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How to Get Rid of Carpenter Bees
May 22nd, 2008 by admin
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If you notice that the wood in your home, like your walls, doors, window frames and even your furniture, has holes that narrow into tunnels, you may have a carpenter bee problem.
Carpenter bees resemble bumblebees except they almost never sting. Male carpenter bees do not have stingers, but females do. Female carpenter bees will only sting when directly provoked. If you know what a bumblebee looks like, then you will have no problem identifying a carpenter bee. They look exactly the same, except the carpenter bee has a black belly instead of a yellow one.
The Carpenter Bee Problem
Carpenter bees don't sting, but they leave nasty and unsightly holes about as big as your fingertip in anything made of wood. Unlike termites, these bees do not eat wood; they simply burrow through it. In fact, termites will do more damage than carpenter bee could ever do. (For termite extermination guide, read how to get rid of termites)
These bumblebee-like insects burrow in wood to make their nest. They do not weaken the wood in which they make their home too significantly. You will know that you have a carpenter bee problem when you notice saw dust-like particles near suspicious holes and gaps in your woodwork. You may also notice yellow-brown dust-like particles that are actually their droppings.
By vibrating their bodies while simultaneously biting the wood with their mandibles, these insects are able to create complex tunnels in wood. Though these burrows have only one entrance and exit, they branch out into several tunnels to act as compartments for provisions and rooms. If you notice several similar holes in your walls, those are different colonies of carpenter bees. They tend to cohabit, which is why the colonies tend to build their homes near other carpenter bee homes.
They don't really pose a serious and direct threat to you or your home, but they can damage your precious wood if left alone. Also, they may attract other animals that prey on carpenter bees. Woodpeckers are the common predators of carpenter bees, so when you do find these birds pecking your house, you definitely have a carpenter bee nest somewhere.
These bees love to drill perfectly round holes through old and soft wood. Wood that is several years old or is exposed to moisture is usually where carpenter bees choose to make their home. These insects can drill deep down into wood and create several branching tunnels as “rooms.” Some carpenter bee burrows that have been found are more than ten feet in length.
Getting Rid of Carpenter Bees
Getting rid of carpenter bees is not that difficult. Probably the most difficult part is simply finding their burrows. The first place you should check is the old wood outside and around your home. These wood piles are the common places where carpenter bees drill to make their lair.
Once you have found the areas where these uninvited bees live, you have three options to get rid of them: cover up their burrows, suck them up with a vacuum cleaner or spray insecticide into their lair.
You can get rid of carpenter bees in your home by covering up their burrows on your wall, window frame or those on your furniture with wood putty, caulk or any other sealant. You do not have to worry about these bees burrowing their way out because they never do. If you do not want to risk dealing with them or using chemicals, then this is your best option because it won't cost you much time and money.
When sealing up the holes that these insects made, make sure you have the mixture of the putty or any sealant you will be using ready. It may help if you sand the surface first before applying it so that it the sealant will apply smoothly on the surface. Spread the sealant across the hole evenly and make sure it is properly sealed. It may look ugly after to have patches of putty or caulk on your woodwork, so consider sanding and painting over it to cover them up.
If you notice a new hole in your wall and you are sure it is the work of those carpenter bees, you can use your vacuum cleaner to get rid of them. If you don't want to risk getting stung by the female bees in there, this method is for you. This option is most effective for new or ongoing burrowing.
Use the smallest attachment of your vacuum cleaner and point it directly into the holes you found. The best time to do this is either at dusk or dawn when the bees haven't left or just returned from foraging. Even if you are armed with a vacuum cleaner, make sure you are wearing thick clothing to protect you from the sting of the angry female carpenter bees. Though they are not the violent type, messing up their nest is considered an attack against them. Wearing a thick sweater, goggles, gloves and denim pants will protect you from possible painful stings.
To prevent them from coming back and reclaiming that burrow, seal it with putty or caulk (Learn how to use silicone caulk. You may want to paint it over again so that it would be less appealing to carpenter bees.
