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May 7, 2014
I Love this Teeny Tiny House!
May 15, 2014The Great Carpenter Bee Trap Adventure!
Pops drilling in the background, Carpenter Bee Traps in the foreground.
Update:
Pops is no longer making the traps to sell, but you can make your own with his carpenter bee trap instructions here.
You can see Pops working in the background and all the finished bee traps are in the front. He hasn’t finished making the initial batch of 100, but he’s getting close!
Pops (and Mom) have been in the shop most days since what I call “The Great Carpenter Bee Trap Adventure” began! At this point, Pops has said he wants me to open up the ordering again… so long as everyone understands that he CANNOT promise a particular delivery date. He will continue to work on them as long as my readers need them, but he can only make so many per day.
The Carpenter Bee Traps are POPULAR!!!
At this point, we have over 350 people who have filled out a waiting list request and many of you who filled out the form want more than one!
I’m happy to say we will be opening up the orders again in a few hours for a batch of 500!!! (Those who filled out a form to be put on the waiting list will be notified first and will have several hours to place their orders before we open up the ordering to everyone else.)
Shipping Challenges
We have hit a few snags — like sourcing boxes, getting enough extra jars, and finding ways to package the first 100 bee boxes safely. Such things are much more difficult than I would have imagined a week ago. Who knew that buying $300 worth of flattened shipping boxes would wrack up a $100 delivery charge?!?! Again, we had no expectation of this volume… so we are working out the kinks and problem solving as quickly as humanly possible! We are making it work! *Yay!*
We also ran into issues with shipping at the post office. Apparently, it’s not ok to ship out in a recycled box that says “clorox” on it anywhere, or one that may have (in a former incarnation) been used to ship wine. Measuring and weighing each individual box when all the boxes were different shapes and sizes (what we had on hand and what we could get from a local dollar store) takes forever!
PayPal also decided that printing off eight shipping labels in a row was “suspect” and blocked my account for suspicious activity… twice so far! So, I spent some lovely “quality time” on the phone to customer support. I hope that’s all worked out now…
Pricing and Quantities and Delivery Times
We found and bought boxes that will fit one or two traps for shipping and will offer either quantity to readers. (They were delivered today! Yay!!!) Unfortunately, we are going to have to raise the price of the traps by $1.50 to cover the cost of purchased boxes and packing material. We are completely out of the packing materials and boxes we had on hand and were able to beg and borrow locally, so we had to buy to get them to my readers safely.)
And, if anyone wants more than two, we ask that you place a second order. (We want to make sure everyone who wants a trap has a chance to get one — before they sell out again.) Besides, we don’t have boxes that will fit more than two in a single shipment. 🙂
Please allow 3-4 weeks for delivery. Some of you will get them much sooner, but since each one of these bee traps is made by hand, one at a time — and since there are just two people in the Pops Shop working on them it may take some time. Please be patient.
Future Plans
Pops met his first promised deadline (actually he beat it by a day and had the first 25 delivered to the post office on Monday — when he had promised shipment on Tuesday.) He and Mom are working to get the next batch of 25 shipped out tomorrow — six days earlier than promised!
Pops may agree to offer another batch in the future, but I’m going to see how he and Mom feel after filling this second wave before deciding if we should up the numbers. (I don’t want them to take on too much or to be obligated if they quit enjoying the adventure. 500 Bee Traps are a LOT to build!)
I will say that it’s so cute to watch them work together on a project this big. Every time I stop by they have more made traps, have more in the middle of the building process and they share more ideas on how to do it all better and more efficiently with me!
So, if you are one of my readers who wanted a Pops’ Carpenter Bee Trap of your very own… stay tuned!
I thought you might want to see some of the photos of my Pops’ shop with the fruits of his labor in process, so here you go!
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- The top of bee traps complete!
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- You can see Pops working in the background on this one!
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- An other view of the Bee Traps mid-assembly.
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- Pops drilling in the background, Carpenter Bee Traps in the foreground.
24 Comments
We had these bees in Bettendorf, Iowa years ago They were boring into our wood siding. Wish I knew what to do then as I would have saved lots of frustration.
🙂
”Well worth the investment!” The words of my husband! I ordered 2 traps, one for the front and one for the back of the house. My husband did the minimal assembly and hung them up. I plugged the holes the bees created over the years, and within hours, if that long, we had our first capture and the collection continues. Thank you all for sharing your talents to create, pack and mail these great traps! We now enjoy sitting outside even more.
I’m so happy you are pleased, Carol! Thank you for sharing your experience here on LivingSmall.com! Happy continued bee-catching!
Hi Pops!
I’ve been meaning to write and thank you for my carpenter bee traps. I couldn’t believe how quickly they arrived. They look awesome, such fine craftsmanship!!! I appreciate the steel wool and the information on closing up the holes. We did just that and hung our traps. Cant wait to show them who’s boss! Thank you again! I enjoyed being a part of such a special venture. Best of wishes- Pate
Great news, Pate! Thanks for writing. Let us know how many you catch!
