What Damage Can Carpenter Bees Cause?

If you have multiple bees boring into the wood of your property, or carpenter bees visiting you year after year, the damage they cause can become significant:

• If these bees tunnel up into a railing on a porch or balcony, it can cause the railing to lose integrity and give way. This can lead to injury.
• If carpenter bees make their nests in steps, it can cause a step to snap. And, like a rail that is not sound, this kind of damage can lead to physical damage.
• When carpenter bees bore their tunnels into support beams, these beams can weaken and cause the larger structure to warp. And, if left untreated, damage done to support beams may cause a collapse to occur. Usually, the evidence of carpenter bees is seen long before the risk of such an occurrence. Carpenter bees often make tunneling to breach the interior of wood. This damage can look like dashes, dots, or trenches. Unlike termites, carpenter bees don’t have to worry about being exposed to the air outside of their tunnels.
• If you see circular holes that are about the size of a nickel, it is likely that you’re looking at the hole of a carpenter bee. This will most often be found underneath structures, or in rafters.

If you’re seeing signs of carpenter bee infestation, let us know. The team here at Active Pest Control is trained in the most advanced pest control methods for dealing with this and other invasive pests. Reach out to us for immediate assistance.

What are carpenter bees?

Carpenter bees are a unique species, even among their own kind. These pests do not live in colonies, and they very rarely sting. In fact, the males do not even have stingers, and the females will only sting when handled or when they feel threatened. But that does not mean that they are not a threat. Before you discover the problems that carpenter bees cause, you should know a bit about them so you can accurately identify them.

Carpenter bees look very similar to bumblebees, who happen to be their cousins. They are very large and have fuzzy, black heads and large black abdomens. The major difference between the two is that bumblebees are fuzzy all over, and carpenter bees are not.

When carpenter bees target a home, they usually target untreated wood. That means decks, porches, outbuildings, sheds, outside steps, fences, and other external structures are their first choice. When carpenter bees make a nest, they prefer to tunnel upwards into wood. These tunnels go up a couple of inches and then take a turn to follow the grain of the wood. This is usually horizontal to the ground.

Carpenter bees don’t attach nests to the side of your home like paper wasps. And they don’t establish their nests in the ground like some yellow jackets do. They create their nests in wood. If they choose the wood of your home, you may find yourself dealing with the unwanted repercussions.

Problems Carpenter Bees Cause

It is important for homeowners to know the signs that carpenter bees are near. The damages they leave are typically the most noticeable warning:

• Holes in untreated wood around your home that are generally around a half-inch in diameter.
• Markings around the holes in a semi-circular pattern resembling a fan.
• Wood shavings gathered on the ground near the holes.
• Scratching sounds coming from inside the wood.

Understandably, these damages are enough of a reason to keep carpenter bees from choosing your home as their nesting site, but it gets worse. Much worse! As the larvae grow and move around inside the chambers that the mother bee has made inside the wood, they make noise. You probably will be unaware of this wrestling, but woodpeckers are not. And it just so happens that woodpeckers love to feast on carpenter bee larvae. Those holes that the carpenter bee made are going to seem inconsequential once the woodpeckers are done pecking and feasting. Repairing this extensive damage can be costly.

Let the Pros Handle Bee Infestations

The best way to protect your property from the damage that carpenter bees and the pests that feast on them can cause is with help from the pest professionals here at Active Pest Control. Our pest control experts can treat and control carpenter bees on your property and eliminate the risk to your home and your wallet.

To learn more about our effective solutions for carpenter bees or any of our other industry-leading pest protection services, give us a call today.