Judging from the page views and traffic on the blog, there is a lot of interest in carpenter bees. I didn't have as much information here last year - there are a few more posts now that I have gone after the bees for almost two years running.
So this spring, the visitor counts are running from 5 to 10 weekly. There have been a few personal emails about the Carpenter Bee Chamber (and we get their entry as an Adsense post in the left hand column from time to time).
About the same time that I started posting on the bees this year, there were hits from states NC, KY, OH, MO and IL. Now they are coming in from further north; I had a visitor from WI this week. And they are still running at about the same pace, and probably will into June.
I did a search and found another interesting source of information about the bees, posted below. Comments and insights about carpenter bee experiences are always welcome here at the Hawksbill Cabin!
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If you notice large bees buzzing around your yard you may think they are bumblebees, but they are not. You are probably seeing the carpenter bee. If they seem to be "in your face," these are the male carpenter bees, which are harmless because they don't have a stinger, but they still cause many people to scream and run to the house.
Carpenter bees build nests in bare, unpainted softwoods. Often they will drill holes in the two by fours of a shed or garage. Painted wood and treated wood is less often used for their nests. The bees you see now have been overwintering in these nests and are now looking for mates. This process will continue into May.
The female may just clean out the old nest and reuse it or she may create a new nest, which will have a nice round entrance hole, which will go straight into the wood a short distance and then it will branch off into one of the chambers she will create to lay her egg. This egg will be placed on a food source of pollen and nectar and then sealed into the chamber. These will develop into an adult carpenter bee, which will emerge in August. At that time we don't notice them as they feed on nectar and then overwinter in their chambers.
So far we haven't mentioned much of a downside to the carpenter bee. The downside is if they can bore holes in large numbers in structural wood that can weaken the structure. They also can destroy the visual affect of certain woods like a porch beam.
If management of the carpenter bees is necessary you can use a garden dust like five percent carbaryl dust and using a duster, puff the Sevin into the hole so the bees will pick it up on their trips in and out of the hole. After several days you can close the hole with wood putty. Then you should paint the wood to avoid the problem in the future.
From: http://www.echo-pilot.com/news/2009/0429/garden/053.html
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