Carptenter Bees

[Barbara Yanus]

I believe that I posted something in here last year about these critters, and I was told not to worry about them? Well I don't know if it's my imagination or what, but there seems to be twice or three times as many this year. I have a log house and I have been dealing with them from day one. I used to plug up their holes, spray bug spray in the holes, bat them with a tennis racket, squirt them down with a hose, but I think you guys told me that they were harmless and that I should not plug the holes, cause they would use the same holes next year? Have I got any of this correct. And how can they not be harmful when they are drilling holes in my logs??? I was just outside watering my hanging baskets and there were several of them just staring at me, looking like they would attack me at any given moment!! Help!!!

Bebra

NE PA zone 6b

[Tom Randy]

I've had TONS of them the past few years. My wisteria is in FULL bloom and there were literally DOZENS of them around the flowers this evening. They love my back roofed patio, I've killed at least 24-30 of them so far this year. They are amazing to watch but they are very agressive if you go after them so bee careful (Pun intended). They are trying to mate now too here in NY, saw quite a few trying to "hook up" in mid air tonight. That's got to be interesting!

[Ann]

Tom Randy expounded:

Well, the trick is....don't go after them! They are looking for a mate, they're only interested in that, they aren't aggressive at all. Why kill them? We need all the pollinators we can get.

[Rachel]

If you live in an all-wood house such as a log house, cedar house or one with wood siding (though paint on it will deter them), they are not harmless. Search /"carpenter bees" damage wood houses/ and there are tons of references like this one:

Typically, carpenter bees do not cause serious structural damage to wood unless large numbers of bees are allowed to drill many tunnels over successive years. The bees often eliminate their wastes before entering the tunnel. Yellowish-brown staining from voided fecal matter may be visible on the wood beneath the hole. Woodpeckers may damage infested wood in search of bee larvae in the tunnels. In the case of thin wood, such as siding, this damage can be severe. Holes on exposed surfaces may lead to damage by wood-decaying fungi or attack by other insects, such as carpenter ants.

yes, if you just plug the holes they'll come drill more of them.

[Roy]

They can make a wooden structure look like swiss cheese ina short period of time. I kill em all usually with a badmitton racket. Boric acid is good at drying out their tunnels so the larvae starves as it does not get decent food once its stored supply is dehydrated. It also does good on the adults. The females can sting, but males do not have stingers. They don;t get a chance to prove what they are around me as I kill em all. Plenty of good honey bees around that do not cause such damage in structures.

Use a ear syringe filled with boric acid and squirt the powder up in their tunnels. As the female goes in to carry food etc she gets boric acidon her and it eventually kills her by dehydrating her. Visit my website:

expressed are those of my wifes, I had no input whatsoever. Remove "nospam" from email addy.

[Tom Randy]

You better do some research on these bees.

[Ann]

Tom Randy expounded:

I have, Tom, I've got a couple that have set up housekeeping in my porch every year now for the past 14 years or so. House is still standing, and I haven't been stung yet, even though they check me out every time I leave my door and sit on my bench.

[Gardñ]

Bees Management Guidelines--UC IPM

[e-mail] (Roy) in news: [e-mail]:

must be a rather dented racket :-)

Boric

and they aren't very aggressive. at first i felt a bit freaked around them, but they just bob around as if i'm not around.

Plenty of good honey bees around that do not cause such

i think the honeybee losses have left a void for pollinators such as carpenter bees.

diatomaceous earth does same. use a squeezable bottle with extension tube taped to opening.

looks interesting.

(wife's? or how many wifes, wives?)

ha! :-)

[flicker]

What a bunch of blithering ''the sky is falling'' nonsense.

The key word here being "large" numbers of bees, as in you'd have to have hundreds of boring females to get to this point referenced so absurdly above. Most of the carpenter bees one sees hovering around are competing males anyway, who don't tunnel at all. There can be 10-20 of them competing for one female.

~flick

[Rachel]

Ummm.... You should see the job the pileateds did on the back of my house, starting at the carpenter bee holes. We live in a forest.

But the sky isn't falling. Tonight there's something magical going on, as hundreds and hundreds of cicadas emerge and molt. You can hear the shells splitting, there are so many. Or maybe it's them rustling in the leaves, making their way to climb something. They're on the back of the house, the oak trees, the sassafras, the dandelion stalks, the poison ivy. Two of them are hanging from the Virginia bluebell plants. Still white, resting next to their shells after 17 years underground.

[Rose]

They LOVE my back porch as well. Had a neighbor build it and its mostly wood. Kind of ironic since the front porch is made of wood too but they prefer the back. My mother is from the south and she says as long as you don't bother them they won't bother you - which I have a hard time believing because they are quite big!

Rose

"How did I ever get talked into this?"

[Tom Randy]

BIG and LOUD! They sound like aircraft flying by!

If you have a wisteria bush or tree nearby be careful, they LOVE those. I have one loaded with flowers this year and there must be several DOZEN hovering around it.

Tom