Spring Has Arrived and so Have the Carpenter Bees

I have a deck on the front of my house, and it is unpainted wood. I enjoy it, and so do the kids. Today we were heading outside for some fun in the sun, and as I looked around I noticed some pretty large bees hanging around the rafters of my porch. We were harassed. These big ugly things seemed to follow us around, and my girls were terrified.

Back inside I have since found out these pests are carpenter bees. They bore into wood to create their long tunneling nests.They are actually about one inch in size. The Queen will dig tunnels sometimes 4 feet long, and she may reinhabit or add to a nest already started from the previous year. She drill's her holes and lays her eggs in the long chamber. She lays one egg at a time, leaving food with it and then covers the hole, before laying the next egg. The male bee's fly around the outside of the next like a " protector" of the Queen, the funny thing is they do not have a stinger. The Queen has the stinger, but the male can bite. These insects are not aggressive though and would rather not sting or bite someone.

Carpenter bees like untreated wood the best, and these pests are capable of doing serious structural damage. They will drill a nest anywhere including Decks, fence post's, window frames etc. If its wood then they can make it work.The holes appear just to be an inch or two deep at first glance. But that obviously is not the case. The larvae development only takes 5 or 6 weeks, so in late summer to early fall you have new adults flying around. You need to treat this problem as soon as you realize that you have one, because it will not just go away on its own. They can return to the same spot to hibernate for winter.

A perfectly round opening marks the spot of a carpenter bees nest, So now that we have a little bit of information on these pesky insects. Lets focus on ways to get rid of them.

You can pre-treat your wood with a good insecticide to prevent the problem. Now you can always call an exterminator, but myself I try and solve the problem as cost effective as I can. So here are some tips I have found and heard:

The easiest way is to plug the hole with putty or caulk. This really works and the Bee's do not drill back out for some reason. Then I would treat your wood to prevent another infestation.

You can also use any insecticide that list bees, this will work on carpenter bees. Spray in and around the wood thoroughly, then I would plug the holes and treat the wood as well.

And hopefully at that point you and your family can enjoy a carpenter bee free spring.