Carpenter Bees .... nesting in my deck railing

17 years ago

I have finally figured out that the little pile of sawdust on my deck right next to the side of the house is coming from a carpenter bee hole...(thank goodness as I thought I had carpenter ants under the shingles higher up the side of the house).....

I spotted a big black bee coming from the area of the sawdust - the hole is in the railing closest to and facing the house. You cannot see the hole without a mirror (there is also a telltale excreta area on the nearby shingle).

Well I left the mirror opposite the bee hole and the poor bee(s), when they fly back to the nest, crash into the glass and seem to fly off pretty quickly. Apparently bees navigate in such a manner - by surrounding "landmarks" - that they are completely disorientated by their entrance hole reflected in a mirror.

Question.....will this drive the occupants of this bee hole away? I am concerned that the female will just find another railing to bite into.....also if she has laid eggs the larvae will eventually hatch so that hole has to be treated......I understand however that its hard getting the appropriate material dispersed within the chambers or cells created by the mother bee. Maybe its best to let the mother bee take dessicant in with her rather than scare her off with the mirror?

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Comments (5)

dragonplant
17 years ago
The bee will probably just make a new hole. They do it pretty fast too. We had one do this last week in our deck. We caught the hole the first day or two it was being made, he plugged the hole with some kind of caulk, then killed the bee. We haven't seen any more. I hate doing that as I hate killing anything, but.... Here's a webpage about carpenter bee control.

Here is a link that might be useful: carpenter bees and control
david_wagner
17 years ago
I had the same problem about eight years ago with my carport. I just filled in the holes and painted the wood and they stayed out. A friend of mine has a similar problem with their deck. They have tried stain and weatherproofing but nothing seems to help and they don't want to paint. Of course they have replaced all of the rails and some of the posts and are now looking at painting all but the deck boards themselves. I mean the wood you walk on, they haven't bored into there at all.
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krkul1313_yahoo_com
12 years ago
I plug a hole with Construction adhesive and than Caulked it. The next morning the hole was reopened. I killed the Male Bee...so I will see what happens now.
heretogiveahelpinghand
8 years ago
Hi,

Appreciate this posting maybe too late but have you or anyone tried using natural non-toxic solutions like tea tree oil or orange oil spraying methods? I had a similar issue last year with an infestation of Carpenter bees in one of our outdoor shacks. I didn't want to use harsh chemicals to kill off such a beautiful bee, despite being a pest for us!

I did a bit of digging around the 'inter-web' and found me this little website that describes different methods (chemical & non-chemical) to get rid of the carpenter bee. Hope it helps :)

Here's the site: http://www.howtogetridofcarpenterbees.com/

Also, here's a useful (viewer friendly - no adverts) video talking more about getting rid of carpenter bees
HU-355886886
3 years ago
You people talking about killing bees are insane! Don't you realize we are in an insect crisis here? Carpenter bees will not destroy your property, for gods sake! They are not termites. Just leave them be and do what you need to do to your structure, but for god sakes, stop killing bees!