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October 29, 2020How To Get Rid of Carpenter Bees
Are you tired of carpenter bees destroying your home? For many homeowners, these pesky bees are the formidable foes and the incessant cause of damage to wooden structures.
But why do carpenter bees cause so much distress for these homeowners?
Carpenter bees will often look like big bumble bees with yellow and black stripes. However, they are slightly more shiny and most often appear during spring time. Some refer to carpenter bees as “wood bees” because the female likes to dig into wood in order to create a nest for their eggs.
With this in mind, many homeowners are obsessed with how to get rid of carpenter bees. They can cause immense structural damage to the home. Carpenter bees also prefer painted wood which means they feel more attracted to a home as opposed to an outside structure or a tree in the forest.
But how will you know about their presence?
How to Identify and Prevent a Carpenter Bee Infestation
Carpenter Bees like to drill holes in unfinished wood and often focus on soft or decaying wood. You will sometimes notice sawdust beneath these holes and the wood will often sound hollow when you tap or knock on a particular section of the structure.
While you might wish to know how to get rid of carpenter bees, it’s also worth knowing that prevention is the best solution. In other words, it’s easier to stop carpenter bees from nesting in your home rather than getting rid of these pests after they have managed to settle in.
For this reason, it serves well to seal any cracks or gaps in wooden surfaces inside the home. Carpenter bees also like to re-use the same holes so make sure to shore up these holes with filler. After varnishing or painting, it can also be beneficial to spray this wood with a residual spray. As for when to start this process, carpenter bees will start nesting in the spring months which makes this the best time to shore up these holes and treat any wooden structures inside the home.
Now, let’s take a look at how to get rid of carpenter bees:
How to Get Rid of Carpenter Bees
Use a Residual Spray on Wooden Structures
When you locate areas in which carpenter bees have drilled holes in the wood, spray these areas with a residual insecticide. This wood might be varnished or painted and the holes are usually located underneath wooden surfaces such as window frames, door frames or fascia. You might also need to treat these areas more than once and two week intervals are usually best in terms of the time in between treatment.
Use Carpenter Bee Traps
Finally, you can take a non-toxic and non-chemical approach by setting bee traps throughout the home. These traps attract carpenter bees and trap them on arrival. If you know the location of an infestation, you can also hang such traps directly over the area and wait!
Use Dust to Fill Carpenter Bee Holes
You can pick up a dust-like product which can be used to fill existing carpenter holes. This simply means that dust is used to clog up the holes and prevent carpenter bees from returning at a later time. It’s true that you might not be able to apply this dust to each and every hole but you will at least deter bees from coming back with this approach. Alternatively, some holes are big enough that you can use caulking to close them up.
Although they can seem like a constant source of frustration, you can get rid of carpenter bees with some effort. That said, it’s always best to prevent these bees from coming inside the home and for more serious infestations contact Insight Pest Solutions.
