How to Get Rid of Carpenter Bees: Stop Damage without Traps (Making Friends w/ Garden Pollinators!)
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
- What's the best way to protect wood from carpenter bee damage? Homemade carpenter bee traps are often used for pest control. But this won't stop bees from doing any more damage to your wooden structures! Just as importantly, are carpenter bees actually that bad?
00:00 - The Problem w/ Carpenter Bees vs Bumble Bees
00:54 - Benefits of Carpenter Bees as Pollinators in the Garden
01:35 - How to Control Carpenter Bees without Traps or Poison
02:29 - Pollinator Habitat: Bee Houses for Carpenter Bees
03:11 - Growing & Pollinating Passion Fruit w/ the Help of Carpenter Bees
03:57 - Pollinator Biodiversity Builds a Healthy Garden!
• How Much Damage Do Carpenter Bees Cause?
Female Carpenter Bees look for places to start a nest in wood. They prefer places where rain can't reach, like the underside or backside of surfaces. They bore 1/2" holes & tunnel through the wood. At times, this might include the wood of your home! They do not eat the wood like termites do. Most damage is superficial, primarily in surface wood. However, large carpenter bees (Xylocopa) might become economic pests when nesting in structural timbers, wooden water tanks, fence posts, etc.
• Do Carpenter Bees Sting?
Carpenter bees may seem scary but they're mostly harmless. The males tend to be more aggressive when protecting their nest. But only the females can sting, as the males have no stinger. Females have an all black head while the male carpenter bees have a white patch on their face. Carpenter bees are generally mellow, friendly bees. You can approach within just a few inches away and they will not pay any heed.
• Identification: Carpenter Bees vs Bumble Bees
Carpenter bees are large, fat bees that hover around our gardens & homes thru the growing season. They're easy to confuse with bumble bees as both may have similar black & yellow markings. One easy way to identify each is by the abdomen. Carpenter Bees have smooth, shiny abdomens. Bumble Bees are harry and may have more yellow. Bumble Bees nest in the ground. But carpenter bees are the ones found drilling holes and nesting in wood.
• Do Carpenter Bees Pollinate?
Despite what some pest control services might say, carpenter bees are excellent pollinators! They are native to many areas which should appeal to conservationists. And they're good for our gardens. They work extremely well at pollinating passion fruit flowers. Every year my vines yield huge masses of fruit, all thanks to carpenter bees!
• Carpenter Bee Control:
Getting rid of carpenter bees can be very difficult. Often people trap and kill them, but this won't stop them from coming back. Pesticides are certainly not the best way, especially for organic gardeners. A proven method on how to get rid of carpenter bees and keep them from returning requires protective coatings on wooden surfaces.
Carpenter bees generally avoid treated deck lumber. But as the wood ages that won't be enough to deter them. At a bare minimum you need to apply thick coatings of paint to wood, including the underside of surfaces. When possible, applying a protective wrap of aluminum trim coil will give optimal protection. That's the best way to prevent carpenter bees from infesting your house.
• Cohabitation Via Devoted Habitat!
Don't view this purely as a DIY pest control project. View it as a relocation program. Provide carpenter bees with alternate habitat. You can make or buy houses for them and see if they will adopt them. A bee hotel may give the bees an easy place to inhabit, reducing their interest in your home. In this way, they won't damage your valuable property, but they'll still hang around the garden, rendering crucial pollination services!
#CarpenterBees #Pollinators #PestControl #BeneficialInsects
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Agreed! Carpenter bees, are important pollinators in our gardens, last summer I had a faithful carpenter that religiously came by like clock work every day to pollinate my tomato plants. She would buzz around me almost in a greeting then she would go to on plant after another. I had such an abundant harvest that I was harvesting tomatoes into November in zone 6b. Now I know that temperature plays a role but my tomatoes just kept on coming. In my humble opinion it was to sweety that’s the name I gave her. And by the way I’m not really sure on how their life is but just as it warmed up last week, guess who flew by me as she checked too see what was growing in my small garden, yes that’s right it was sweety. I thank God for her. 😘
What a beautiful experience! Thanks so much for watching and for taking time to share!!! 😃
Thanks for sticking up for the little guys!
