Resembling bumble bees, carpenter bees can grow to over an inch and they have orange, yellow to white hairs with shiny black abdomens. You can differentiate the male from the female bees by looking at some white markings in the male’s faces and identifying the black head with that of a female. Generally, the male carpenter bees do not sting while the females do. Yet the female carpenter bees are believed to be docile. The peak of mating between the male and female bees typically occurs in spring.
As for their nesting behavior, the females generally build their nests in dead logs, trees and other wooden structures. They can chew their way down, making tunnels and excavating persistently for their offspring. The nest can have half an inch wide round entry point and the chewed tunnels consist of two or more parallel tunnels that are wider than the access hole. Once these tunnels are completed, the female carpenter bees can now lay eggs. Then, when the young carpenter bees have developed and left the nesting site, the same old nest is often remade or reused for nesting or overwintering. Usually once the females lay eggs, they die and the males don’t live that long to need nests.
As for their eating habits, the carpenter bees seek the only source of food for them, flowers. They don’t typically use wood as food despite their name but rely on nectar and pollen for sustenance. Today, carpenter bees are known to build nests in houses which can be a source of aggravation for many homeowners. Since they rarely make use of painted or varnished wood, simply coating the wood structures of your home can prevent nesting. It’s also sensible to contact a reliable agent that deals with pest control to keep things in check. In the end, whatever damage or concern these bees may cause is rarely severe and can be prevented or easily dealt with.
The main thing to know about carpenter bees is that they can cause damage to wooden structures by boring holes and preparing their nests. Although these insects are harmless, their presence can be annoying and frightening to some. The bees may resemble a bumblebee but they have hairless and shiny abdomen. If you want them to stop eating and destroying your house, you might want to control or get rid of them safely and completely. How do you do it?
Prevention is typically the approach to control the bees. If possible, craftsmen ought to construct outer parts of the house or the building with the use of a much harder wood variety not normally attacked by these insects. You can also fill wood depressions and cracks with caulk or steel wool so they can appear less appealing to carpenter bees. You can paint or use varnish over the surface of wood parts that are exposed regularly to the elements to prevent being nested. For tunnels made by the carpenter bees, you can fill them with the same packing substances or dump almond oil within and all over the bee holes. You can do this when you don’t want to use insecticides. This will drive away the bees and you may need to get the larvae out before painting the packed areas. Or should there be huge nests, you may not vacuum them out and merely seal the gaps or holes with all the bees trapped inside during the night so they can’t make their way out and shall eventually die within the wood interior. You can also use wire screening or metal flashing to protect the rough areas and seal several small openings that the bees have made. This entire clearing and control usually takes for about 12 weeks but in the end, your property is duly saved.
Sup everyone, I’m Yuri Blagovich.
I live in Chicago, Illinois, in the heart of America
I’ve been involved here since June 2011
I was a high-school dropout, and I spent some time in the military since I had no idea what to do with my life. I did two tours in the Afghanistan war, but I never saw combat duty. Even still, I was injured and honorably discharged – but I had lost the use of my left leg below the knee due to nerve damage. I felt lost and stuck at home, since it was hard to go outside after going from being such an active guy to being unable to walk without a cane. I spent more and more time online, learning to make my mind as active as my body used to be. I had figured out that there must be a way to turn this new love of the computer into something that could keep my life going.
That’s when I found Fully Researched and their classes. They taught me the basics of online writing and blogging, and helped me hone my English skills into something that would actually allow me to start making a bit of scratch from spending time writing online. It turns out that I do have a pretty good mind, once I found something that I actually wanted to use it on. That’s not to say that I don’t miss my old life, but FR helped me to figure out how to live my new life – and I’m forever grateful for that.
