5 Things to Know About Carpenter Bees
With the weather turning warmer, flowers aren’t the only thing emerging. Bugs are also coming out of hibernation and that means you might be seeing some carpenter bees around your home. While this type of bee isn’t very aggressive, it can do some serious damage to wood surfaces around your house. Here is what you need to know about carpenter bees.
1. Carpenter Bees Drill into Wood
Carpenter bees actually drill into logs, eaves, door jams, and other wood surfaces to lay their eggs. They create opening holes that are typically a quarter inch in diameter. The bee will then create a tunnel that may be a few inches deep but can stretch for up to ten feet. You will see sawdust around the opening and it doesn’t take long for carpenter bees to dig several tunnels.
2. Male Carpenter Bees Don’t Sting
Once the male and female have mated, the female will begin drilling while the male warns potential intruders with aggressive buzzing. However, the male carpenter bee doesn’t actually have a stinger and basically just makes a lot of noise. Females do have a stinger, but they aren’t aggressive and will rarely deliver a sting.
3. Carpenter Bees Return to Their Tunnels
Carpenter bees will return to their old nests to hunker down for the winter months. That makes it important to close up any holes around your home so that the bees don’t return and cause further damage.
4. Carpenter Bees are Often Mistaken for Bumblebees
Bumblebees are famous for their black and yellow coloring. Carpenter bees are a similar size, but they tend to be mostly black. Instead of a fuzzy abdomen, carpenter bees have a shiny abdomen.
5. Carpenter Bees Don’t Eat Wood
While it may appear that carpenter bees are eating the wood, they are actually just drilling through it. They use the wood particles to form individual cells to store eggs.
Carpenter bees are attracted to unfinished wood, but even treated wood isn’t safe. If carpenter bees are drilling into your home, you need to take action. The experts at Capital Pest Services can help get rid of carpenter bees and make sure that they don’t return. Call us today to schedule a consultation.
Capital Pest is proud to be a family-owned and operated pest control company serving Raleigh, NC and its surrounding area (Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, Clayton, Pinehurst, Pittsboro, Fuquay-Varina, etc). Contact us for our pest control services today!