Somebody's gotta do it, right? I'm sure there are situations where they could become overwhelming. But they're much more benign and beneficial than some of these pest control companies portray them to be!
I never knew there was a difference between bumble bees. Good to know!
I knew there were the two types of bees. But some of types of bumble bees look so similar it can be really confusing!
I am so glad to see this. I have no problem with them but some folks do and it is a relief to have a non-toxic, humane solution to recommend. Thank you!
I live on the east coast of Australia and just moved from the country to the coast 50 miles (80 klms) closer where I for the first time met the carpenter bees. What a noisy but cute community. I had no idea what they were until I researched them.... then found this video. Thank you for explaining what they do. I hope they can find my passionfruit over the other side of the house.... they seem to be hell-bent on one plant...
I'm glad you enjoyed the info. Thanks for watching! 🙂
So glad I found your channel, I've been looking for more ground cover and watched your video for ideas, sedum was already being used but will definitely try the lingonberries. Then I went on to your bumblebee adventure LOL. I often wondered why I had so many bees at the front and rear of the house and of course now I understand they are both bumble and carpenter bees...
Because of the strawberry plants out back and the hydrangeas out front
I’ll tell you how I stopped carpenter bees, when hurricane Harvey took my old 100 year old houst and we had to rebuild, we used brick and hardy plank and we now have a garage with a steel door. That’s how I stopped carpenter bees.
That would certainly do the trick!!! :)
Thanks for the knowledge
Great job Al.. thanks for the education ...
Thanks so much for watching Ron! :-D
Loved that video. I thought i had bumblebees but definitely carpenter bees, the drill hole and lots of fine 2x4 dust. I guess i’ll clean up the area and let them stay and hope the damage is, as you say, superficial. I do see them as my first bees of early spring, pollenating
Wow, nice photography!!
Thanks! I appreciate your support. :)
Awesome !!! I needed this information sir. Thanks again.
Thanks for watching Uncle Dave! I hope you guys are doing well!!! :-D
@@Albopepper We are getting along well. Moving forward every day. You and your family take care.
We just had our siding, facia and trim replaced with covers. Now for the first time we have a bee in the wall doing its worst every day almost all day, where our invalid father stays. We can't find the hole and never see it. It is located on a 3rd story corner. Our love of nature just went down the tubes.
Thank you! great natural options offered.....we just planted wild flowers....maybe they'll "bee" distracted! 🤣
Thanks for this vid. I just moved to Georgia from Ca. And my house is a carpenter bee headquarters. You grow passion fruit in your zone? No way. That would be awesome.
Cedar wood has a natural insect repellant in it. That's why a lot of porch swings, etc are made from cedar.
I love this soooooooooo much 😭
Thanks so much for watching!!! :)
Good advice...except I live in a log house. Might not work to wrap the whole house. Lol
LOL, yes that might not be very practical!
Only bees I have a problem with is those darn Yellow Jackets. Well killer bees too if I had those in my area and thankfully I don’t! But yellow jackets are a pain in the butt. Especially when your having a picnic or especially if you got any raw meat or fish sitting getting ready to cook on the bbq! Their also a pain in the home truss builder companies too. That pitch in the wood attracts the like crazy! We use to sit out glass pop bottles with a little pop left in them and the yellow jacket would climb down in the bottle to get to the sweet pop. Then try to fly out and not have enough room to get out. We put out least 10-15 pop bottles every day and by quitting time every bottle be full of yellow jackets everyday for months even years on end! Also where I learned yellow jacket are also cannibals too, they eat their dead! Which was news to me till I seen it with my own eyes! I’ve had yellow jackets sting and bite me( their bite as bad as a sting) and I didn’t know the bee was even on me till it got me and the pain anything but pleasant! So I go out of my way to get rid of yellow jackets permanently! I’m sure they have their purposes too! But I highly doubt we’re ever going to hurt their populations enough to make much of a difference. Least not without using some serious poison spraying everywhere! Like I mentioned, we killed hundreds by the day for years and they still kept coming! Seem like 10 to replace everyone we kill! But they do clean up a lot of garbage too, especially meat cooked or not laying around where the bee can get to it. That’s one purpose for them!
