How to stop carpenter bees
8 Simple Ways to Prevent Carpenter Bees from Moving In
The sun is out; the flowers are blooming; the bees are buzzing — spring is finally here! However, sometimes the buzz of bees is not always a welcome sound, especially when you start to notice nickel-sized holes in your house or patio furniture.
These holes are likely caused by carpenter bees, appropriately named for their habit of drilling holes in wood. Unlike mason and leafcutter bees, which use existing holes to lay their eggs and don't cause damage to the structures they live in, carpenter bees are wood-boring insects that can cause moderate damage. It's important to note that carpenter bees do not eat wood like termites or carpenter ants. However, when they drill holes for their nests, problems like water retention, decay, and rot can occur if left unchecked for multiple years.
If carpenter bees have decided to call your home their home, it can be tempting to use insecticides to kill the bees, but we strongly urge you to try less harmful techniques before reaching for the chemicals. Why? First, carpenter bees are incredibly effective buzz pollinators. Second, insecticide use for carpenter bees can also harm other local pollinators—like mason and leafcutter bees (among others)!
Learn how pesticides can move from yard to yard in our The Importance of a Pesticide-Free Yard article.
Many of our bee raisers have asked us what they can do to prevent carpenter bees from moving into their houses, decks, and lawn furniture without harming other resident pollinators. Which we thought was a great (and timely) question to answer in this month's bee blog post!
But, before we jump into how to safely stop carpenter bees from nesting where you'd rather they didn't, we want to take a minute to make sure you know how to identify carpenter bees from the other buzz pollinators in your yard and garden.
Identifying Carpenter Bees and Signs of an Infestation
Carpenter bees are the largest native bee species in the United States. They are typically all black, or black and yellow, and are frequently seen in spring hovering around the eaves of a house or the underside of a deck—the ones around my house routinely bump into our windows each morning to announce their presence.
Carpenter bees are often mistaken for bumble bees, but an easy way to tell the difference is that carpenter bees have shiny black abdomens, whereas bumble bees have hairy abdomens. Don't be afraid of their large size or seemingly aggressive nature! Males, which have white stripes on their faces, do not have stingers, and while females can sting, they are unlikely to do so unless you're handling them or sticking your fingers inside their nests (which we don't recommend).
Remember, just because you have carpenter bees flying around your yard and house doesn't necessarily mean they're drilling holes in your home. A few things to look (and listen) for:
- Deep, nickel-sized holes perfectly drilled into wood;
- Wood shavings or sawdust in and around the hole;
- Carpenter bee poop may appear as yellowish-brown staining on the wood beneath the hole;
- If you listen closely, you may be able to hear faint chewing sounds inside the wood;
- Males will often hover outside the nesting hole while the female is working inside.
Bee-Friendly Remedies - How to Deter Carpenter Bees?
Prevention is the primary approach to managing carpenter bees! Typical carpenter bee nesting sites include eaves, rafters, fascia boards, siding, wooden shingles, decks, and patio furniture.
Prevention Techniques
- Carpenter bees prefer weathered wood, especially softwood such as redwood, cedar, cypress, and pine. If possible, use hardwoods to construct exterior areas susceptible to carpenter bee nests. Carpenter bees typically avoid hardwoods for nest building.
- Carpenter bees prefer unpainted wood. Paint, varnish, or pressure-treat exterior wood regularly to reduce weathering and deter bees from nesting.
- While carpenter bees are capable of building their nests from scratch, they can be opportunists and use existing cracks and depressions as starter holes. Fill any pits and gaps in wood surfaces so they are less attractive to bees.
- Provide homes specifically for carpenter bees.
Do this by placing a few scrap blocks of wood around your yard. Some sources recommend providing large nesting holes or pre-drilling wood blocks for the carpenter bees. We're not saying this tactic won't work, but carpenter bees have evolved to be wood-boring bees, so we prefer giving them wood to drill their own nesting holes. This method keeps the bees around to help pollinate your yard and garden!
