help, carpenter bees eating house

[Tabitha]

does anybody know of a safe remedy to keep carpenter bees from drilling holes in every exposed piece of wood? I am not familiar with this type of insect and first thought it was a bumble bee.( too bad they can't be trained to drill where I mark the spot. it looks like a perfect 5/8" hole). are they to worry about? thanks for any advice.

[Twogun]

Yeah, they are real bad at my place this year, too. Maybe the mild winter we had?
I was stung by one a couple of years ago, while mowing yard. It had crawled under my shorts and bit me in upper thigh. At first it felt like something sticking me, not bad at all. Then, about 3 hours later, my leg started to ache and I had a welp about 3 inches wide and 6 inches long. Very painful experience that lasted a couple of hours. Be careful with them.

[frogmammy]

No need to worry unless they drill enough holes to weaken your structure so that it will fall down. I hear they won't drill a painted surface.

Mon

[Ozarkguy]

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It sounds like you've got the very neat little Orchard Mason Bees! Here's some info on them AND how you can make them their own little house so they'll leave YOURS alone!


Orchard Mason Bee



Orchard Mason Bee House



gotta love those hills.....

Ozarkguy



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[SteveD(TX)]

They were after my barn big time until about 3 years ago when I painted every exposed rafter. Afterwards, the incidents of bee holes went down by 90%, but one still pops up ever so often.

[Rockin'B]

Carpenter bees are not good. I am on my second year of trying to get rid of them.

They are capable of boring tunnels up to ten feet long. They are doing all this work to procreate.

Do a google search on carpenter bees and learn all about them!

You need to get rid of them. They will do serious damage while multiplying each year.

[dcross]

Orchard mason bees use existing holes and are fairly small. Carpenter bees are big and excavate. Maybe give them another spot to nest and paint or screen the wood they are working now?

[Southern Steve]

Those critters LOVE my PT deck railings, but I have never been stung by one!

[gobug]

Are they drilling in good dry solid wood? The few times I have seen them they have been drilling into moisture damaged wood.

They can do extensive damage. Unfortunately, even borate treatments to wood doesn't seem to effect them. There was an article about them in this month's pest control trade magazine. Many professionals inject an aerosol into the hole in the hopes of nailing them at home, but virtually none will guarantee the work. Ortho makes a product called Home Defense that is low in toxicity to people, but highly toxic to bees. It has a long residual. I suggest you use this product repeatedly. Spray it into the holes every week or two, and even keep the container handy to treat a bee you see entering her hole. It should only take an ounce or two each time you spray.

Good luck

[Twogun]

I have three outbuildings framed in pine that they are drilling into. Nice soft wood, apparantly.

[deaconjim]

Carpenter bees usually won't bother painted or treated wood. For the one's that are already there, hammer on the wood for a few minutes and then wait for them to fall out on the ground. They will be too disoriented to fly for a minute or so, and you can easily kill them. Afterwards, shoot a little WD40, or a pesticide of somekind into the hole, and then plug it with silicone caulk.

The carpenter bees that hatch out early in the year (they have a white dot on their faces) don't sting (these are either the males or the females, I don't remember which). By May, the other sex starts hatching. They don't have the white dot, and they do sting. (Disclaimer: I'm writing this using a flawed memory. If you should get stung by a white faced carpenter bee in early April, I am not accepting any responsibility.)

[Beeman]

I call them bore bees. They will bore old wood, new wood, soft wood, hard wood, treated wood, and painted wood. Painted wood is probably their last choice. I bought some treated wood once from Lowes, an hour after i finished the project they were boring holes in it!
The sure fire treatment is to wait until they have all started holes and are in the wood and then set the building on fire, they won't bore in burning wood!

[Tabitha]

well thank you folks! I see that trying to kill as many as possible with a flyswatter and paying visiting kids a nickel for every one they knock down is not unreasonable after all.

[momanto]

They Hatch Out Twice A Year Down Here. I Keep A Tennis Racket Handy. Some Days I Will Make Up A Squirt Gun Of Permectrin. Some Days Use The Wasp Spray That Allegedly Squirst Twenty Feet- The Foam Kind. Have Two Barns W/exposed Rafters. Felt Real Lucky The Day I Swatted/killed 9 In About 15 Minutes. When I Swat And Hit- They Hit The Ground, Then I Immediately Lay The Tennis Racket On Top Of Them - Then Step On It W/my Foot/shoe Until They Are Squished. Or They Just Jumped Back Up And Fly Away.

[charles burns]

All you need to know about carpenter bees -

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2074.html

Quite interesting.

[Peacock]

Yeah, one year we couldn't use the backyard deck at all because these big ol' bees were swarming at us. The kids were terrified to go out the back door and had to go around from the front just to use the swingset. What a pain. I read that the males, the ones that chase you, don't sting - but the kids weren't convinced. I stood out there and went after them with a baseball bat. Most of the time I missed.

We solved the problem by taking down the deck. I never liked it anyway.

We have 'em out at our new place too, but I'm going to put a positive spin on things and consider it nature's way of reminding me it's time to put a coat of paint on those soffits.

[SteveD(TX)]

The males will harass the heck out of you, but can't sting. The females typically stay inside the nest (bore hole), but can sting you. I got one of those new little tennis racket bee and wasp electrocutioner thingies a few weeks ago. Gonna have fun this summer.

[momanto]

Steve D - What Kinda Thing Is That - Electric Tennis Racket????
Please Share....thanks.

[Chele]

My significant other and I bought a house down in Lancaster, KY last year. With both of us coming from the north, we had never seen bees that big before. We had just built a brand new deck on the back of the house and it was being drilled to pieces. The older deck on the front of the house wasn't faring any better. We tried everything to kill them off, and couldn't find anything. At first we tried wasp spray. When one of them would hover we'd spray it and it would just keep hovering, looking at us like "what'd you do that for?". Then we started using WD40 and Super Hold hairspray. At least that would weigh the wings down so we could step on them. Finally, we found this stuff that would kill them. I don't remember exactly what it is called, but it's made by Bayer and comes in a blue bottle. They sell it at Lowe's. The label on it includes carpenter bees in the list of things it will kill. We sprayed both of our decks, and it killed all the bees off. Then we filled the holes with wood putty. After we eliminated the immediate threat, we stained both the decks. Supposedly, carpenter bees won't eat stained or painted wood. I don't know if I'd exactly call the spray a safe solution. It is pretty strong stuff. We didn't like using it, but we were desperate. You could also try calling the local agricultural extension office. They might just know of some other options. We also found out from maintenance down at EKU that they use some kind of strip that attaches to the underside of the wood (I saw like 30 of them dead around a wooden bench one day and wondered how maintenance did it). We never figured out exactly where to buy that one. Good Luck solving your carpenter bee problem.

Chele

[SteveD(TX)]

Originally Posted by momanto

Steve D - What Kinda Thing Is That - Electric Tennis Racket????
Please Share....thanks.

Yea, it looks like a small plastic tennis racket. I was intrigued by it at a recent RV show. You might find one on eBay. It takes a couple of batteries and zaps 'em on contact, like a bug zapper. Looked like fun to me. They said on the larger wasps and bees it just sorta stuns 'em, so stepping on them after they are grounded might be in order. It will be cool on the big swarms of black gnats we get around here.