How To Get Rid Of Carpenter Bees | Do-It-Yourself Pest Control

Step 2. Use Dust In Carpenter Bee Nests

To get rid of a Carpenter Bee infestation, use Tempo Dust in as many Carpenter Bee holes as possible. Fill the JT Eaton Hand Bellow Duster or your chosen duster 1/2 way with dust and dust into the openings.

Although their holes appear only an inch or two deep, it usually extends at a 90-degree angle. The female will turn 90 degrees and bore a channel ranging from 6 inches to as long as 4 feet. This channel serves as the main corridor from which she will drill small chambers a few inches deep.

These chambers become egg holders. She will deposit an egg, bring in some food, and then seal it off to ensure the egg's development.

• It may be difficult to treat each individual gallery with dust, aerosol, or liquid residual insecticides, due to the 90-degree angle, but it is important to try if you have a current infestation.

• To learn more about nests: Carpenter Bee Holes

Step 3. Plug Up Carpenter Bee Holes

1. Plug the holes after all the bees are killed. A safe time to plug entrances is in the early fall months.

2. You can plug up the entrances with plugs, cork, or putty, You can also use a caulking compound. We suggest sealing the holes with wood putty since you can paint over the wooden structures. We also carry Carpenter Bee Blocker Kits that are made of stainless steel screens and come with installation tools.

3. Suppose you plug up the entrances too early. In that case, you will stop the carpenter bees from passing through the insecticide dust, and they may chew new openings in other locations.

4. The following year, spray bee nests early to prevent further boring.

Optional Step: A Non-Chemical Natural Approach to Kill Carpenter Bees

Carpenter Bee Traps And Natural Repellent

For those considering a non-chemical approach to get rid of carpenter bees, we recommend carpenter bee traps like, Best Bee Trap or Citrus Spray Carpenter Bee Repellent

The carpenter bee trap is specially designed to attract and trap carpenter bees. If you have an existing carpenter bee infestation, hang it directly over the carpenter bee holes. If you do not have a current infestation, hang the traps at the peaks and corners of your home, preferably on the sunniest side of your house.

How To Identify A Carpenter Bee

To successfully get rid of Carpenter bees, you need to be able to identify them around your home. Sometimes also called eastern Carpenter Bees, they look similar to Bumble Bees—large, with yellow and black patterns. Carpenters are significantly larger than honey bees and do not produce honey for their larvae as honey bees do.

They are about 1/2 to 1 inch and may have some metallic reflections ranging from dark blue, yellow, green, or purple tints. Bumblebees also feature striped abdomens as opposed to the solid black color of the Carpenter bee.

Their abdomens are bare and shiny compared to the hairier Bumblebees. It's also worth noting that if you see a hanging, external nest, it is likely to be a Bumblebee.

Male Carpenter Bees

Male carpenter bees pose little threat to humans, as they do not have the ability to sting. The males lack a stinger, but they will aggressively buzz around the female's nesting area, patrolling and warding off any potential intruder.

Additionally, we should note that males do not chew and drill into wooden structures like female carpenter bees do. They feature a white patch on their faces, which the female carpenter bees do not have.

They are commonly sighted in the spring, hovering like a helicopter around eaves, porch rails, and under decks. Sometimes carpenter bees are called "wood bees" because they bore into wood. Carpenter Bees do not eat wood for nutrition. Carpenter bees, as pollinators, eat nectar and pollen from flowering plants.

Carpenter bees are not considered a true structural pest since they do not spread throughout the entire structure. They prefer bare wood, unpainted wood, or unfinished wood.

Signs of Carpenter Bee Infestations

Carpenter Bees make holes about 1/2 inch in diameter. These flying insects create perfectly round carpenter bee tunnels. They prefer unfinished wood and can drill and create tunnels in seasoned hardwoods, softwoods, and decaying woods. Look for "frass," which looks like sawdust from these drilling areas.

Locate a Carpenter Bee Infestation

Carpenter bee damage can cause significant problems over time. A female carpenter bee bores a channel or main corridor in wood from 6" to as long as 4 feet to lay her eggs in areas called "galleries" or "cells". She deposits an egg into these galleries and brings them a mass of pollen for the newly hatched carpenter bee larvae to feed on.

Then, she seals them all off to ensure their development before she repeats the next egg process. This is one of the reasons it can be so hard to get rid of carpenter bees.

Carpenter bee galleries have entrance holes on the wood surface, continue inward for a short distance, and turn to run in the same direction as the wood grain.

More Identification Tips

How To Prevent Carpenter Bee Infestations

Want to successfully prevent Carpenter bee damage?

It all depends on the time of the year. You can prevent infestations of carpenter bees if you tackle the situation early enough. Prevention is the operative word for control.

• Carpenter bees prefer to bore holes in the wooden areas that receive the morning sun or afternoon sun.

• Carpenter Bees attack unfinished wood under decks, sills, and decks first. Varnish or paint these wood surfaces to make them less attractive to these bees. A fresh coat of paint is unattractive to Carpenter Bees.

• Seal as many exterior openings as possible early, before spring. The Carpenter Bees are looking for cracks that will protect entrances. Seal and caulk these cracks and crevices.

• To make sealing easier, we recommend Carpenter Bee Blocker Kits that have stainless steel screens that fit in carpenter bee holes. However, if you seal these holes while the carpenter bees are inside, they will drill out a hole to exit.

• Nests are often reused from the previous season. Calk these holes in the fall, after the carpenter bees have emerged. Our top recommendation is the Carpenter Bee Blocker Kit.

• Carpenter Bee prevention and extermination are usually best done before nesting activity gets started.

• Spray the unfinished wood in these vulnerable areas (under rail sidings, under decks, around window sills, etc.) with the recommended residual insecticides.

• The best time to spray preventative for carpenter bee control is springtime. Nesting and the rearing of young carpenter bees occur.

Key Takeaway

Prevent holes and carpenter bee nests from reappearing by spraying insecticide concentrates. Treat existing holes with insecticide dust.