Fighting for our deck!

When Ryan and I bought this house, we were so excited about the back deck. It was so large and had a beautiful tree coming up through it providing lots of cooling shade. We pictured many warm summer evenings out on our deck and lots of BBQ's with friends and family. Well - The tree died and had to be taken down and we have some friendly carpenter bees who really enjoy hanging out on our deck while people are out there. My parents suprised us with a large umbrella for Christmas and that helped to take the place of the tree. As for our bees - they are very social. If you are out there they have to be out there. Also - there is no way to get rid of them besides putting steel wool in the hole where their nest is found (which is under the deck with about 6 inches clearance due to the tree roots). So - we have this great deck which we can't sit or entertain on because these giant bees like to buzz by. Well - we have had enough and Ryan went to war last night. He finally found that he can knock them down with a pillow, stomp on them then spray them with the wasp foam my Dad got. Last night was the first time in a long time we were able to sit and enjoy a nice relaxing meal on our own deck with out being buzzed by the bees. It was so nice and Bella even got to enjoy it. We brought out her pack-n-play and she was so relaxed. If they tried to buzz us - Ryan killed them. I think word is spreading around the bee community to not mess with the man who has the big deck. He is a killing machine!