However, if the carpenter bee infestation is too much for you to seal with sealant or suck with a vacuum cleaner, a good can of insecticide will do the trick. Spray it directly on their nests and soak them in it to make sure they drown in the toxic chemical. If you think the infestation in your home is too much for you to handle, you can call in the exterminator to get rid of these insects for you.
Repairing the Damage
The damage caused by carpenter bees is usually superficial and not serious, but often, it is not nice to see gaping holes on your walls and furniture. To remedy these holes, you can fill them with carpenter's glue or putty. Sanding makes the surface look even again.
If the damage is quite difficult to repair with putty or glue or the wood needs replacement anyway, make sure you replace it with treated wood. Carpenter bees will steer clear of these types of wood. If treated wood is too expensive for your pocket, a nice layer of paint is more than enough. Vinyl siding and polyurethane paint are the most effective against carpenter bees, so you might want to consider getting them for your home. (Tips on how to install vinyl siding)
Preventing the Infestation
To save you the worries, time and money of getting rid of these pests, you must make sure your home is carpenter bee-proof. If your home is made primarily of wood, check around for exposed or soft wood. Either replace or repaint the wood to prevent these insects from drilling in.
Plugging suspicious holes and cracks in your woodwork will also help deter these insects from probing in.
It is during the spring and summer that these insects become active. When these seasons come, check your home for signs of an early infestation and do the necessary steps to avoid the worsening of the infestation. For more information about this article read how to get rid of carpenter bees.
Beware of the male bees…they may not sting, but can come after you in no time, when it comes to guarding the queen.
Carpenter bees WILL drill into new wood as well as older wood. As a matter of fact if you put out freshly milled wood around spring time the bees will be attracted to it.
There are insecticides available to mix into your paint or stain that will kill the carpenter bees as well as other climbing, nest building insects.
You can also use some pieces of boards to make a “bee trap”. Take a secion of board such as a 1×4 or 1×6. Drill 1/4 to 3/8 inch holes in the narrow edge. Place a couple small eye hooks on the4 opposite edge so you can suspend it from sections of your fascia boards. The bees will find these holes and use them instead of making fresh holes in your wood.
You can also type “Carpenter Bee Trap” into a search engine such as Bing, Google or Yahoo and find some exaples of bee traps.
Carpenter bees, also known as wood-boring bees, are mostly known by their ability to literally drill through wood surfaces. In fact, the holes they drill are almost always a perfect circle measuring from 3/8 to a half an inch in diameter. You may notice coarse sawdust that is present beneath the entry hole, and you may even be able to hear burrowing sounds from within the wood.
There are nearly 730 species of carpenter bees, and they live anywhere where woody plants and wood structures are plentiful. These amazing wood-boring bees resemble bumble bees, except that the upper surface of their abdomen is bare and shiny black (the abdomen of the bumble bee is hairy and has at least a few yellow markings). The adult carpenter bee is one half to one inch in length, making it larger than a bumble bee. Male carpenter bees are recognized for having a yellow face and interestingly they lack stingers, while female carpenter bees have black faces and are able to sting.
Male carpenter bees will often spend hours a day guarding their territory and nests against other males. Besides that and mating, this appears to be their primary roles. It is the female carpenter bee that is the culprit of the holes you are seeing in your log or cedar home. After mating, she bores the holes for the sole purpose of egg-laying. The hole the female carpenter bee bores leads to a tunnel that is usually about ¾ inch in length. She then makes a 90 degree turn and bores another tunnel that is generally six inches in length, but since the tunnels can be reused they can be up to six feet in length over time. Though she prefers bare and unpainted wood, we’ve seen them bore through painted, stained, pressure-treated, and pesticide-treated wood. As unbelievable as it sounds, we’ve even seen them bore through chinking to get to wood. Carpenter bees are open-faced flower pollinators, and the female bee uses the pollen she gathers to make her nests. Carpenter bees do not ingest wood, instead they use the chewed wood bits to make partitions between the cells in their nests. Each tunnel can hold up to eight or nine larvae.
