we have listed in our article. This product isn’t an insecticide and poses no hazard to people or pets so it can be used with the cat around. True it won’t work as well as the Cypermethrin but the risk elimination might be worth the trade off in residual.
Here are links to the information and products listed above:
Carpenter Bee Article: www.carpenterbees.com
Drione: https://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/dust/drione-dust
Dustick: https://www.bugspraycart.com/equipment/dusters/dustick
Cypermethrin: www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/viper-cypermethrin
NBS Repellent: https://www.bugspraycart.com/exempt/additive/nbs-paint-additive-16-oz
Give us a call if you still have questions.
Technical Support
1-800-877-7290
Filed under SAFETY CONCERNS