Monday, May 16, 2011

Carpenter Bees

Wood bees, carpenter bees, big bees. No matter how you call them, they are annoying and scary. These bees tend to drill into the wood to lay eggs while the male bee hovers around the hole intimidating anything that comes close. I remember once while I was trimming some trees near my wooden fence a carpenter bee hovering right next to my head, when I turned around there it was scaring the crap out of me. I was on a mission at that point. I bought some wasp spray and stalked these bees, shooting them out of the air. I killed about ten bees. The problem is, the female bees survive in the hole, unless you catch them as they come back from getting food. My next step will be to wait for the season to be over, close to early summer, and spray inside the holes and pack with wood putty. This will help to keep them from coming back next year. I'm not expecting to never see them again, but hopefully it will be less.