Last summer, I saw the first bumble or carpenter bee at in my yard, in a long time. Didn't get a good enough look to know exactly what it was, but it doesn't matter to me, I was happy to have her.
My property has been infested with Argentine ants which has dramatically reduced the insect biodiversity, including eliminating fire ants!!
Interestingly, they seem to find paper wasp nests at the peak of the larval season and invade the nest. The wasps have no way to defend themselves and the ants eat all of the larvae. They also invaded a honey bee colony and ate larvae and honey. If I am not 110% scrupulous in cleaning my kitchen, it only takes a matter of 3-4 hours to find my countertop teeming with a mass of ants. I'll trade carpenter bee problems for Argentine ants problems any day!!
Oh no!!! That's sounds like such a nightmare! Sorry to hear that you've been enduring that. I hope you can find a way to restore balance. Thanks for sharing your experience!
We had ticks bad this year in are yard and I was thinking about using a poison after trying safer methods but I ended up not using the tick killer because it was also broad spectrum and killed aquatic life. About two weeks later about 200+ baby tree frogs decided to make my yard a home and wouldn’t you know it they ate all the ticks and now a 🦃 mom with 7 babies in tow are walking around my yard every week or so eating some of the 🐸. It’s almost like balance is needed in life…..
Wow! That's actually quite an amazing story. Thanks so much for sharing your experience!!! 😃
@@Albopepper I’ve been seeing dying bees from poisons lately from someone in the area so if it helps someone think twice it’s worth getting out there.
Your videos are excellent.
What region do you live in where the passion fruit lives through winter?
Thanks so much for watching! I live in Western PA, USDA Zone 6.
I’m currently having issues with them eating into the wooden support beams for my patio cover. I can’t just rebuild my patio cover, and I don’t want to hurt them because I love bees of all kinds. So do you have any advice for a situation like that?
I did not know carpenter bees actually did woodwork, those things are tough huh!
Mr Pepper! I was thinking, It’d be very useful to know how much light you get in between light fixtures, I mean if your getting 250 on the outer edges of your (2x2 for example) would that equal 500 when you add the 25O residual from the next light over? Curious because I get pretty decent results in the “in between” spaces but could it add up too much in “the overlap” if the lights are close together?
You da man Albo! A true man of science!
Thanks for watching! I think you can directly add the overlap PPFD values from one light map onto the overlapping values for a 2nd light. That's why some of my grow light tests show PPFD maps without any reflective sides. This helps with light spacing calculations.
@@Albopepper I’ll have to check your ppfd videos again, you tested 3 of my lights and I trust your data more than the cdc lol
mille grazie paisano!
My carpenter bees that I foster with dead tree stumps quit pollinating my passion fruit! Why? I wonder….I use to get tons of fruit, now I only get a handful in a year, my hand pollination is only about 20% effective. How do I get them back to work? The vine is only about 40 ‘ from their cozy tree stump home. Thanks
I have extensive wooden eves that aren't going to be replaced with vinyl. So this solution won't work for me, but I'm definitely on board with this messaging. I'd like to figure out how to deter them from my home while giving them other places to live so that they can keep up the good work they do and contribute to bio-diversity. They are also native pollinators in my area.
Yes, that would be such a challenge! I've noticed that they seem quite happy to keep reusing the pre-existing boards for their homes. Year after year they tend to stay put in those spots. If they could be coaxed to live in a DIY bee home/hotel, perhaps they would be less interested in other wood. A thick coating of paint is a good place to start for protecting important surfaces.