- If you find any unoccupied holes, you can fill them with steel wool and caulk to prevent their reuse. Wait until the new bees have emerged before filling the tunnels. Waiting allows your garden to reap the benefits of these fantastic pollinators—the damage is already done after all. Once filled, paint or varnish the repaired surfaces.
- Carpenter bees (and other social wasps) will avoid nesting in the same area as wasps. Try building a fake wasp nest. Inflate a paper bag, cinch the end closed, and hang the paper bag under the eave of your house. While this technique deters carpenter bees from building new nests, it will not cause them to leave existing nests.
- Almond oil and citrus oil are carpenter bee repellents. A good way to deter females from nesting is to spray a layer of almond oil/water mixture on any susceptible areas. Do this a few times throughout the spring to discourage bees from nesting. If bees have already taken up residence, you can apply a bit of oil directly to the nesting holes.
- Another strategy to encourage female carpenter bees to relocate is playing music or hanging a wind chime near the nest. The sounds and vibrations are disruptive to the bees and may inspire them to nest elsewhere after a few days of consistent noise.
We hope this post helps give you a few bee-friendly ideas to help prevent carpenter bees from becoming a nuisance! Remember, they are native, beneficial pollinators, and most of the time, we can avoid damage to our homes and furniture by using the preventive measures described above. Trust us, the other pollinators in your yard and garden will thank you for trying these non-chemical options first!
To stay up-to-date on bee-raising tips and reminders, events, pollinator research, and sustainability insights, sign up for our monthly BeeMail newsletter and follow us on social media!
Apr 11th 2022 Kim Stevens
How to Stop Carpenter Bees from Destroying Your Wood Structures
XylocopaAh, springtime!
Don’t you just love the glorious profusion of new life as gardens and landscapes wake up from their long sleep? The days get longer, flowers and trees blossom, and birds, butterflies, and cute critters return from their winter respite.
And, oh yes… so do the pests.
Pests like carpenter bees. With their giveaway, dime-sized holes that they chew in your wooden structures to build nests.
We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission.
Now, it’s hard to get mad at these little insects, because they’re important pollinators. They’re docile as can be, and rarely sting, doing so only when forced to. In fact, the males don’t even have stingers – although they put on a good show of buzzing intruders.
But they do like to nest in dead wood. And structural components like beams, eaves, posts, and siding are all fair game.
To be fair, they don’t actually eat the wood and won’t devour a building like carpenter ants or termites do. And damage is usually minor and cosmetic in nature. But if left unchecked, over time the damage can worsen and lead to more serious problems such as decay, moisture retention, and rot.
So, if you think carpenter bees have set up shop in your shop, please read on.
We have everything you need to identify a possible infestation and how to be rid of it – naturally if possible, but we dish on chemical warfare too!
- Identification and Biology
- Predators
- Nesting and Favored Habitats
- How to Identify Nesting Sites
- Organic and Chemical Control Methods
- Bee Hotels
- Citrus Oil
- Dress Exposed Wood
- Fill Abandoned Holes
- Hang a Decoy Wasp Nest
- Lay a Trap
- Turn Up the Tunes
- Use a Tennis Racket
- Insecticide Spray
- Carburetor Cleaner and WD40
- Petroleum
Identification and Biology
Carpenter, or borer bees, are in the genus Xylocopa of the Apidae family, with hundreds of species in several subgenera found around the world.
They’re aptly named for their nesting behavior of burrowing into dead wood to establish tunnels in order to lay eggs.
Featuring short mouthparts, carpenters are important pollinators on open-faced or shallow flowers and those that form lids. And for some species, like the maypop (Passiflora incarnata) and sea rose (Orphium frutescens), they’re the only pollinator.
Naturally docile, males don’t have stingers – although they will hover close to animals and people that approach nest sites. And the females only sting when aggressively provoked or handled.
Xylocopa are most active in the period of mid-late spring to early summer when they’re looking for suitable mates and nesting sites.
Measuring 1/2 to 1 inch in length, there are numerous variations to their colorings, many with black and yellow or black and orange markings. They have shiny, smooth abdomens, black in color with females often displaying metallic tones.
