Minding Your Bees
This past week, I’ve noticed a great deal of wood bees in my yard. We usually have perhaps one or two that frequent our wooden beams and soffits on the side of my home. My husband is forever scrubbing the shingles on the rear of our house from the residue that the bees leave behind. I’ve even noticed piles of wood shavings beneath one of our wooden benches out back. Upon closer inspection, I counted 10 holes that were bored into the base of the chair. If we don’t act promptly, the bees will eat through not only the bench, but other surrounding wood surfaces.
Last week, my mother had undertaken her yearly task of cleaning her windows. She was in the process of wiping down the last two, when she said she was chased by a rather large bee that was “hovering” near her bedroom window. Because it gave chase, Mom gave up cleaning those last two windows. When she arrived at my home for a Mother’s Day barbeque, she was amazed that I had several of those large bees in my backyard. She had clearly mistaken the bee in her yard for a honeybee, but Mom had a carpenter bee in her yard, too.
Carpenter bees, which are large, black, hefty looking bees with yellow heads, are commonly mistaken for honeybees. Carpenter bees classically make their nests in dead wood, but can be known to inhabit structural wood as well. Wood shavings are used to separate “cells” for the female to lay her eggs. Male carpenter bees have no stinger, but they are known to “hover” near a nest, and will chase small animals. Female carpenter bees have a stinger, but are not normally aggressive, unless provoked or held in the hand.
Years ago our dog Max loved to chase the carpenter bees. Max had been attacked by a swarm of bees as a puppy and we always joked that he had a personal vendetta against anything that buzzed. My husband swatted at the carpenter bees with one of my old tennis rackets, and Max would bound after the incapacitated insect as it lay, writhing on the ground. He’d proceed to promptly tear its head off with a snap of his jaws. During the final summer that Max was with us, my husband swatted at a swarm of carpenter bees that were assailing him in the driveway, Max barking joyfully in anticipation of the quarry that would find its way to the pavement. My husband swatted too hard, and the 30 year old racket fractured into bits on the cement. The following summer, after Max had passed, we purchased a small squash racket. While it isn’t as large as my old racket was, my husband still has a swat rate of nearly 100 percent. And our two year old shelter rescue, Luna, has taken Max’s place as Resident Bee Destroyer.
If carpenter bees are an issue at your home, Home Depot and Lowe’s carry carpenter bee traps and aerosols, although aerosols are not environmentally friendly. A solution of citrus oil and tea tree oil is not only a humane choice, but is environmentally safe. You can also fill the hole with carburetor fluid via a nozzle, which makes the hole uninhabitable. Once the bees have been removed, you should fill the hole with steel wool. This will prevent the bees from returning to that site. Treat the wood with stain regularly, as this will discourage bees from boring into your outdoor wood surfaces.
Currently, I can hear the bees outside my bedroom window. I’m mixing up a batch of lemon and tea tree oil to spray my back window, as we speak. I’ll let you know how it all works out.