@@Albopepper I do work with a pest control company, not to exterminate, but relocate. Once recommendation they had was to get some other material near by they find desirable, make what they are currently in (my eves) undesirable, and over the winter when the young ones are still growing and haven't come out yet relocate the new material. The next spring they new bees will come out and won't really know they've been moved and they will keep coming back to that new spot. It's pretty much exactly like you did with your fascia boards. So far I haven't found anything they'd rather bore into or I haven't made the eves undesirable enough. It's a process. :)
Biggest way to keep any bees out of the eves or walls of you house if to make sure all cracks are covered with a wood trim. Silicone may also work, I don’t know for sure if the bees would try digging out the silicone or not? I think their more interested in cracks or holes they can easily get into for the most part. I know I have silicone a lot of cracks or gaps around my eves and the siding and least so far I haven’t had any problems with the bees trying to get in. Then again I really don’t know if I have these carpenter bees or not? But I do see bumblebees around quite often or they look like bumblebees! Personally never knew the difference between the two bees? Not sure I want to get that close to figure it out either? Never been stung be a bumble bee and rather not have a first time either! LOL Yellow jackets are bad enough and bumble bees are bigger! Guessing the bumblebees sting is worse then a yellow jackets sting? Anyone know?
@@ghostridergale One of the other viewers mentions that yellow jacket stings are far more painful than carpenter bees. Remember: Only the female carpenter bees have stingers. I've found them to be more passive than the males. Either way, none have ever stung me after all of these years working in tight quarters in my garden. In contrast, I can attest to the pain of a yellow jacket sting!!! ack 😱
to do this on my log cabin home would be impossible, so for now its the traps because they work.
Yeah, that's a pretty challenging situation! Thanks for watching. :-)
The problem isn't the holes made by the bees. I can fill those in, it's the long trenches in the wood made by the woodpeckers trying to dig out the bee grubs :(
Good to know. I thought all the holes in my wood frame home were from only wasp, although I have witnessed bees around also.
Perhaps you'll be able to identify the culprits! Thanks for watching!!! :-)
Ok, I have to admit an 18 count in one day,by way of wiffle ball bat. Sorry bees. And the worst part is I'm Al's neighbor. hey Al it s Butch. No more bee beat downs for me.
Oh no! hahahah Yeah man, we need those guys so our crops can get good fruit set. Thanks for watching Butch. And thanks for that mulch man! 😜
🙂
But do they sting?
Check the description. Males have no stinger. Females do, but they are not very aggressive at all. I've never been stung even after 11 growing seasons out in the garden. I've had a male literally fly right at me and butt heads with me, when I approached a nest. But no sting. And it's not a common thing for me. It was actually pretty comical!
@@Albopepper Thanks for the answer and your description is great. Your videos area always very thorough. I did think of another question that is not in the description. Are there some people that have allergic reactions to the sting from carpenter bees? FYI, I did a search and found that people can have the same allergic reactions as honey bees. One site rated stings from least painful (carpenter bee) to most painful (yellow jackets). Although I do not know what criteria they used.
Another thing, as an older adult I have learned that bees and wasps are far less dangerous than I was taught as a child.
I'm not aware of allergy concerns related to carpenter bee stings. That's an interesting question. I've definitely experienced a yellow jacket sting though. Man, that was brutal!!! But I had been unknowingly raking leaves around their nest. All through the summer I'm all through my garden and the flowers are loaded with bees, wasps & hornets. But I never have any issues. They're typically quite passive. Even the wasp pollinate. But I've also seen them eat pests like cabbage moth worms: albopepper.com/photos/P1020267-large.jpg
@@Albopepper From the quick research that I saw, it looked like any of the bees and wasps can cause allergic reactions from a sting.
Great website. I'll have to look around some more later. Thanks
I live in Tennessee and carpenter bees have destroyed many a deck here. Many people cannot afford to have their decks covered in aluminum.
Have they found thick coatings of paint to be sufficient?
While Your neighbors are screaming no😂