Thank you so much for the speedy delivery. It was safely packed and we were so happy to have everything needed to get it set up immediately.
We even had our first victim in under 15 minutes. So happy I not have to spray nasty chemicals that never got them anyway. Thanks POPS!
I’m so glad it arrived safely and that it’s already working for you! I’ll let Pops know!!
Such speedy service! Thanks to all of you! Pops & Mom-I am so hopeful of this working and wish I had found this before. It will take some time to fill all of the holes with steel wool. We have had this problem for several years now. My son posted it to me and I decided to order it. I want you to know how happy I am that it came quickly. I had resigned myself to a long wait. What a surprise! Thank you so much!
So glad you are happy, Pat. Pops is working to get these out as quickly as possible (bless his heart). Let us know how it goes (we would love to share your photos if you would be willing to share!) Blessings, Angela
5/19/14 Received my bee trap today!! Looks like a great piece of work and I’m looking forward to getting it outside and taking care of the bees. Thanks to POPS for the steel wool to get started and for his hard work–and to Angela for having the info out there! Just so everyone knows even though they have been busy with these I ordered mine on May 9th and got it today May 19th!! I think this was very quick!! I would recommend to anyone that if you have a carpenter bee problem that you try this-POPS and Angela will get yours to you fast!!
Thanks so much Michael! I’m so pleased that you like it. Now get out and hang it and start catching bees! We have had great reports coming in from all over about successes and I hope to get a “testimonials” block up soon. I’ll add yours to that once we get it ready to go! 😀
I tried to order a bee trap but when I went to check out it wouldn’t let me put in the State and so the order wouldn’t go through. Any suggestions?
Hmmmm. I’m not sure, Pam. It may be a browser issue. Try again next time you reboot your computer. If you have the same problem, try a different browser (I prefer Chrome). Let me know if you are still having difficulty and I’ll see what alternative we can figure out!
Hi Pops and Angela,
I received my Carpenter Bee Trap this morning, what a quick delivery! It is so nice that you included the steel wool, how thoughtful…and the hook. I am so proud of you working hard to help us take care of our pesky old Carpenter Bees. Thank you Pops, I appreciate your good, conscientious work…even the corners are safe.
Thanks for writing, MaryRuth!
Pops and I can’t take credit for the smooth edges — that was all MOM! She doesn’t like rough edges and started grabbing the finished boxes and sanding them after the first few went out! My parents are cool like that 🙂
Dear Pops!
We received our Bee Trap yesterday!
Impressive! Packaged well and we plugged holes and hung her up! Within 12 hours we got our first bee!
My daughter said, “pops has got it goin on…best invention since the I Pad!”
I have pics but didnt know where to post them!
Thanks for a well made product and we loved that you signed the letter!
God bless you and your family!
Pam Arena
Hi..your trap arrived so quickly I was surprised!!! I thought it would be a bit longer so I started to build one today based on your website pictures….I was in a bit of a quandry about parts so I used some leftover fence lumber and used a 16 oz water bottle..got that far and got to thinking about the clear bottom….I bought a plastic container of pretzels stuffed with peanut butter but they weren’t so good and the jar wasn’t emptying quickly, so I thought about it and decided to use the ring and a mason jar.
Low and behold your trap came this afternoon and it used the SAME material….great minds and all that…I spent an hour sitting on the porch waiting in vain for one of the critters to take up ‘residence’….ah well, maybe tomorrow….
Thanks for the super quick ship!!!!
You are more than welcome, Ron! Glad it arrived quickly and safely. Be patient, but keep an eye on the trap. Be sure to place it in the areas where you have seen the bees chewing on your house (or building) and don’t forget to plug the existing holes with steel wool — that’s an IMPORTANT part of getting the little guys trapped!
Hi…well going into the third day and in addition to your trap I built two others. Results have been disappointing at this point. I have three wasps and that’s it….I found a hole just below the porch light on the back deck so I hung your trap just below that and plugged the hole with steel wool. Late yesterday as I was letting the dogs out I checked…the little bugger had pulled/pushed the steel wool out and there were fresh chewings lying on the top of the trap..
I have watched them sniff around the trap holes and then fly off.
Hoping for a sunny day today instead of rain so they will be out in force again…
Thanks for the fast delivery! I’m excited to see the bees arrive in their new condo. I hope the response form everyone is not too overwhelming for your Mom and Dad. I think he should sign his work “Pops” w/ a sharpie or woodburning tool. I would have liked that on it too. If I get industrious, I might write about the bee adventure in my blog and include a link to you. Thanks so much!
I’m so glad it arrived quickly for you LIzette! Please let me know how well it works for you (be sure to stuff the existing holes with steel wool!). I’d love to read about your own bee adventures (and of course a backlink is ALWAYS appreciated!)
I’ll give Pops your suggestion, but he’s so busy right now trying to get the traps out to people, he hardly slows down!
Ahhh, you are a real estate agent! Some of my FAVORITE clients are real estate agents — and you BLOG! Yay! 🙂
[…] UPDATE: MAY 7, 2014: Please read the blog post The Great Carpenter Bee Trap Adventure. […]