Bees like carpenter bees and wood bees are good for the earth because they help plants grow. Carpenter bees can do a lot of damage to softwoods like pine and cedar if they make their nest in or near your home.
In this guide, we’ll talk about how to get rid of carpenter bees around your home and keep them from coming back.
How Carpenter Bees Damage Wood
To get rid of carpenter bees, you should first know that they don’t eat wood. Instead, they drilled holes in it to make “galleries” where they can lay their eggs in the spring and stay warm in the winter. On the outside, the holes wood bees make may look small, but the tunnels they make are much bigger and more dangerous than they look.
Before reaching their chambers, carpenter bees enter their nest through a tunnel that goes straight for a few inches and then quickly turns 90 degrees. The tunnel can go on for several feet. Because building tunnels takes so long, females like to go back to tunnels that have already been built every year and make them bigger as needed. This makes the damage to the wood worse.
Carpenter bees can damage all the wood in an area they have taken over and make it unstable if nothing is done about it. Woodpeckers may also be drawn to carpenter bees, and they will dig deeper into the woods to find larval stage bees to eat.
Tip: Carpenter bee males are more busy and aggressive than females, but they can’t sting. Carpenter bee females only sting when they are scared.
How To Identify Carpenter Bees And Carpenter Bee Damage
In the US, there are over 4,000 different kinds of bees. We see a lot of bumblebees and wood bees near our homes. How can I tell the difference? Carpenter bees are bigger, between 3/4-inch and 1 inch. Bumblebees are a little longer than half an inch.
The bellies of carpenter bees are smooth and bald. Their bellies are hairy, and there is a bright band near the end.
If you think carpenter bees might be coming into your home, look out for these signs:
- 1/2- to 3/4-inch round holes in wood
- Wood shavings or sawdust near or around those holes
- A yellow material close to or inside the door
- Angry flight activity in the area, which is generally males protecting their territory
Wood Bee Pesticides
A big bee problem might need to be taken care of by a professional. To get rid of carpenter bees, you usually don’t have to deal with a big hive, though, because they are not social insects and tend to live alone. Using pesticides is a good way to get rid of bugs.
The best time to treat for carpenter bees is not when they come out in the spring, but in late summer before they go to sleep for the winter. The second-best choice is very early spring, before the bees come out.
Carpenter bee sprays can be used on and around the holes in the wood when you clean. For younger invasions, the spray works. To stop infestations, spray insecticide more heavily in the very early spring. Then, treat regularly all summer long.
Bug-killing dust can be worked deeper into the wood and is best for long-term populations. It also stops the worms from having babies. Spray the dust right into the hole with a hand duster.
Tip: Wear protective clothing, gloves, safety glasses, and a dust mask when using insecticide dust or sprays. Also, make sure you take all other safety precautions that are needed.
How To Get Rid of Carpenter Bees
Apply a Pesticide
Get rid of the bees that live in the wood as soon as possible. This is the first step in getting rid of carpenter bees. Bug spray is something that many people use for this, and it can work fine, but I like to use an expanding foam like Fuse Foam instead.
Fuse Foam comes in a can that is very simple to open and use. All you have to do is point the nozzle into the tunnel and pull the trigger. Bug killers can’t get into the tunnels and galleries where this can goes off because it shoots foam deep inside. There are other ways to kill the bees more slowly. Don’t forget to shake the can before going to work!
I think you should wait at least 48 hours after using the pesticide before moving on to the next step. You need the poison to touch all of the carpenter bees that are using the tunnels. If it doesn’t, they won’t die and may just dig new holes somewhere else.
Use Almond, Citrus, or Another Scented Oil
So, the best way to get rid of carpenter bees is not to hurt them. Hoefly says to put a drop of lemon or almond oil inside any nest holes you find. They will likely leave and look for a less smelly place to build a nest because they don’t like the smell.
After they’ve left, you’ll need to fill the holes with steel wool or wood putty. It’s possible that the bees haven’t found your wood yet. Sand it down, use a wet brush to wipe off any extra sawdust, and then paint it. Carpenter bees are drawn to wood that hasn’t been finished.
Install Wind Chimes
Hoefly suggests using wind chimes if you don’t want to keep these insects around. The bees don’t like the noise, and the constant jangling might make them look for a different place to live.
If you’ve read a lot about how to get rid of carpenter bees, you may have seen suggestions that use loud music. It might bother the bees, but it might also bother you and your neighbors. You can choose wind chimes instead, which are more peaceful and won’t need to be turned on or off.
Give Them A Home of Their Own
You can give them houses if you really want them to stay, though. They will stay around and pollinate plants in your yard and nearby. At the Gowanus Apiary in Brooklyn, New York, people who keep bees like “insect hotel-style habitats.” Put down simple wood blocks that you don’t mind if they dig into.
At any home goods or hardware shop, you can find these. You can also make your own out of scrap wood and things that are naturally hollow. Shriver says, “As long as the habitat has a block of soft wood along with the reeds, bamboo, straw, and other things, it should work well as a good carpenter bee habitat.” These super-pollinators will do all the good things they do for you without flying around and digging holes in your fences.
