Spring has sprung! Ornamental trees are blooming, flowers are growing and insects are awakening. This is an exciting time of year. This is when Mother nature reminds us that she is omnipotent – nothing can stop her.

Its also the time when most of her “pesky” creatures get active and one of them quite active is the wood bee.

Wood bees are found throughout most all of the United States. Although we have many different species around the country, the most common is big and resembles a bumble bee. You may find it foraging around flowers, shrubs and under the eaves of buildings. This bee is unique from most because it will bore into wood to make its home. They are a destructive nuisance and can cause damage to any wood on your property. They also bother homeowners by “attacking” them though they rarely sting. To keep your building free of wood bees, it all starts by having a basic understanding of their biology and habits.

 

WOOD BEE NESTS

Wood bees typically bore holes into wood overhangs, fence posts, and trees. They will crawl between cracks of siding and roofing. When they bore in wood, the hole they drill is about 1/2″ wide. This hole will go straight an inch or two and then turn 90 degrees. The following video shows close up a female wood bee drilling a hole through a painted surface.





Once the main chamber is established, the female will then drill out small egg chambers which turn 90 degrees off the main chamber. Eggs are then laid at the end of these chambers and many times in “sub” chambers. Food is placed alongside the egg and then capped and sealed tight. It is common for an egg chamber to be two or more feet long with 10 or more sub chambers. Here is what a typical wood bee hole will look like when seen on a 2×4 piece of pine.



If you could “peer” inside a hole, the typical chamber would look like this.




Once the eggs are laid, females will forage for food, bring it home and store it throughout the nest. She’ll spend most of her time in the nest standing guard and watching for intruders. Females will routinely have more than one nest and these nests can be distributed over several acres.

Once done egg laying and gathering food, nests will seemingly go dormant but rest assured, they are still very much “alive” with developing young.

During most of the spring, male bees will be seen hovering around flowers, bushes and just outside drilled out nests waiting for any encounter they can initiate with a female. Male bees are the most common of the two seen; females tend to be quite secretive and sometimes difficult to spot but if there are males around, females are close too.




CAN A WOOD BEE STING?

The answer is “yes” and “no”. How can this be? Well, the female is equipped with a stinger and can will use it if provoked. But the male bees do not have one even though they are the ones naturally curious and what most people would call “aggressive”.

In fact male bees will buzz just about anything including people, pets and other animals. This buzzing scares people into thinking they are being “attacked”.

In general, if a carpenter bee is “attacking”, its probably a male. They have a distinctive yellow face, which may be seen while he is in flight, and they are attracted to any bright color like yellow, orange, red, etc.

Female bees have no interest in pursuing anything other than food. As stated above, they have a stinger but their face is black which is in contrast to the male bees.

HOW CAN YOU TELL A WOOD BEE FROM A BUMBLEBEE?

Wood bees are easy to mistake for a bumble bee but there are two big differences.

The first is that in general, wood bees tend to be larger. And second, wood bees have an abdomen which is shiny, metallic and black in color. Their abdomen has no body hair; bumblebees have yellow and black body hair on all body parts.

The following video shows a female wood bee up close and you can see her shiny metallic abdomen clearly which positively identifies her as a female.







WHY DO WOOD BEES COME BACK EVERY YEAR?

Wood bees will be an ongoing problem for any home where they nest because they use special pheromones and scent to “mark” good locations on where to roost. Additionally, offspring from one nest have a built in “gps” of sorts which programs them to return to their place of youth. For this reason nests are recycled and used over and over until its treated and sealed as explained below. And if the original nest is occupied by the original queen, her young females will simply drill new nests close by.

For this reason the pattern seems to be that a single nest one year will become two or three the next and by the third year, 10-25. And if left untreated, most any problem can lead to hundreds of holes after just 3-5 years.

WOOD BEE NESTS CAN LEAD TO OTHER DAMAGING PESTS

Once a home gets wood bee nests, its not long afterwards that animals like WOODPECKERS will start coming around. This happens because the developing young carpenter bees are quite loud and their sounds will attract insect eating animals like woodpeckers. In general, treating the carpenter bee problem will stop the woodpeckers so we always recommend starting there before trying to repel the woodpecker. This approach will usually work since the woodpecker is only coming around to seek food.




WOOD BEE TREATMENTS

Treating for wood bees involves two main steps. The most important part is to treat active nests. Once they’re rendered useless, most male bees will move away but if you have some lingering, you may want to spray them with BEE AND HORNET FREEZE. This fast acting spray can reach 15-20 feet up and usually kills them in 3-5 seconds.

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DUST WOOD BEE HOLES WITH DEMISE FOR FAST LONG LASTING RESULTS

Unfortunately, killing the male bee will do nothing to stop the cycle or control developing bees deep inside their nests. For this treatment you’ll need DEMISE DUST. This material is light and “smokey” so when you puff some up into their nest, you’ll effectively control any active adults in just a few minutes.