Outside of the obvious damage done by the holes bored by carpenter bees, which can weaken your home’s structure over time, the exposed holes allow moisture and other wood-boring insects and woodpeckers, to begin wreaking havoc on your home. In fact, woodpeckers will peck even larger holes into the log or siding of your home in order to eat carpenter bees and their larvae. It is the woodpecker damage that is the most detrimental effect of carpenter bees.
Pesticides can be used as a deterrent since carpenter bees appear to be sensitive to certain odors and tastes. However, the bees do not ingest wood, any pesticides that are applied to the outer wood surface are not ingested by the carpenter bees and therefore are not effective. Plus, all it takes is one light rain to wash the pesticide away.
Some may recommend particular additives to stains and paints as a carpenter bee deterrent. However, in our sixteen years of experience in the log and cedar home business, we’ve rarely seen an additive serve as an effective way to get rid of carpenter bees.
Our recommended process for preventing further carpenter bees from boring into your log or cedar home includes first treating the existing carpenter bee holes with a powder that will kill the bees that are either coming to or leaving the holes. We will leave the holes unsealed so that any carpenter bees that enter the holes within the next couple weeks will be exterminated. We then recommend that the existing holes are sealed with a wood caulking product. Keep in mind that if the hole is filled prematurely, the carpenter bees will simply seek out other locations on your home to bore holes. We then recommend you allow us to install our bee traps around the perimeter of your home. In our years of experience with carpenter bees, we know there is only one sure way to eliminate the carpenter bee population outside of your home and that involves an ongoing method for eliminating them. We’ve designed traps that will be installed around the perimeter of your log or cedar home just behind the fascia boards. We place our traps there so that they are out of site and aren’t exposed to weather conditions. Furthermore, we’ve learned that fascia boards tend to be the place carpenter bees prefer to bore their holes in since these areas are protected from the rain. Our traps will allow bees to pick up the powder as they come and go. The powder is then carried by the carpenter bees to other bee holes and from bee to bee, and therefore serves as an effective way to eliminate your carpenter bee population. Though toxic to the bees, the powder is environmentally safe and is pet- and people- friendly.
Its some type of bee flying around my house what do i do
I have to agree with Theodore. These bees will cause significant damage to your home. Just think about it – 3/8 to 1/2 inch tunnels going through wood! I found this link youtube.com/watch?v=DD5ExhmaZA8&NR=1 with a video on how to build a carpenter bee trap and it works like a charm.
As for the existing holes/tunnels, a little bit of Sevin dust (as opposed to Drione which comes with a lot of safety precautions)into the opening followed by (believe it or not)a couple of styrofoam peanuts used for shipping, and then wood filler to seal.
By the way, the pressure treated wood along with two coats of a quality stain did nothing to deter these bees from setting up housing in our deck!
Zoie, did you read the first paragraph ??
I have actually had some success by plugging the hole with Gorilla Glue then covering it with duct tape. In theory, i f you catch them early enough while they are still burrowing, they will get stuck in the glue and die. After a day, pull off the duct tape and sand and done. As far as being PROACTIVE to keep them from getting to the wood, I’m all ears as I haven’t found the perfect prevention device other than metal plates…
Whoever wrote the article apparently has never actually dealt with these beasts. I’ve had them for over 15 years and never been stung. Believe me, I’ve given them reason to. I’m going to try the shop vac next, filled with professional strength insecticide. It would be easier to just burn the house down, if I had insurance.
One of the bigger issues caused by carpenter bees has to do with woodpeckers. When the bees lay their eggs, the eggs are a delicacy to woodpeckers. The woodpeckers then go to town pecking away (leaving 3-6 inch gashes in your wood) to get to the eggs. That’s why it is important to find the holes, spray insecticide, and then caulk. That’s the only solution we’ve found, but you have to remain on the lookout. They come back! We had a bout with the woodpeckers – and they ruined huge areas in our eaves before we even knew what the problem was (the carpenter bees and their eggs). $750 to repair the wood.
Thanks the tips worked…. was able to get the bees to move shop