It seems carpenter bees have been extremely destructive this year over previous. What can Freedom Fencing of Ga do to help?
What are Carpenter Bees?
Carpenter bees are bees that most dread to see and constantly work to destroy. They get their name from the fact that they drill holes into wood to use as their home. They can be found in large numbers and they can cause considerable damage over time.
Are Carprenter bees beneficial?
As much as these bees can be a nuisance, they are very beneficial to the environment as they, like their cousins, are great pollinators. The US, and the world as a whole, has seen a steep decline in the bee population and this is causing growing concerns to the effects this will have on the environment as bees take the number one position in the world of pollinators.
Are Carpenter bees dangerous to my pets and children?
As with most animals, if you challenge carpenter bees or threaten them they will fight back. There is a fun fact about carpenter bees however. Male carpenter bees, as pictured above, have a large white dot on the head. These bees do no possess stingers and therefor cannot hurt your pets and children. The white dot is very noticeable stands out well. If this dot is missing, I would not go catching the bee with your bear hands.
Carpenter bees are not aggressive and tend to mind their own business. I was recently treating for carpenter bees at a client's fence and was working to get a bee to leave it's home. After beating on the fence rail, shooting water, etc... I was still unable to get the bee to exit. This is not to say that carpenter bees may not be intimidating. These bees are known to fly close and hover at eye level. Again, as long as you leave them alone and don't try to attack, they typically will move on and continue the work they were performing.
What does Carpenter bee damage look like?
Below I have a few photos of the type of damage we typically see here in North Metro Ga from Carpenter bees.
Damage typically looks like someone has drilled a perfect hole into your wood structure. Sometimes you will find essentially saw dust either stuck to the structure coming out of the hole or below the hole on a surface below. Inside the wood structure, the bee burrows out a space large enough for it's larvae to grow in safety.
OK, so what can we do about them?
There are many avenues of going about ridding these insects from your wood structures. There are home remedies such as spraying citrus oil into the holes, plugging the holes with caulk, placing out carpenter bee traps which can easily be found at your local big box hardware stores or made yourself... but all of these are detrimental to the bee itself. Traps, caulk, citrus oils, etc... are all deadly to the carpenter bee. As annoying and destructive as these guys can be, we need to keep in mind the greater good that these flying insects have.
Hold off on the carpenter bee traps!!
Fortunately we have a new avenue to prevent and discourage the carpenter bees while helping to conserve the numbers of pollinators we so desperately need. 100% Pure Citronella Oil.
Our stain supplier, Expert Stain and Seal, provides amazing products and stains that we highly recommend to our clients. They just recently came out with a new product that is 100% concentrated citronella oil.
This is a naturally occurring oil that is safe for the environment and not only repels carpenter bees but other insects as well to include spiders nesting in your corners.
The product can be incorporated into your stain prior to application or applied after the fact as we did for the fence pictured above. This fence was stained with Expert Stain and Seal Chestnut. After being stained, the client noticed carpenter bees were eating through her new, freshly stained fence, and was looking for solutions. We returned and applied this penetrating citronella oil to the fence which will help to eliminate the carpenter bee damage while keeping them healthy and safe.
BE WARNED! This is a very concentrated oil that does come with the typical citronella smell. It has been reported that the smell sticks around for about 5 days and then dissipates. A small price to pay.
Where do I find this 100% Citronella Oil?
Freedom Fencing of Ga is happy to assist you with applying this product to your home, fence, deck... any wood/outdoor surface. We have even applied to soffits to help keep the amount of spiders and moths from gathering around client's homes.
If you are more of a DIY kind of person, then feel free to head over to...
If you have any questions or concerns, the amazing team at Stain and Seal Experts is always more than willing to answer any questions or concerns about their products. We too can help with any questions or concerns you may have as well as set an appointment to come out and help protect our outdoor investments.
Feel free to give us a call at
470-227-0762