Carpenter Bees

A tip from Mike Falardeau regarding carpenter bees:

We have had an issue lately with carpenter bees burrowing into our deck’s handrail to form nests. Carpenter bees like soft wood and especially cedar which all our decks are made of. You can tell you have an issue by seeing large bees (that look like bumble bees) hovering around your deck near the cedar wood hand rails or other cedar areas. You will also find perfectly bored holes about (3/8” diameter) in the wood and sawdust on the deck surface below the hole. Female bee may be inside nest, laying eggs, while the male guards the entrance (males do not have stingers so that if they buzz you they cannot sting, but females can sting) To get rid of them you can use WD40 with the spray nozzle tip, poke the tip into the hole as far as you can, to pierce the plug above the nest and then spray or you can use bee or wasp sprays. I tried the WD40 and it worked well. Since all of our decks and the trim on our condos are themselves made from cedar I thought we should make everyone aware of this potential issue.

Note from secretary:  One can also contact Herriman to send out a company to spray for the carpenter bees.