Infestation

Today, I am dealing with an infestation. I have been researching bees, because all of a sudden there has been a swarm of them around my porch, and I am actually a little scared of them. They look like bumble bees, only darker with hints of greenish yellow, and after some careful research I have realized they are carpenter bees. Now this is the first time that I have come across carpenter bees, and am somewhat pissed that this is going on because as I look up to the roof where I can see them burrow, I see three or four holes where they are simply re-colonizing. I am going to be calling my landlord to take care of it, but if anyone else would like to know how to know you have carpenter bees and how to take care of them, here is a little tip from me.

About the Carpenter bee:

The males which are the most active outside the hive don't sting (Yay!) However, females do and if bothered they will come out and sting. They look almost exactly like a bumble bee, except they have more black on them, and hardly any yellow. They don't "chew" the wood, they simply vibrate their bodies and "drill" through making almost perfectly circular holes. They are lazy and would rather use old nest and re-colonize. Woodpeckers love them, and a woodpecker on the side of your house hammering away for days at a time might be a sure sign that you have an infestation. They don't like noise, so playing music, constant running children, and highway noise are a nice deterrent.

So knowing some of this, here is how I found out I had carpenter bees.
I followed the bees activity and took a pictures of them on my trees to get a better look at what they were. There were a few that fought all the time in front of my proch and would seemingly run from me as I left to fill the bird feeders, so it was more of a nuisance than a dangerous situation. I did have a few bees that were "guarding" my porch area, and it was starting to piss me off because I am not a fan, and am a little scared of them. I thought they were bumble bees, but they were definitely darker, so I googled "large black bee" and almost instantly found that tons of people have these pests around their wood homes and decks. Lucky us, we have a vinyl sided home, however the porches and stairs are all Wood, and old wood which apparently they LOVE because it is easier to bore through. I also started to see an influx of birds that I had never seen before at our feeders. Scarlet tanagers, red bellied woodpeckers, and blue jays started to come around more often, and I think that it was in part due to the fact that there was so much flying protein readily available. Another HUGE hint to me was that all of a sudden our siding was getting coating in what looked like sawdust, and upon further inspection I realized that is exactly what it was.

So at this point I knew what I was dealing with, and also could guess how to take care of it (my thoughts were can of Raid, and jar of wood putty, but lets see what the experts say)

I researched a bit online and sure enough my idea of a cure was cure enough. A can of Raid, or other pest control spray should be applied once a day in the evening as bees are returning to the hive. Sprayed directly into the hole it should help the problem disappear within days. After this, though you have to follow-up and make sure that nothing entices other hives to return. Plugging the holes is your best bet. The experts said that the best idea is to plug the existing holes with steel wool, and then cover the hole completely with wood putty and paint over the surface as usual. They also said that routine maintenance of porches and siding with general weather proofing liquids will help keep them away for good. It was also mentioned that you should replace all wood siding with vinyl siding, but you see how well that helped us! I really just have to wait out the treatment period, as I am really cheap and don't want to deal with the hive myself. I think it will take more than one can of raid for these buggers, and I am just not willing to part with the cash, plus it is not really in a place I can easily reach, so laziness is not really an excuse.

I hope this helps someone, as it helped me. It's nice to know we have a rather calm hive of bees, but they still are majorly creepy!