And there are some that have iridescent wings, as well as species with bright blue or chartreuse body hair.
Unlike many species that live in large colonies, carpenters are not social insects.
After mating, males will stick around to protect the nest. But it’s a solitary female that constructs the nest, forming long tunnels into which she lays the eggs.
Once laid, eggs go through another two stages of development, larva and pupa, before they emerge as adults approximately seven weeks later.
In several species, females may live near their own daughters or sisters, creating a small family social group.
Many species are similar in size and shape to bumblebees, and the two are often confused. And they’re often misidentified as ground-burrowing species as well.
Predators
Natural predators include badgers, mantises, predatory flies, and some birds such as bee-eaters, shrikes, and woodpeckers.
Unfortunately, woodpeckers will cause more damage by drilling into the wood beside nests to get at the grubs.
Nesting and Favored Habitats
Carpenter bees don’t actually eat wood. The females bore holes by using their mandibles as a rasp against the wood while vigorously vibrating their bodies.
Each nest features a single entrance that usually spreads to connecting tunnels, called cells – these are the nurseries where eggs are deposited. A new gallery measures around 4-6 inches in length, but those reused over several years can be 10 feet long!
Their favorite building material is soft, unpainted, and aged wood, although there are species that prefer hard woods.
And any wooden structure is suitable. Arbors, decks, eaves, fascia boards, gates, patio furniture, pergolas, porch ceilings, posts, siding, and window trim are all suitable sites.
Once the cell is ready, the mother provisions each one with a platform of pollen and nectar, called a pollen loaf, upon which a single egg is laid. She then partitions the cell with a wall of chewed wood pulp. Larvae will feed on the pollen loaf until they emerge from the nest.
Adult carpenters will often overwinter in their original tunnels or find abandoned ones, which they stock with pollen to survive the cold. The ones that survive the winter will emerge in spring to mate, with both the males and females dying after mating and laying eggs.
How to Identify Nesting Sites
The most obvious signs of an infestation are the round, half-inch holes that carpenters bore into wood as an entry point.
And if you spot several males hovering in one spot, it’s a good indication that a female, and her nest, are usually nearby.
In addition to the entry holes, there may also be a small pile of fresh sawdust outside the hole, scraping sounds from within the wood, or a fan-shaped stain below the opening.
Organic and Chemical Control Methods
Here are a few natural methods to make your home less attractive as a nesting site:
1. Bee Hotels
Hotels are constructed of removable bamboo, paper, or wood tubes housed in a small frame.
Typically used to provide nesting sites for garden-friendly pollinators like mason bees, hotels may provide an alternate site for females looking to nest.
JCs Wildlife Small Poly Lumber Bee House
This well-designed hotel that’s available on Amazon is a popular one, with a tough poly frame and charred pine burrows.
2. Citrus Oil
Citrus oil is a safe, natural repellent that carpenter bees dislike, and you can easily make your own at home.
Cut up a selection of peels from a variety of citrus fruits, place in a pan, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, allow to cool, then strain and pour the water into a spray bottle.
Douse the nest with your spray and reapply until all the females have relocated, then repair and paint the wood as described in the next tip.
I haven’t tried citrus oil for insects, but it is my personal favorite to prevent deer from grazing in the garden.
And it repels rodents as well.
Pure Cold Pressed Orange Oil Concentrate, 32 oz. (D-Limonene)
If you’re not inclined to make your own spray, you can pick some up online. Like this one-quart bottle of orange oil available on Amazon – it has 80-95 percent D-limonene, the active ingredient in citrus oils.
3. Dress Exposed Wood
It’s easier to be proactive in discouraging carpenters than it is to react to their destructive burrowing.
To dissuade them from starting nests, paint all exposed surfaces with a primer and two coats of exterior paint. Stains and varnishes also offer some protection but are less effective than paint.
Before you paint, fill all cracks, nail holes, and splinters with caulk, putty, or wood filler as any existing damage provides an appealing point to start a nest.
