Kill carpenter bees
by
Becky
I am a new homeowner and don't have much experience with pests but recently I noticed that my deck has lots of carpenter bees buzzing around. I am VERY afraid of stinging insects and wondered if there's anything easy I can do to get rid of them. My toddler and I like to go outside and sit for lunch but we soon go back inside because we're both scared. :/
2 answers
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Only the female carpenter bee will sting and then you really have to provoke her in doing so, The male bee which you are most likely seeing will not sting at all. So no worry about that. To determine if its a carpenter bee you need to look carefully for a bald head on the bee. Much like a carpenter, well most, we lost all our hair. If the bee has a fuzzy head its a bumble bee and it will sting. If your deck or porch is flying around somewhere they are boring holes in some wood. Look around for sawdust on the ground or for elongated holes along the eaves of the house. Also look for perfect round holes about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch round where the bees enter. They drill into the wood then go sideways along with the grain. Once drilled out they lay eggs and seal up the opening. After the new bees hatch they go sideway out of the wood causing the elongated holes. The treatment is dusting powder into the hole along with wood putty plugging the holes back up. Professional treatments run a few hundred dollars, but need to be kept up with for several months as after any bees that have not been killed and have flown away before the treatment will return and start the cycle all over again. IN any case do not worry about the stinging, but you need to get rid of them with proper treatment. These bugs and do a lot of damage in a very short amount of time. Often destroying railings and trims on homes. Any wood that is not painted well becomes a place in which the bees will attack quite quickly. If your neighbors house is infested with them, you will need to be more aggressive on your treatments to prevent them from moving into your tasty house.
Woodbridge Environmental Tiptophouse.com
on Apr 26, 2014
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I have never been stung or heard of anyone being stung in 30 years of doing pest control. When they fly at you its because they are terrible flyers not because they are going after you to sting you. They are easy to kill but they can travel miles.. To kill them simply wait for them to enter the hole in the wood then inject any pesticide into the hole behind them. Wear eye protection and gloves for protection. If you can get a can of wasp freeze it works well. When you treat the hole the bee will back out and die or will fall to the ground then you can step on them. Then simply place steel wool in the gallery (holes) And wood putty to seal the hole and you are done. repeat as often as necessary till they are gone. Also there was a post last year about a Carpenter Bee trap on HOMETALK you might look for that.
Keller Pest Control
on Apr 26, 2014
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