We moved in last spring to our newly renovated house. One of the features that we did was to put in a two story wrap around porch around the front of the house. We love this deck and it makes the house really have character. However last summer I noticed this one spot where a little pile of sawdust looking stuff would pile up every once in a while. I didn’t think much of it mostly because I had so many other things to do in the new house. But this spring I’ve noticed 4 or 5 of these little piles and have come to the conclusion that something is eating my deck. I thought the whole reason to use pressure treated lumber was because not only does it resist rot, but insects wouldn’t eat it. Turns out this is not so much true. There is a hole right above the little piles, but I don’t notice anything crawling in and out regularly. And I’m not all that fond of bugs, so I’m not sticking my fingers inside to see if anything bites me.
Any ideas about what is eating my deck? And more importantly how I go about killing it?
And since I’m asking, any good products that I can spray around my (fairly large) yard that will kill most bugs? I’d sure like to enjoy my backyard without getting divebombed.
Carpenter bees leave holes that look like they were bored with fine instruments and leave behind little piles of sawdust. I think we have an example of someone begging the question, because carpenter bees do not eat the wood. Further, more begging of the question, because they can actually co-exist with you and only use a few holes.
Your best bet is to google ‘controlling carpenter bees’, because they are many options and all must be considered by the owner. Natural stuff…issues with toxicity…the do-nothing approach. Read over the recommendations and find out what suits you. Your health, the environments health and your budget will come into play.
There are century old buildings with old carpenter bee activity. They don’t destroy like carpenter ants or termites.
Carpenter bees it is. Thank you. As for co-existing with them I might have considered that except for the fact that I had one hole last year, and 4 or 5 this year. No way am I going to let them keep multiplying.
And my appologies for the imprecise term I used. On reading, it’s evident that they’re not actually eating the wood…just destroying it. Doesn’t really make that much of a difference in my opinion.
Apropos of nothing, I learned yesterday from Wikipedia how carpenter bees make their holes. Apparently, they set their whole bodies to buzzing, and their mandibles grate against the wood and rasp out a hole.
They don’t make honey. They are generally solitary, but sometimes gregarious, bees often mistaken for bumblebees. The males don’t have stingers; the females do, but aren’t aggressive. As noted, they drill holes in wood to serve as nests.
They don’t really do much structural damage, unless ignored for a really long time. The hole goes in a short way, and then turns 90 degrees and runs parallel to the surface of the wood. Wait for the bees to vacate, if you like, and fill it with wood putty. We’ve discussed carpenter bees a bunch of times before. Search for the old threads.
I’ve got “begging the question” on the brain after reading posts in a thread on this particular phrase which has taken on a life of its own this week.
People use it to mean two different things, and this doesn’t seem to be either one of them. What is the example of begging the question that you mean here? I think the OP may have jumped to a conclusion but I don’t see anybody begging the question here.
When I was a kid, my best friend’s dad said that the big, black bees that had a “yellow block in it’s mouth” don’t sting. We found some of them, and eventually worked up the courage to handled one. Sure enough, it didn’t sting. We used to tie thread to their legs, and use them as flying brooches. A big hit at kid’s birthday parties.
We had a pergola partially collapse here - it was just riddled with carpenter bees. Pretty cool though to see where the wood had split and how they’d munch their way in, then turn and run almost perfectly straight tunnels along the wood’s edge.
Definitely not the sort of hidden damage I’d want in a deck or other life and limb -supporting structure.
How loud did you scream when you read Carpenter Bees were the culprit?
While they may be relatively harmless, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard any other insect sound so pissed off just flying around. They do make a fearsome racket.
The carpenter bee you encounter is probably the male. They may act aggressively, but can’t sting, like the males of all bee species. Since the carpenter bees don’t form social colonies, the female excavates the nest, and the male pulls guard duty, trying to scare off potential intruders. It’s bluffing. The female’s sting is supposedly fairly mild compared to other bee and wasp species, even though these are large bees. In one of the previous threads somebody had a story about their cat coming into the house with a bee in its mouth, buzzing.
I think the type of structure should be taken into consideration. A cantelevered deck is not something that will support a lot of bee activity (pun intended). These bees are capable of branching out an old hole and tunneling a foot into the wood. When they hit my garage during construction there were holes all along the facia board. If I hadn’t covered it With siding they would have turned it iinto swiss cheese.
I fired some of that bee and wasp killer stuff at a carpenter bee once, the kind that puts out a really powerful concentrated spray that shoots 10 or 15 feet, and I scored a partial hit. Not the full force of the spray, but some of it hit its target. The bee instantly flew nearly straight up, toward the top of a large blue spruce, and I could follow his flight and watch his body diminish in size until it was just a point. Then it started getting bigger again. He was coming back, and he was pissed. I began to think about running or looking for a weapon, then he crashed into the concrete patio at my feet, DOA.
I think the OP may have jumped to a conclusion but I don’t see anybody begging the question here.