Carpenter Bee Infestation Damage: They Don’t Sting, but They CAN Hurt
Carpenter bees look like bumble bees, don’t swarm and rarely sting, but that doesn’t mean they are harmless. Indeed, carpenter bees can wreak havoc on your siding, window trim, wood shingles, foundation, deck—even your patio furniture. Carpenter bee infestations can continue for years, and if not properly exterminated, can recur again and again.
Identify a Carpenter Bee Problem Early
Carpenter bees begin nesting in the spring and become active during the height of summer as eggs hatch and adult bees make and store nectar. Carpenter bees are solitary; each female carving out her own nest. Instead of one hive, a carpenter bee infestation means dozens of holes and nesting cavities are bored into your property. Carpenter bees, unlike termites, don’t eat wood. Instead, they chew out entry holes and tunnel out egg and nectar galleries that can reach over two inches in diameter and extend more than a foot into the wood. Carpenter bee holes attract other pests from wasps to wood peckers, so it is important to catch the problem as soon as you can.
Three ways to identify a carpenter bee problem are:
1) Quarter inch perfectly round holes in wood
2) Sawdust piles under the holes (if fresh)
3) Yellowish excrement dripping from active holes
How to Get Rid of Carpenter Bees
Removing carpenter bees is not a simple process. Do-it-yourself treatments often cause more damage than the initial infestation. We recommend the following steps:
1) Get a professional inspection. It doesn’t take much time and doesn’t cost a lot of money, but a professional inspector can save you thousands. Professionals know where to look and what to look for, often finding problems the average person might miss.
2) Insist on a two-step carpenter bee extermination process. The first step involves killing the adults. The second takes care of eliminating the larva. If you kill the adults and seal the hole, the larva will eventually hatch and bore escape holes to get out of the gallery.
3) Prevent future carpenter bee infestations. Make sure your carpenter bee exterminator seals the holes with steel wool so that other bees and bests can’t reopen the holes. Make sure a surface treatment is applied to the infestation site and other sites at risk for infestation to prevent future problems. Schedule regular inspections to make sure the carpenter bees do not come back
Knockout Pest Control Can Knock Out a Carpenter Bee Problem
Knockout Pest Control is your local expert at knocking out all kinds of carpenter bee problems–and we keep them down for the count. Every member of our team receives over 100 hours of classroom instruction and in-the-field training so you are guaranteed a knockout punch to your pest problem every time. We serve all of Long Island, New York City, and Westchester and Rockland Counties. Call 1-800-244-PEST or 1-800-244-7378 We respond like every pest problem is an emergency with fast, 24 hour service seven days a week. We don’t have the big red boxing glove in our logo for nothing!