All it takes is a few “puffs” per hole; usually 3-4 is plenty. Once dusted, its not uncommon to hear a lot of buzzing followed by some “dust covered” bees falling out of the treated hole.

Demise works mostly as a desiccant by cutting through insects exoskeleton and causing them to loose all their internal water. This leads to rapid dehydration and a quick kill.

Demise will also cover and coat all the chamber walls so when larvae emerge months later, they too will also die.

Lastly, Demise will absorb the pheromones and other scent left by carpenter bees which will help reduce the amount coming around. Reducing the smell can be super important to solving the problem for the long term so dust as many cracks and crevices you can find.

Demise goes a long way. When dusting up under siding, you can get 1500+ sq/ft per lb. When dusting nests and holes, expect to get 50-100 holes per lb. The other great thing about Demise is that when holes are sealed, you won’t have to retreat. But even if you’re using it up under siding, treatments will still last a good 6-9 months so for most people, one treatment in the spring will provide protection for the whole year.

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To apply the Demise, you’ll need a good HAND DUSTER. These work when “squeezed” which will propel the Demise out through the extension tube and into the target site. Most holes will just take 3-4 squirts to get thoroughly dusted; the video below shows how this done using a hand duster.

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HIGH REACHING DUSTERS

If you have a lot of holes to treat, we have several large dusters which will make the task easier to manage.

The first is the DUST-R. This device holds almost a whole pound of Demise and because of it’s unique pump handle design, requires very little effort to treat a hole. For large jobs, it’s a real help. Nests can be treated in a couple of seconds.

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If the holes are out of reach, go with the LONG REACH DUST-R. This is essentially the same device as the Dust-R except it has a series of extensions that lengthen the unit to over 7 feet long. This means the average person standing on the ground can treat nests over 12 feet high without the use of a ladder.

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For really high nests, the DUSTICK is quite capable for the job. This duster is over 20 feet long fully extended and can be used to access nests which are over 25 feet up with little effort. It’s also a great tool for infestations where wood bees are foraging under fascia boards, layered siding like vinyl, cedar or masonite or around vents and shutters. or siding which take forever to treat using a ladder.

The Dustick comes with 4 extensions, a pump handle and the top dust canister. To use it, simply slide the dust canister over an extension and then insert the pump handle into the base of the extension. Next, align the canister tip with the target site and pump the handle. This pump is similar to a bicycle pump and will push air through the extensions so the dust is propelled out. you can use it with one extension, two, three, four or even more if you have nests above 25 feet.

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Add 4 foot extensions as needed.

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The following video shows the Dustick in use:




 

 

WOOD BEE SPRAY

After you dust, let the that treatment sit for 1-2 days and then spray PEST XEMPT EC to stop new holes from being drilled. This product is highly repellent to most any pest including wood bees so they’ll stay away from where its applied.

Mix 2 ounce per gallon of water and expect to get 500-1000 sq/ft of coverage per mixed gallon. Treatments will lasts 2-4 weeks but if you discover bees drilling new holes or focused somewhere on the home, do not hesitate to retreat sooner as needed. Typically 1-2 treatments in the spring will keep them away but in some regions, fall treatments many be required as well.

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Most any SPRAYER can be used to apply the Xempt EC; just make sure you treat from the ground up to the gutters and fascia boards.

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A good HOSE END SPRAYER can usually reach heights over 20 feet since it uses the power of your garden hose which is usually quite good.




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If you need to reach up 35-40 feet or more, our NO PUMP SPRAYER will help big time. It relies on air pressure and can be pumped up to 80-90 psi safely. The small one can hold 1.5 gallons of mixture and when pressurized, will pump out the entire contents with only one time filling it with air. It’s especially helpful when you need to treat trees that are not reachable with a garden hose.

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This video covers all you need to know about the sprayer:




PAINT STAIN ADDITIVE FOR LONG LASTING WOOD BEE PROTECTION

If you’ve had ongoing problems on your home and plan on painting or staining it in the near future, be sure to add some PEST AWAY to your paint/stain the next time you finish your home. Just adding it the paint you plan on using to repair and seal the nests you treat can help as well. Pest Away is an organic insect repellent. Formulated to be used by adding it to any paint or stain, you don’t have to do anything odd or unusual to apply it. And treatments will last 1-2 years adding long term repellency to the exterior coating.

One pint is enough for a 5 gallon of paint or stain. Mix 3 oz per gallon or .75 oz per quart if you’re adding it to smaller containers.

Pest Away can also be sprayed on surfaces like Pest Xempt EC to repel bees. It won’t be as powerful as Pest Xempt EC but if you’re looking for an “organic” option to use as a spray, add 3 oz of Pest Away per gallon of water and spray the mixture over 500-1000 sq/ft of surface siding for 3-4 weeks of repellency.

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