Battle of the Species - A New Weapon Against Carpenter Bees

Here is a close up of what the early stage of carpenter bee damage looks like - the perfectly round, dime-sized hole. These holes can appear quickly, as the bee can set up shop and have a cozy little burrow completed in less than 24 hours. The real damage occurs once they have laid eggs and larvae appear, as the new generation will be programmed to come back to the same place, dig further, and start a grandchild generation in the hole, eventually leading to structural damage.



A friend of ours in Alexandria had tried this product - the Carpenter Bee Chamber, and found that it worked on some problems they were having with their house. Then an ad for the product showed up in the Google ads (over in the right column) a few weeks ago and I decided to try it as well.

There are two styles, one mounts vertically on facing boards and the other mounts flush on overhanging soffit areas. We bought one of each. I stained them to match the new wood and planned to put them up in some areas around the front door where I noticed a lot of activity - and where apparently a couple of bees had survived our pesticide application a few weeks back.


Here's an action shot courtesy of Mary. Now I know all my friends in Alexandria are jealous of this new ladder...if you come out and visit I will let you climb it.

The traps are made out of pine and have the series of holes drilled in. Along the back, a groove has been routered in, and filled with fly glue. Leads to the motto - "once they enter, they never leave."



Finally, here is a close up of the chamber installed. In this case, after I put some insecticide inside the hole pictured above, I filled it with wood filler and installed the trap over it. After putting the traps up, I kept an eye out for newly arriving bees, but didn't see any...it's something I'll be watching for over the course of the summer.