# impressed by Woodbees



## LegendInMyOwnMind (Apr 27, 2011)

Nature impresses me and woodbees impress me a lot.

I'm living in SW PA and have zero experience with these bees but have heard stories now about them. Now I know how the eaves in my garage got all those holes.

My question is what can I do for the eaves? Does latex paint stop these bees? I only painted the exposed side of the wood. Do I need to paint the back? Or is there another way?

I left same 2×4s on the back porch and these giant bees found them. I watched one keep coming back and saw him boring an impressive hole into a 2×4. Here's a couple of pictures.


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## cloakie1 (May 29, 2011)

wow that is impressive….i'm not familiar with these creatures either.i spent a lot of years workig with bees but have never seen anything like that…..but bees often return to old sites….and house eaves are a great spot for them….plenty of warmth….but they are hard to discourage. make sure there is nothing left in there that looks like it is related to bees and then i would spray area down with a strong disinfectant which will remove any smell that they could be attracted too.


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## Jeff28078 (Aug 27, 2009)

Carpenter bees are common in the south. You can sit out on the deck in the summer and hear them chomping away. I haven't figured out a way to stop them but if you do find an unexplained hole just make sure it's empty, fill with caulk and paint over.


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Ive got them chewing up the eaves at my house as well. They bore tunnels into the wood where they reproduce. They best way is to inject pesticide into the hole and caulk it shut. I like to use a badmitton racket to let em know that they cannot reside in my dwelling unless they are earning a pay check and helping pay the mortgage.


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## ajosephg (Aug 25, 2008)

Here's my story about those critters and how they attacked some saw horse that were outside.

I really freaked out after I brought the saw horses back into the shop during the winter, and several weeks later I started to find dead bees on the floor, or on a window sill. I looked everywhere trying to find where they were coming from. Finally I discovered that they were mostly on the floor underneath the saw horses. Turned a saw horse upside down and there I saw a whole bunch of perfectly drilled holes (that I never made) in the bottom of the 2×4's. The bees were all gone by then, but what happened is the warm room brought them out of hibernation or whatever the larvae do and they came out and apparently starved to death.

Did some research on the web and talked to the County Agent. The conventional wisdom is that they won't chew into painted wood, so if you keep the under side of your soffits, eves, siding, etc. well painted you shouldn't have a problem - or don't store your unpainted saw horses outside, LOL.


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## rsdowdy (Aug 25, 2009)

Good advice cr1. If you don't kill the bees, they come back year after year after year and you get more and more and more of em. They chew up treated lumber after it's 3 to 4 years old as well. They ignore most wasp sprays unless you get a full stream on them. And make sure you do the stick in the hole to kill the larve! I hadn't thought about the bait trick, I'm just judicious with a racket.

Royal


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

Bumping this thread, hoping for some additional information.

I live in a log home, do the math. I need a method to eliminate these little jokers. I'm open to any and all suggestions.


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## reggiek (Jun 12, 2009)

You need to kill the queen. Smoke works on these just as other bees….they are also dormant at night. I ran into a hive while working on a floor repair job…they were pretty well entrenched in the floor joists…..the owner hired a bee person…thinking that he/she could get them out and put them in a hive….as soon as the bee person saw them…said they were carpenters and had no interest in capturing them (don't know if that was just to get more money?).....she paid the extra amount…and the bee person removed the queen….the rest of the bees will leave or die without a queen.


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

Built my house in 1976 when we could still get real Redwood here in Tennessee. All the exposed wood on my eaves was either Redwood or Western Red Cedar and it was not painted, but stained and coated with Olympic Wood Preservative. That damn stuff must have been like fillet covered with steak sauce to the bees.
They drill into the edge of the boards, perfectly round, 7/16" diameter hole, and go about 2 to 3 inches in, then turn 90 degrees and go another 3 or 4 inches to lay eggs. Woodpeckers watch this and when the eggs hatch they hang on the side of the boards somehow and peck holes in from the face of the boards to get the larva or baby bees or whatever. Just about destroyed my eaves.

I just caulked all the holes up and covered everything with Bher best premium solid color stain with a insecticide/moldicide additive. So far they have stayed away.


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

I paid a guy before I bought the house & it looks like he just ran around with a tub of wood filler. Some were very high up on the house, so I didn't mind the largish price tag. I might have to get someone out again. Drag.


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## rsdowdy (Aug 25, 2009)

Reggiek,

There are wood bees known as carpenter bees that bore solitariy holes, and there are hornets that some people refer to as wood bees/ wood wasps, that are about 2 inches long with a 1/2 inch stinger..when they are buzzing around your head they seem like they are about 3 feet long and a large hypo for a stinger that build nest in eves and holes and are just evil. Yes, I have to deal with both kinds. Compared to the hornets, I love carpenter bees.

Royal


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## MedicKen (Dec 2, 2008)

I am not familiar with the carpenter bees either. But there was some info that I just read on another forum lately.

http://www.carpenterbeesolutions.com/


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

Hey Ken, thanks for that link!


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## woodprof (Aug 31, 2009)

From what I've read, these things aren't actually bees (though they look a lot like bumblebees) but are instead giant wood boring flies. Don't know what this might mean in terms of getting rid of them, but at least they don't sting!


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## rsdowdy (Aug 25, 2009)

Yes they do!!!
You can catch the white faced ones and use them like toys, tie strings to them and let them buzz around…. the black face ones will POP you!!! Black…get back!!!