4. Fill Abandoned Holes
As overwintering adults emerge in spring and new ones come out in late summer, stuff the entrances with caulk, a dowel, wadded aluminum foil, spray foam insulation, or steel wool.
Smooth the surface and paint as outlined above.
5. Hang a Decoy Wasp Nest
Carpenter bees will avoid nesting in the same area as wasps.
To mimic the shape and size of a wasp nest, stuff a brown paper bag with lightweight material such as moss, paper, or plastic bags. Tie off the open end with a length of string and hang it in the area you want to protect.
Keep in mind that this only works to deter them from building new nests – it won’t keep insects away from an existing nest in the area.
Waspinator, Set of 3
You can pick up a 3-pack of decoy wasp nests now on Amazon.
6. Lay a Trap
An easy method to get rid of your infestation is to place a trap near the nest.
A trap consists of a wooden top with angled holes drilled into it and a plastic container or jar attached to the bottom.
Because of the angle of the holes, the only light source comes from the bottom. The bees enter the hole, head for the light in the jar, then can’t get back out.
Traps should be located directly above an active nest. It may take a while for the trap to work, but once one or two have entered and released pheromones, others will be attracted to the site as well.
Original B Brothers-Carpenter Bee Trap
If you’re handy with woodworking, you can make your own. Or you can pick them up at pest control and garden shops or online – like these from Original B Brothers, available on Amazon.
7. Turn Up the Tunes
It turns out that bees communicate through vibroacoustics, and they can “hear” low frequency sounds of up to 500 Hz.
This makes them sensitive to vibrations, and they can be encouraged to vacate nests by playing loud music close by.
Choose music with a deep, reverberating bass line (a bass guitar has low frequencies) and place the speaker right against the wall beside their location – then crank up the volume!
Once the females have vacated, plug the hole and paint.
8. Use a Tennis Racket
In the spring when bees are most actively seeking nesting sites, you can dispatch flying critters with a good backhand.
Use an old badminton, tennis, or squash racket and patrol on a sunny day, giving a smack to those eyeing up your wood.
9. Insecticide Spray
Deterring carpenters with natural solutions is the preferred method, but if you must pull out the big guns, here’s our first suggestion:
Products like flying insect sprays will kill the queen and her eggs.
Use a liquid or aerosol product with an extension tube and apply directly into the hole. Application should be done at night while they’re resting, or in early spring before they emerge from hibernation.
If you choose this method, always read and follow label instructions and wear protective gear as needed.
10. Carburetor Cleaner and WD40
An alternative to insecticides is to use an aerosol such as carburetor cleaner or WD40.
These petroleum-based products will effectively kill any insects. Use a spray with an extension tube to get into the tunnels.
11. Petroleum
A little gasoline in a spray bottle can be an effective homemade insecticide as well.
Spray the entrance regularly until there’s no more activity.
This is a technique likely used by your grandparents in the past. We don’t recommend it and would choose another method. It may not even be (bee?) legal with the stricter environmental laws that are in place today in many areas.
Of course, petroleum and petroleum-based products are highly flammable and should never be used near an open flame or an ignition source. When finished, be sure to label your spray bottle to avoid accidental misuse, and don’t store in the house or in high temperature environments such as outbuildings without air conditions.
We are not responsible for accidents or Darwin Award winners. Use at your own risk!
With all chemical applications, avoid getting the products on your skin or inhaling the fumes.
Wear eye protection, a respirator, and gloves when applying chemical products.
Buzz Off!
With a little seasonal maintenance of your wooden structures, you can do a lot to prevent carpenter bee infestations.
Keep up a regime of repairing any damaged wooden surfaces, repair holes on a regular basis, and paint surfaces.
If you do have an existing infestation, try one of the solutions above or hire a pest control expert to do it for you.
But please remember that these are gentle little creatures performing a vital service for our well-being! If possible, lure them out and tell them to buzz off before resorting to killing them.
Do you folks have any favorite solutions for getting rid of these flying insects? Shoot us a line in the comments below. And be sure to check our guides on garden diseases and insects for other pest solutions, or buzz on over to these articles to increase your knowledge:
- Integrated Pest Management: What Is It, and How to Use It?
