The house where my friends are staying (an ‘artist commune’ on Esplanade and Claiborne) has columns on the front porch. One of them had a swarm of bees on it, and another had a few poking around a hole. There were bees there last year too. What happens to a (wooden) structure when bees make a hive in it?
Like, does the honey rot the wood? Attract ants? (Would ants live where bees are?)
If it has a swarm “on” it, then the swarm is probably gone by now. They were just resting there while they scouted out a new home. If they are living inside the structure that means there is a space large enough for them to form a home. Ants do like to hang around hives.
They’re definitely inside of the column. They were there for days, and I’m assuming they’re still there.
Well, that means they have a hive in there and what you are seeing is probably the field bees heading in and out. There won’t be a lot of activity of cold and/or raniy days or at night but on a nice warm day a hive entrance can look like a swarm. Your friends should call a beekeeper to have them removed even if they aren’t being bothered. The hive will eventually die and then they will have a lot of wax and honey in their column to attract pests.
Lamest movie title ever.
Are you using the term “bees” to mean “honey bee” or to mean “any yellow stinging, flying insect”?
If honey bees, then they won’t damage the structure, though you don’t necessarily want them in there. Bees will build their wax structures in there and lay eggs and build up honey reserves. These don’t cause much harm themselves, but can attract other undesirables.
If you’re really talking about some kind of wasp like a yellow jacket, then there could be a bigger problem. Wasps don’t produce wax; they use decomposing wood mixed with saliva to form the structure of their hives. They’ll take this wood from the inside of the columns or from just about any unvarnished source of wood. That represents a source of real damage to the property.
Carpenter bees bore into wood to make nests. They are stocky bees. They look like bumble bees, except they’re mostly black on the back instead of yellow stripes. Bumble bees are peaceful in attitude, but IME carpenter bees are more aggressive if you get near the nest. I’ve seen them in mailbox posts, and I’ve heard postal workers are very wary of them.
You can patch the holes, but they may try to rebore into the same place.
I am neither a bee expert nor a bee.
If you do have carpenter bees, the wood structure is in peril. Those bees chew out impressively large tunnels - I’ve seen as big around as 3/8"
For us, the resolution was to dismantle the pergola that the bees were living in - between normal weather taking its toll on redwood and the bees, the structure was on the verge of collapse.
They’re regular ol’ honey bees. Not carpenter bees.
Johnny, here’s link about removing honeybees, with a good photo of what a wild honeybee colony looks like. From your OP, street address, your friends are in New Orleans, so the honeybees are probably active the better part of the year, and can colonize those columns well.
Tell them to look into Bingo Pajama, from Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins. A good look into age old NOLA pheremones.