Vacuum Carpenter Bees Away
You might be able to suck the carpenter bees out of their nest if you have a strong vacuum with a small attachment. This works best when the nests are fresh and not too deep. The babies won’t come out when you vacuum, so make sure the nest is properly sealed after you take the adults out.
Play Loud Music
Some people have noticed that carpenter bees leave busy nests when loud music is played nearby, if only for a short time. For this method to work, the sounds from the music would be too loud for the carpenter bees to handle. This gives you a chance to fix up the nest before the adults come back. Before you close up the nest, hang up a carpenter bee trap to catch the adult bees that are trying to get away.
Hit Them With Rackets
Carpenter bees are very big, so they make great targets for tennis and badminton rackets. We even have electric rackets that can really hit the ball hard! Getting rid of carpenter bees that come too close is easy with this idea. You can kill those, though, because they are usually males, so the nest will still grow. To make your carpenter bee trap work better, gather any dead bees and put them in it.
Carpenter Bee Prevention Recap
If you have the right tools and carpenter bee protection, it’s not hard to keep them away naturally. Hang up your Best Bee Brothers carpenter bee traps as soon as spring comes around. Remember to act right away if you see any damage or nests, and keep your traps up until fall to get rid of the small second season.
Varnish Or Paint Your Wood
Carpenter bees like raw wood better than wood that has been painted or polished. They’ll usually just keep going and look for a better place to live. Fill in and paint as many of the wooden parts of your home as you can.
It’s pretty easy if you’ve never used varnish before; all you have to do is put it on. Just make sure you use brand-new varnish instead of one that has been stored in the shed for years. Do not forget to get a good, strong brush that can handle something as rough as varnish.
You can paint most wood putties on the market today, but check the label first if you plan to do that. Some putties don’t hold paint well, so the end project might not look good.
Replace The Wood Or Fill The Holes
You can either replace the wood or use wood putty to fill in the holes, depending on how bad the damage is. You can use wood glue if you want, but it will almost always be easier not to.
There should be no signs that carpenter bees used to live here. This way, other carpenter bees won’t get the idea!
Keep in mind that when you buy wood glue or wood filler, you should make sure it can be used outside. Some goods won’t be able to handle being outside.
How Can I Repel Carpenter Bees?
You should keep carpenter bees away for good after you get rid of them. How can you keep carpenter bees away? You need to know what makes them want to be with you.
Carpenter bees require softer woods that are not painted and have been left to weather. They like redwood, cedar, poplar, cypress, and pine that is raw and not treated because it is good for burrowing. Make sure to paint or pressure-treat any surfaces made of these woods.
Keep in mind that doors, window frames, stairs, and furniture are often made from softwoods. It’s not possible that carpenter bees will live in your floors, walls, or ceilings. Most of the time, these are made from harder woods.
If you know you get carpenter bees often, you might want to spray your wood surfaces with a poison that stays on them once a year. Carpenter bee outbreaks that only happen once shouldn’t need this step, though.
A great spray treatment to do once a year would be something like Bifenthrin.
Carpenter bees work slowly, which is good news. If you catch them early enough, it shouldn’t be too hard to handle the problem. Most big problems with carpenter bees happen after people have known about them for a long time.
FAQs About How To Get Rid of Carpenter Bees
Do Carpenter Bees Sting?
Carpenter bee queens can sting, just like all other big bees. Males are more likely to attack and spend more time outside of the galleries, but they can’t sting. Most of the time, females will only sting if they think their nest is in danger. To be safe, if you’re not sure and a bee is coming at you quickly, think it might sting.
Do Carpenter Bees Pollinate?
Yes. The bees don’t really eat the wood. Just like other bees, they get their food from flowers. Because their mouthparts are so short, some plants can only be fertilized by carpenter bees.
What Wood Attracts Carpenter Bees?
Because they aren’t very good at digging, carpenter bees need softwood to build their homes. Carpenter bees like to dig in redwood, cedar, cypress, poplar, and pine woods. These are all popular woods used for doors, window frames, furniture, and porches.
How Do I Find Carpenter Bee Holes?
Because carpenter bees are pretty big, they need holes that are pretty big too. They’re usually about a half-inch across, and you can tell where the holes are by how straight they go in for about an inch before turning and going again parallel to the wood grain.
There are often males in and around the opening to the tunnel, watching over it.
Also, keep an eye out for small piles of sawdust and pollen near the cave entrances. Carpenter bees make sawdust instead of eating wood like termites do because they dig through it.
Can I Get Rid Of Carpenter Bees Without Killing Them?
You could try, but it’s not likely to work. Even in the winter, the bees live in their burrows. You could quickly fill in the hole and varnish the surface to see if they go somewhere else if you catch them while they are mating.
But if the bee is female and has left eggs in the hole, you would kill the eggs. Also, the bee might not be able to find another place to nest and die anyway. Even worse, the bee might fly off and build its nest somewhere else on your site.
Stopping them from coming is the best way to keep them away without hurting their number. Treat the wood surfaces and fix any small nests right away to keep other bees from laying their eggs there.