Fact of the day about Carpenter bees:  The agressive males often try to mate with birds. 

So I went out to the playhouse after dark to assassinate the Carpenter bees that have been terrorizing our otherwise happy yard.  For logistical reasons, there was no way to prop the playhouse's little door open.  So, once inside, if I woke the bastards, it would be that much harder for me to get out unstung.

Heart jackhammering, I tiptoed in, straightaway darting the bee-napalm injector-thing into the tunnel they'd bored.  Then I blasted away for about five seconds.  No stirring from the bees.  Yet.

Next, while trying to avoid breathing the bee-napalm cloud, I had to reach into my pants pocket, produce the special half-inch-in-diameter cork, and seal the tunnel.  As any Carpenter-bee-killing source will tell you, the bees' holes are universally a half-inch in diameter, hence the specially-made corks.

The cork was too big to fit.  I would have had to sit there and whittle it to size.  If I had a knife, let alone the time before the bees came for me.  Luckily there was a little pine cone on the floor that fit in perfect. 

I did the same drill on the tunnel on the exterior of the playhouse.  No bees made it out.

Today our idyllic yard is free of Carpenter bees.  However I may have messed with the ecosystem.  In their place are hornets the size of tricycles.