- 23 Beneficial Insects and Other Creepy Crawlies That Your Garden Will Love
- Extend the Season and Keep Pests Out with Floating Row Covers
© Ask the Experts, LLC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for more details. Product photos via JCs Wildlife, EcoClean Solutions Inc., Tanglefoot, Mac’s LLC, Elucto. Uncredited photos: Shutterstock.
how to get rid of tree wasps
Home » Pests » Insects in the apartment and in the house
Insects in the apartment and in the house
Author Arina Lerner Reading 5 min. Posted by
Carpenter bees, commonly called tree bees, are not the nicest neighbors. They appear in the house in late spring and scare your household with aggressive behavior. Such bees can easily destroy a house or agricultural buildings. In addition to their aggressive nature, these insects have a genetic memory that makes them return to the places of the previous generations settlement again and again. That is why it is possible and necessary to get rid of these pests in the shortest possible time. To fight, you can use: baits, traps, sprays, putty, but the most effective way to fight is trapping.
nine0003 Carpenter bees are extremely dangerous, so you should get rid of them immediately. Preventive measures
Insects are solitary, so the methods of trapping carpenters' bees with any traps are most effective. Before proceeding with the destruction of wasps, you need to know a few facts about them and why they are dangerous:
- Like all insects, tree wasps bite. Only female wasps bite, males do not have any organs for this. Females hide inside the nest and rarely go outside, so if there is a chance of being bitten, then it is minimal. If you are bitten by a female carpenter bee, then you need to urgently seek help from a specialist, as their venom is very toxic. Such bites are most dangerous for people prone to allergic reactions to bee venom.
- Carpenter wasps or tree bees are very dangerous to your farm buildings. They are capable of destroying structures of any size by burrowing wide tunnels through them.
Bees are able to completely destroy even a thick layer of wood in a few years. nine0016 - Wood wasps are also very attractive to woodpeckers. The smell of their larvae attracts birds and they can detect them from several kilometers away, flocking to the habitat of the wasps. Trying to get the larvae, woodpeckers additionally destroy the structure of the tree, destroying the structure.
- Carpenter bees have a good reproductive function. One adult female carpenter is capable of reproducing up to 6 individuals of wasps during the warm period. Therefore, measures to destroy these pests should be taken as soon as possible. nine0016
Active control measures
In addition to the use of specialized traps to catch single carpenter bees, local remedies can be used to get rid of annoying insects:
- Specialized pesticides. Wasps do not tolerate exposure to powdered pesticides, so their use is quite effective for ruining active wasp nests.
You can use boric acid or carbaryl. nine0016 - If, for any reason, pesticides are not available to you, then use a recipe that has been proven over the years. It is necessary to fill all the moves in the wasp hive with gasoline or diesel fuel. Such a tool will easily help get rid of bees and their larvae, but you should be careful when working with gasoline. When working with diesel fuel or gasoline, you need to use personal protective equipment, wear a respirator and protective gloves. It is best to use a sprayer that is capable of making an aerosol out of liquid. nine0016
- If you have an aerosol cleaner for cars with a carburetor on hand, this product is used to get rid of in a gentle way. This product is sold in aerosol cans, with an extended tube for better access to remote places, which will help you pour liquid into all the moves of the carpenters' active hive. You need to be very careful when working with this type of liquid, make sure that particles of the substance get on your face and eyes.
- The carpenter is very sensitive to noise, so you can get rid of them with a loud sound. If you find a nest of bees in your garden, then take the audio system outside and turn up the music louder. The bees will not be able to calmly endure the vibration near their home and will leave the house as soon as possible. nine0016
- An effective method for carpenters to fight bees is a regular tennis racket, which will help knock down the bees and you can crush them.
Insect Prevention
If you have carpenter bees in your yard, getting rid of them once can't guarantee they won't reappear.