Royal


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

I got attacked by hornets once. I mean attacked! We fled in a pickup truck (rushing my friend out who was swelling up like Oprah) and they pursued us! I kid you not. And they HURT, much worse than a bee. I do not like hornets.


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## MedicKen (Dec 2, 2008)

Bertha…..It funny how much of a difference there is in the insect world from the west to east coast. I am glad that those are something that we dont have to deal with here in Cali. I am sure those are not the only bees that are different. The info that I read looks like it might be something worth looking into if there is a problem with those bees and a really simple solution.

PS you might take a look at my addition to the vintage monsters thread


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## skippyland (Jan 12, 2011)

Hey, Doug. I'm sorry to be coming to this topic late but unfortunatley, I know all about these







!! bees. My wife and I have a log home in about 15 acres of woods and Mother Nature is always trying to take back her property! Those boring bees come around every 2-3 years and start up their natural destruction…at which time I have to call an exterminator, comes over and spreads his "magic dust".. a white powder that the bees get on their feet and track back to their nest….all dead within 24 hours…until the next time. I believe the last time he used a liquid spray that left the log just slightly tacky. It seems around us they like to bore higher up towards the peeks. Good luck with it.


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## oblowme (May 20, 2011)

Just an oddity here- they will bore into pressure treated lumber like it was half rotten Balsa, the chemicals seem to have little to no effective at all on them, these are some tough little 'bug'-ers (ok so that was a cheap one). Another indicator to their robust nature- bee killers will not bring them down like they will with wasps etc, in fact I have seen a lot of them take a full blast from just inches away and still live on 12 hours later. Regular fly spray will only kill them in about 24 hours IF you spray them to foam.
What's worse is that these things are VERY aggresive, they like to hover around near the nest and will react to any movement. The good part is that's what makes them easy targets for your racket. Sometimes you can miss 2-3 times before they fly off but don't fret- they will 'bee' back in a few minutes.
Alone they pose little threat but run into a hive full and you'll 'bee' in deep s***. Had a neighboor once said she had a bee hive in her exterior water heater room and would I come to look at it, maybe have a way to deal with it? Uh huh, so I open the door and sure enough their they were, looked like maybe 50 of them. Before I could shut the door a half dozen or so came after me so I hauled ass. Usually as soon as a bee thinks
that you are no longer a threat they will terminate the chase and go home, usually. After I'd run a hundred and fifty feet or so in a long hook I slowed and looked behind me, Damn if they wern't still in chase and closing fast.They finally gave up after they'd run me off a hundred yards.


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## BobTheFish (May 31, 2011)

I've experienced them as well, though they're not a huge deal around here (instead we get deer ticks and lyme's disease… oh joy).

Has anyone considered abandoning their drill press and training the carpenter bees? XD


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## TechRedneck (Jul 30, 2010)

I live just north of Bertha in a cedar home and those buggers just love the posts on my front porch. I have several coats of CWF on the siding but it seems every few years they come around in droves. They don't bother the cedar much but love pine, even treated pine.

I keep a can of hornet spray on the front porch. During the evening I often sit with a cup of coffee and the newspaper and can hear them coming (big fellas) soon as they land I nail them with the spray or watch where they go. Shoot the spray in the hole and keep some wood filler handy, plug it up and repeat.

If you walk around the house keep an eye out for sawdust (yes nice big bits of your house) look up for the hole and zap em. That's entertainment when you live in the country!


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

"Straining" them through a badminton racquet is what we do for entertainment.Its very rewarding to see all the half carcasses lying around. By the way, someone said they wont sting, but I have been bitten or stung when I accidentally laid my hand on one. Hurt like HELL!


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## oblowme (May 20, 2011)

'Has anyone considered abandoning their drill press and training the carpenter bees? XD'

Now yer talkin, since they are yellow and black already I move to name them "Bee-walt"


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## thelt (Feb 23, 2009)

The male don't sting, but the female do. I have a 3/4" thick plywood paddle (like the ones the shop teachers used to pop your butt in high school) and do "batting practice" when I see these critters. Keeping surfaces painted is a big deterrent but not totally. I've had one or two eat there way through the paint.


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## TechRedneck (Jul 30, 2010)

Just watched the video MedicKen linked to. I had to go down to the shop and put one together. It's hanging outside now. I'm curious to see how it works!


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## pontic (Sep 25, 2016)

Carpenter Bees don't have a very large stinger and rarely sting. They are a nuisance. The Indiana type of carpenter bee will chew thru paint and duck tape. Ask me how I know. 
The best way to kill the larvae is to spray the hole with carpenter ant killer spray, and back fill the hole with steel wool. Do this at dusk or night then you will get them all.
I use Carpenter Bee traps. They work like a charm. If you have some 1/2 inch wood and a 1/2 inch drill you can make one with a soda bottle . Plenty of places where to buy and how to make them online. Lowe's traps don't work as well as the ones I bought on line.
Once a bee is trapped the chemicals released when it dies attract more and pretty soon you will trap them all.


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## GR8HUNTER (Jun 13, 2016)

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/315778
try this worked great for me :<))
i even made extra sold them for $5.00 each


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

We don't have many here in the bay area but the ones we have are very industrious.
My neighbor showed me a piece of wood that had long, perfectly round holes that looked as if they were drilled.
If still has that piece I will photograph it and post it here!


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## thelt (Feb 23, 2009)

Found this one with a search on youtube. there are a bunch of videos on youtube about carpenter bees. I liked this one primarly because I have a few fence post I didn't through out when I had my fence replaced. They are nicely weathered. "Check out this video"


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