Carpenter Bees
April 3rd, 2006
Home Improvement, Spring, Pest ControlFor the past few weeks, Ames and I have noticed some very large bees buzzing around outside around our porch. At first we thought they were just harmless bumble bees, but they kept hanging around. At one point last week, Ames noted that they seemed like very unintentional creatures since they kept buzzing around our house; and then we saw one crawl into a hole in the eave of our house.
That’s when we decided to Google around and learned that these weren’t bumble bees at all, but Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa virginica). Apparently these guys are major pollinators, helping to provide fruit to Spring as they drink nectar from all the local blossoms. Unfortunately though in our case, they also like to bore holes in our house and get pissed off when I want to use the barbeque.
As much as I respect their natural role in pollenating plants, I don’t want holes filled with bee larvae in the side of my home and don’t want use my spatula to defend myself everytime I want to barbeque some chicken. Here are a couple pictures of what the holes look like:
In total there are 4 of these holes around the same area of our porch. Yesterday I decided to spray these down with bee and wasp killer, but I don’t think that will keep them out. Most websites suggest calling a pest control specialist who will treat the wood with a topical pesticide formulated to keep theses guys from boring in that area. I think I’ll try the low-tech method described by this Virginia Tech Entymology page:
CONTROL: Control of these insects can be achieved by spraying the entrance hole with an aerosol insecticide. Existing holes can be plugged with a moth ball to prevent adults from returning or the second generation adults from emerging.
I’ll probably also put a couple coats of paint on to prevent the little buggers from making new holes near the old ones.
April 3rd, 2006 at 5:56 pm
We have a “do it yourself” pest control store in the Oviedo area that sells the chemicals to guys like us that want to do everything ourselves. I’d ask around and see if there is a similar store in your neck of the woods. I’m sure such a store would be helpful in explaining how to properly use such chemicals.
April 12th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
I say nuke those little buggers! Put on a big flower costume to lure them out into the open, then when you are completely surounded by them…. eat one of them to let them know you mean business… next run like the dickens to a secure location away from you house where you have previously prepared a surprise for those little wood boring devils and unleash a fire storm the likes of which they have never seen!!!!! Or I guess you could try the moth ball thing, but it’s not nearly as exciting.
April 13th, 2006 at 8:06 am
I always knew Jason would have another use for his flower costume!
April 13th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Darn it! I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find my flower costume. Maybe Mike will let me borrow his Carrot Costume.
April 14th, 2006 at 9:53 am
I think if you wear the carrot costume and a potpourri scented car freshener around your neck it would do the trick.
April 14th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
If you wore the carrot costume, you’d have to worry about rabbits too!
May 11th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
As a branch manager for a national pest control comany, my suggestion would be to find a “dust” insecticide to puff into the holes… Drione, Deltadust, a methylcarbamate… aerosols are very short lived, and relatively ineffective in carpenter bee galleries
May 15th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Thanks for the advice Jack… I actually just found a few more holes around the house and I’ll see if I can find some of those insecticides to use.
August 25th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
I just wanted to know, if these buggers could nest in TREES?????
I have seen them around the backyard and noticed my Pear tree dying, then I realized that there were a bunch of holes in it.
Could it be these Carpenter bees doing this?
April 13th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Aww.. sorry these guys have been giving you hassle. Apart from the holes in the house they can be quite impressive when they fly up past you.
Anyway I hope you have addressed the problem, but please rebalance out their elimination by adding something that helps the less pesky natural critters in your garden. It is only fair!