In order to prevent the bees from reappearing, it is necessary to use preventive measures for reappearance:
- After you have destroyed the bee nest, plug all holes with mineral wool, steel wool, or fill the hole with polyurethane foam. All these means belong to a series of sealing, after which the bees will not be able to re-enter the dwellings, and those remaining in it will die.
- Experienced gardeners know that carpenter bees do not attack wood exterior surfaces treated with paint products. Bees are more attracted to untreated wood. Therefore, try to paint all the raw areas of your wooden buildings with varnish or paint. nine0016
- The use of citrus spray as a prophylactic is an effective method of combating the reappearance of bees. Such citrus-based products can be purchased at specialized garden stores, or you can make your own. It is poured into the passages of carpenter bees, insects die, and the genetic code of the insect reflects information that it is unsafe to settle in this place.
In order to effectively stop the reproduction of new offspring of insects, it is necessary to kill the larvae that the insects have laid in the house. nine0003
Therefore, to eliminate them it is necessary:
- Use insecticidal powders. It is this consistency of the poisonous substance that can not be absorbed into the wood for a long time, and not lose effectiveness until the delayed larvae hatch.
- After you have applied the powder killer, do not seal the passages and exits of the hive. The hatched larvae will make new holes in search of a way out, where they can escape the strong insecticide. nine0076 After all the carpenter bees and wasp larvae have left the nest, or have been destroyed, close the insect passages.
By following all the measures to get rid of wasps, and using prevention tips, you can effectively get rid of the invasion of such pests and protect your home from their destructive effects.
- About the author
- Recent publications0001
Contents:
- Common carpenter bee
- Description of lifestyle and habitat
- Are they dangerous to humans
- Common carpenter bee
- Preventive measures
Seeing a strange insect in your own garden, especially not in a single copy, it is better to learn more about it in order to be sure of its harmlessness or danger to people.
Recently, these include the carpenter bee, which is also known as the blue bee. nine0003
Common carpenter bee
The insect belongs to the Apidae family and is a solitary bee species. This particular species has relatively large dimensions - the body length reaches a maximum of 3 cm. In the common people, a carpenter bee is called a xylokop or tree nest. In total, there are more than 500 species that unite 30 breeds. Outwardly, most of them differ only in shades.
Individuals living in Russia are more like hairy flies with a black body and beautiful wings that shimmer with a blue-violet or blue sheen. nine0003
Carpenter bee
Habitat and lifestyle description
The wood bee gets its name from making honeycomb nests in dead wood by cutting through multi-level nests with multiple cells in each of which a larva will develop.
During "construction work" it makes such sounds as if a modern drill is working. Sounds can be heard within a radius of several meters.
The entrance to the monastery is always perfectly round and alone, as if it had been drilled through with a drill. nine0003
Since the nest is built for the future generation, the bee's children can also use it, but this is not necessary. As a rule, only a couple of individuals remain, or even one when the queen dies. Creating housing is one of their main instincts.
Making a nest
There are carpenter bees all over the Earth, but most of them settled in the central and western parts of Europe, in the Caucasus. In Russia, solitary insects are found in the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, the Central Black Earth Region, the Volga region and other places where climatic conditions are similar. nine0003
Due to the fact that the blue bee's favorite nesting place is dead wood, it is most often found in summer cottages, near parks, forests and groves. Fences, old telegraph poles, and other buildings made of this material are an ideal haven for her.
When choosing a place, the location of the food source plays a big role, but carpenter bees can fly many kilometers in search of food.
Important! The main activity of insects of this species falls on the period from May to September, in rare cases October, if the autumn is warm enough. nine0003
The diet is no different from the diet of ordinary bees: plant pollen, sweet fruits, etc. Collecting pollen, she smears it with her saliva and dilutes it with nectar stored in honey crops. Thanks to this, during a long flight, the collected does not crumble.
Bee saliva contains special microbes that instantly start the fermentation process and turn the product into bee bread. They are fed by adults and only emerging larvae. But for the latter, the bees turn the substance into protein-rich royal jelly. nine0003
Are they dangerous to humans? The poison injected into the wound immediately provokes a large edema, which hurts for a long time and severely. The active substance has a depressant effect on the central nervous system and often a nervous shock occurs. If she stings in the throat, it is fatal.
