Carpenter Bees
Stop the drilling.
Treatment for galleries in eaves, decks and trim.
NC licensed • Family owned
Serving Gaston, Mecklenburg and York counties
Carpenter Bees
Wood destroying carpenter bees
Carpenter bees are large, black and yellow bees frequently seen spring hovering around the eaves of your house or the underside of decks or porch rails in warm weather. They are often mistaken for bumble bees, but differ in that they have a black shiny tail section and a penchant for doing damage to structural wooden members on the exterior of your home. The carpenter bee is so-called because of its habit of excavating tunnels in wooden members on the exterior of your home with its strong jaws. The round half-inch diameter entrance holes are usually found on the underside of boards. A telltale trace of coarse sawdust is often found on the surface beneath the hole or on the ground below where they’re drilling. Wooden decks, overhangs and other exposed wood on your home are prime targets for this destructive pest. Painted and treated woods are less preferred by Carpenter Bees, but they are by no means immune to attack.
Unpainted or stained cedar, cypress and redwood shingles and siding are also attacked despite their pest-resistant reputations. Carpenter bees, like their distant relatives, the carpenter ants, differ from termites in that they do not consume the wood as food. They simply excavate damaging tunnels into the wooden members on the exterior of your home for nesting sites.
Carpenter Bees left untreated can cause thousands of dollars in damage to your home. Envirosafe Pest Control will safely and effectively eliminate all Carpenter Bees from causing further damage to your home.
How to Tell What You Are Looking At
Carpenter bees look like bumble bees but the top of the abdomen is shiny black and hairless rather than fuzzy. The other giveaway is behavior. A bumble bee is working flowers. A carpenter bee is hovering in one spot at eye level near your fascia, deck rail or porch ceiling, doing the same lap over and over.
That hovering, dive bombing bee is the male. He has no stinger at all. He is guarding territory and he will fly straight at your face to prove it, which is why people think they are aggressive. The female does the drilling and she can sting, but only if you handle her.
What They Actually Do to a House
The female bores a perfectly round hole about half an inch across, straight in for an inch or so, then turns and tunnels along the grain to lay eggs in cells. One season’s gallery is a few inches. The problem is that the same bees and their offspring return to the same wood year after year, extending the old tunnels rather than starting fresh. After a decade a fascia board or deck rail can be honeycombed inside while looking almost normal from the ground.
The second wave of damage comes from woodpeckers. They hear the larvae inside and tear the wood open to get at them, and that damage is usually worse and more visible than what the bees did.
Favorite targets: unpainted or stained fascia, soffit trim, deck rails and joists, pergolas, playsets, porch ceilings, window trim, wooden siding, and the underside of eaves. Softwoods first, cedar and pine especially.
How We Treat Carpenter Bees
Treat the galleries. Material goes into the existing holes so the adults and larvae inside are dealt with. Simply plugging an active hole traps live bees that will chew a new exit, often into the interior.
Treat the surfaces they are working. The fascia, rails and trim getting hit, so returning females do not start new holes.
Seal after, not before. Once the gallery is treated and inactive, holes get plugged so they are not reused. Timing matters here.
Spring timing. The window that matters is when the adults emerge and start boring, generally April into June around here. Treating then prevents a whole season of new galleries.
Keeping Them From Coming Back
Carpenter bees strongly prefer bare, weathered or stained wood over painted wood. A good coat of paint on fascia, rails and trim is genuinely one of the better long term deterrents, and hardwood or composite trim is better still on replacement. Where the damage is already extensive, replacing the board is the honest answer and we will say so rather than treating rotten wood every spring.
If woodpeckers have opened up the fascia, that opening is also now an entry point for wasps, squirrels and moisture. Our pest proofing service closes those gaps properly.
Carpenter Bee FAQ
Will they sting my kids?
The one hovering and buzzing at you is the male and he cannot sting. Females sting only if grabbed or stepped on. They are far less of a sting risk than yellow jackets or hornets.
Can I just plug the holes myself?
Not until the gallery is treated. Plugging an active hole leaves live bees inside that will chew out somewhere else, sometimes into the wall.
Should I kill them? Are they pollinators?
They do pollinate, and where they are working a dead tree at the back of the lot we would leave them alone. When they are drilling structural wood on your house, that is a different call. We treat the structure, not the whole property.
When is the best time to treat?
Spring, as they become active. A treatment in spring prevents the season’s new tunneling; a treatment in September mostly just cleans up.
They came back to the same board again. Why?
Because they always do. Offspring return to the wood they emerged from. That is why treating plus sealing plus painting beats treating alone.
Stop the Drilling
Call Envirosafe at 704-860-2041 or request service online. We are at 1001 E. Catawba St., Belmont, NC 28012, serving Gaston, Mecklenburg and York counties. See our full service area.
In the field
Treating carpenter bee galleries.
Carpenter bees bore into fascia, soffits and trim, then return to the same holes year after year. Treatment goes into the galleries themselves, up where the damage is, not just on the surface.
Carpenter bees don’t stand a chance against Envirosafe Pest Control of Gastonia NC, we deliver safe, effective, organic treatments and stand behind every job, which is why so many loyal customers keep calling us back!
Our technicians are trained in eco-friendly, low-impact methods, important with carpenter bees, since they are pollinators and the goal is protecting your wood, not clearing the yard.