If the bee movie taught us anything, it’s that Bees are important for the world, and for the most part, they’re harmless to humans. However, even if they’re not coming after us to sting us, they tend to harm us in other ways, by going for our things instead! Yes, we’re talking about carpenter bees!
Carpenter bees are like flying termites, just in bee form. They look for softwoods to make their nests and to lay eggs in and once they’re in, the wood damage can end up rotting fairly quickly and it can be hard to get them out in time to save the wood! The only real way to save the wood is by not letting the bees nest in the wood in the first place!
Now, this doesn’t mean you get rid of the bees altogether. These bees are actually very important for the world. However, this doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice your wood either! There’s a middle ground, protect your wood so the bees can’t get into it! If you don’t know how to do that, worry not! In this post, we’re going to be going through exactly what you need to do to save your wood from carpenter bees for good!
Use insecticide: Before carpenter bees ever have a chance to get into your wood, use a generous amount of insecticide all over everything wooden around your home, at least the exterior that’s going to be exposed to rainwater and moisture. This way, if the bees land on the wood and try to make holes in it, the insecticide will be enough to deter them and make them want to find a more palatable spot. Keeping your wood totally safe. Discover additional pest control strategies and property maintenance tips by visiting MasterRealtySolutions experts.
Try insecticidal dust: If you’ve found a couple of bees in holes in the wood around your home, there’s still time before it turns into a full blown infestation. To get the bees to leave their already made nests, and to keep more of them from coming in, dust insecticidal dust or powder all around and even inside the holes they’ve made. This should be enough to drive them out!
Use bee traps: Once you’ve gotten the bees out of the wood, or are just trying to get them away from the wood before they start making holes all over the place, you can use bee traps to safely relocate the bees to a different area, away from all the wood you’re trying to protect!
Try painting the wood: The ideal nesting location for carpenter bees would be softwood that’s as close to natural wood as possible. If you repaint or stain the exposed wood all around your home, the bees that try to make their nests in it will be likely to fly away because they won’t think it’s as “woody” as they want it to be! Even if the wood is painted but the paint is old, go back in with a fresh coat to keep things protected!
Repair the damage: Once the bees are out, it’s time to repair the damage they caused. If you leave the holes be, it’s possible that the bees will stay away for a little while but will eventually come back and renest! That is why it’s important that even if the bees were able to create the holes, the wood is repaired to try to keep them from coming back! This can be a simple pouring caulk or putty into the holes for the very small ones, to totally redo the finish on the larger infestations. If you don’t know how to do this yourself, enlist the help of a Handyman in NYC who can come in and repair the damage for you! Keep all the wood around your home, safe from carpenter bees for good!