Bee venom causes large swelling
Black bee
When planning to start getting rid of these insects, you should know a few important facts about them:
- Stinging is definitely dangerous, but only females sting. Males do not have the necessary organ for this. Representatives of this species mostly hide in the nest and do not go outside, so the chance of being stung is minimal. If this happens, you should immediately consult a doctor.
- Wood bees, or carpenter wasps, as many of them are also called, are very dangerous for wooden buildings, because they violate the integrity of the array structure, gnawing entire mines inside. In a few years, a building with at least two nests can collapse. nine0016
- Woodpeckers love to eat them. Therefore, when you see a busy bird, you need to scare it away. The smell of carpenter bee larvae attracts them from several kilometers away. In an attempt to get a treat, the birds gouge out even bigger holes.
- Blue-blue bees have a good reproductive function.
One sexually mature female reproduces up to 6 larvae during 1 warm period.
These insects are listed in the Red Book, therefore it is forbidden to systematically destroy them, but tolerating dangerous neighbors is also not a worthy alternative. nine0003
How to get rid of wood bees in the wall of a wooden house with a gentle method
Central Russian bee
Few disinfection services will contact black bees, as it is illegal. Therefore, the question of how to get rid of tree bees on your own is of particular relevance. Given the circumstances, the only way to get rid of insects is with sound vibrations.
The lumberjack bee is very sensitive to noise. It is enough to turn on loud music next to the proposed housing. Preferably a composition with low frequencies - high-quality bass. Blue bees will leave their wooden house on their own. nine0003
Drive out the bees with low frequency music
There is a more aggressive but effective method.
Blue-blue bee remedy
How to deal with tree bees if the noise did not help?
The easiest way to keep these insects out of your home is with sticky fly traps. But it is effective for single capture.
In addition, there are other means:
- If the pests are very annoying and pose a real danger to the health of the household, one of their generation can be sacrificed to ensure that they are not in the old holes forever. To do this, fill the entire socket through the main passage with an aerosol carburetor cleaner or banal gasoline. At the same time, it is worth remembering safety measures with such toxic substances, especially when it comes to working with wood. nine0016
- Specialty pesticides, especially powdered pesticides, are quite effective in destroying dwellings. Most often, boric acid or carbaryl is used.
Important! Individuals themselves are not aggressive. If the carpenter wasp does not feel a threat to its life and the integrity of the "house", it will not attack.
Preventive measures
Having got rid of carpenter wasps once, no one can guarantee that they will no longer appear in the house or building where they lived before. nine0003
Bee leaf cutter
To do this, you need to perform certain manipulations:
- After destroying the nest, you need to fill everything with mineral wool, steel wool or mounting foam. All these materials are sealing, and the insects will not be able to return to the monastery, and the rest will definitely die.
- Experienced gardeners claim that tree wasps do not settle on buildings treated with paints and varnishes. Therefore, this is the most reliable way to prevent the formation of nests, and hence the accumulation of bees. nine0016
- You can also use citrus wood spray to keep pests from coming back. The tool can be purchased at a special store or do it yourself. Most of the bees die from it, and the survivors leave danger in the territory in the genetic code, and their descendants will not settle in the same place.
Method of preparation: crush orange, lemon, lime, grapefruit peels and boil for some time in a shallow container, filling with water. After cooling, strain and place in an aerosol spray. It is worth spraying the entrances to the abode of bees. nine0003
Also, all predatory insects do not tolerate citrus oil. Almond oil and essence also cope with this task.
In addition to all of the above, the following must be taken into account:
- To stop reproduction, only powder pesticides will have to be used, since liquid pesticides are absorbed by the wood and do not have the desired effect. Falling asleep, in no case should you seal the entrance, otherwise the pests will turn out new ones and will be able to avoid the action of the poison. This can only be done if there is absolute certainty that adults have left the housing. nine0016
- If the bees have just arrived on the site and have not yet built a large nest, they can be caught with common flying insect baits that like sweet scents.
