Although carpenter bees are considered important pollinators of many flowering plants, they are usually considered pests due to their ability to cause potential damage to wooden structures. These insects are generally not aggressive but you should be concerned if you spot them nesting on your property as they can be destructive to your home.
What’s worse, homeowners most of the time don’t even notice a carpenter bee infestation until the damage becomes apparent. This is because these bees are masters of camouflage and can fly unnoticed under our radar for a long time. Also, they are solitary by nature, which makes it even harder to decipher that you might have a carpenter bee infestation in your home.
Keep reading to find out whether their infamous habit of boring holes into wood to create their nests can be a problem for you and your home.
What Attracts Carpenter Bees To My Home?
Carpenter bees are attracted to places that provide them easy access to suitable nesting locations and food sources, that is pollen and nectar.
Therefore, yards with plenty of flowering vegetation are particularly attractive to carpenter bees. Flowers will lure in all kinds of pollinators, including carpenter bees.
Trees and shrubs around the house, as well as wooden elements on the exterior of the house, are common nesting sites for carpenter bees. These might include decks, patios, eaves, rafters, wood siding, fascia boards, and wooden roofs.
Carpenter bees also love old wooden fences, wooden garden furniture, and piles of firewood on your property.
Keep in mind that when carpenter bees search for a suitable location to create their nests, they will first choose the wood that has not been treated or painted. Therefore, painting and treating the wood can be highly beneficial in making it more resistant to these wood-boring insects.
Another reason why carpenter bees are so destructive is that they tend to reuse old nests already created by other carpenter bees. When they do use old carpenter bee nests, they carry on tunneling and make them even larger. So if the old tunnels have not been properly sealed, your home will keep drawing these pests in.
Are Carpenter Bees Harmful To The Structure Of My House?
Carpenter bees are harmful because they drill holes in wood while they are in search of a place to nest and lay eggs. They will bore holes deep into the wood, causing damage to the exterior of houses and other wood structures, and leaving behind their sawdust and feces that can create stains on the timber. The female carpenter bees then lay their eggs inside the nest, where they stay protected as the larvae grow. The males, on the other hand, will only fly around guarding the nesting area from the outside, and cause annoyance to anyone who comes near.
In addition, when carpenter bees damage exterior steps or railings, it can lead to fall accidents for you, your family members, or visitors.
Carpenter bee nesting areas also attract woodpeckers, as one of the favorite foods for these birds is the carpenter bee larvae. They will peck around the nest opening to devour the larvae, and this damages the wood even further.
When Should I Worry About Carpenter Bees?
Without any doubt, carpenter bees are destructive pests for your house as they can bore holes into any wood that happens to be in your home. Even though they are solitary insects that nest alone, they tend to choose the same area, or even the same piece of wood, in which they drill their tunnels deeper each time. Over long periods of time, this drilling results in significant damage to the wooden structure they are nesting in. As the damage adds up over time, it leads to costly repairs.
Additionally, carpenter bees increase the number of their nests over successive years, or large numbers of these insects can be excavating tunnels over the course of years. This causes noticeable damage to the wood and potentially severe structural damage to wooden structures.
A generation of carpenter bees lasts a full year and infestations, if left untreated, may persist for several generations over many years. Taking into account that the pests repeatedly attack your home by drilling holes for nesting throughout your property, they can be a serious threat.
Therefore, to prevent this from happening, it is advised that homeowners regularly inspect the perimeter of their homes and surrounding areas for the presence of hovering bees and their nests.
It’s important to check your property thoroughly, get rid of these unwanted pests immediately, and prevent them from returning.
In the event of a carpenter bee infestation, you should reach out to a pest control specialist as soon as possible for a professional inspection. They will identify the infestation, assess conditions and nesting locations, and create a suitable treatment plan to remove the nest safely and efficiently.
Here at American Pest Control, we can do just that! Our highly skilled and qualified technicians will come up with a specific and effective solution to eliminate carpenter bees from your Northeast Georgia home in no time!
Just remember not to attempt to remove a carpenter bee nest by yourself as it is a dangerous task that only an expert can do properly. Give us a call today for a free quote and inspection.
