Date Posted: May 9, 2013
Category: Pest Prevention Tips
Have you heard about carpenter bees? A lot of people have not, which is why we’d like to tell you about these pests that may be visiting your home this summer! Carpenter bees are sly pests, often solitary, acting alone or with only one or two accomplices. They resemble bumble bees, but carpenter bees are typically all black and quite large, with shiny and bare abdomens. What do they do, you may be asking? Well, similar to carpenter ants, carpenter bees will bore holes into your home to create a nest for their growing family. It is the female carpenter bee that causes all the trouble; she knows she needs to lay her eggs, so she will find a ‘safe’ place in water damaged or soft wood in which to lay her eggs and create her nest. Like any good accomplice, her male counterpart will ‘stand guard’ at the entrance to the nest, buzzing angrily at anyone that dare venture near. Although they rarely sting, having these insects buzzing around your home, creating nests in the structure is less than ideal. The professionals at Big Blue Bug Solutions explain the damages caused by carpenter bees, as well as a few preventative options for you to consider.
Damages caused by carpenter bees include holes bored into wood, often around ½ an inch in diameter. You can usually see sawdust underneath or near the hole and sometimes yellow staining from their fecal matter underneath the hole. The problem with carpenter bees is that they will re-visit the same nest inside your structure year after year, so previously small areas of damaged wood will continuously get larger and eventually weaken the structure of your home. And because the entrance holes created by bees leave wood unprotected from the elements, they can allow water to get inside the wood, causing even more structural damage. Woodpeckers will also seek out these holes as they are filled with carpenter bee larvae. Many times the damages that these pecking birds cause is worse than what carpenter bees are capable of. Because female carpenter bees do sting, although rarely, they can be dangerous to have on your property, especially if someone in your family is allergic to bee stings.
Since having carpenter bees in the structure of your home can be a problem for the structure as well as the safety of your family, prevention is the best option to make sure you don’t get visited by these destructive pests this summer. Here are a few carpenter bee prevention tips from your friends at the Big Blue Bug:
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Because carpenter bees are attracted to bare and unpainted wood, you should paint all exposed wood surfaces on your home to discourage these pests.
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Carpenter bees are also attracted to weathered or soft wood, so you can replace old and weathered wood with new wood; but be sure to paint it!
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Fill in depressions and cracks in the wooden structure.
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Protect the rough ends of timber with wire screening or metal flashing to prevent nesting carpenter bees.
These prevention tips will only keep more carpenter bees from arriving on your property and choosing to nest in your home’s structure; if you already have a carpenter bee infestation in your home, you should contact the friendly Rhode Island pest control experts at Big Blue Bug Solutions. Our techs can help you locate any and all carpenter bee nests and then will work with you to come up with a solution to take care of any insects that may be present. For more information on our carpenter bee solutions or any other pest control services we offer, contact Big Blue Bug Solutions today!
