What To Do About Carpenter Bees
Carpenter bees act aggressive, and they damage homes and outdoor structures. There are a couple of things that you can do to help dissuade carpenter bees from eating your home. Read on to learn more.
About Carpenter Bees
Carpenter bees are semi-social. They are not like honey bees or yellowjackets. They might form loose colonies with independent queens, but they don’t form hives.
What that means is that daughter bees might use the same entrance as the mothers, but all are independent. They do not respond to aggregate pheromones like honeybees or wasps. They are, in fact, solitary bees that use the same entrance. They are kind of like an old house that is divided up into units. Everyone uses the same front door, but then go their separate ways once inside.
Carpenter Bees Are Aggressive
Of all the bees carpenter bees act the most aggressive. However, they are not as aggressive as others, like wasps. They will sting you if they have no other choice. Fore the most part, though, carpenter bees bluff a lot and are mostly all bark. Many people are so afraid of bees that they fall for the bluff and scurry off.
In all the years I have spent studying bees, I have never once been bitten or stung by a carpenter bee. Their main tactic is to fly right at you and then veer off to one side and repeat. It is a threat with little follow through. This is because, like honey bees, carpenter bees only get one sting, and then they die. So, while they seem aggressive, it’s mostly smoke with little fire.
Myths About Carpenter Bee Control
There are some odd myths out there about how to deal with carpenter bees. One such myth is to stuff their entrance hole full of steel wool. Please don’t do that. Not only will it not work well, if her brooding chambers are in your wall, she will just chew her way through to the inside of your home.
The only time that this process works is when the galleries are empty, and it might not work for long as the queen will just find a new spot to dig a new entrance. Nobody wants an angry bee in their house.
Getting Rid of Carpenter Bees
Carpenter bees prefer to make their galleries in old, dead trees that are still standing. In most communities, we take those kinds of trees down so that they do not pose a hazard when they fall. If your house is plagued with carpenter bees, you need to use an experienced pest control specialist to get rid of them.
During the winter months, seal the entrances to the galleries so long as the board does not lead to an interior wall. Also, make sure that all the wood, such as fencing and the trim on your house is painted or stained. Carpenter bees like raw, natural wood. Finished wood acts as a deterrent and they will often find another spot to make their home.
If no raw wood is exposed, they may still continue to chew up your home.
Building Carpenter Bee Homes
Carpernter Bees are a wonderful bee for our ecosystem. Sometimes a good deterrent is offering the bees their own home. You can put up decoy posts that are unpainted and untreated. A 4×4 post makes a good carpenter bee home. These are beneficial bees and excellent pollinators; you just don’t want them to eat your house.
In only the worst cases, the bees must be destroyed. That process should be done by a professional and in such as way so as not to create a threat to other native bees and honey bees. Reach out to us with your concerns over carpenter bees and other house hold pests. We serve the entire Bryan & College Station Texas area.
