I was just editing some photos I took at work the other day and thought I’d share this one. The trellis is over the deck I just finished, now putting the stain on (note the new stain). Well, apparently there is a bee hive in the cornice. The bee you see in the photo was hovering there the entire time I was staining the 2x2s. Occasionally one would come buzzing out or dissapearing into the corner up under the trellis, and the hovering bee would apparently chase off some other bee. I mean really, it looked like they would duke it out in mid-air and he would chase the other bee away. Or maybe they were just communicating where some fresh pollen was found. I don’t know these things. But anyway, this guy kept me company the entire half hour I was up there.
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Replies
looks like a carpenter bee looking for a prime spot to drill it's 1/4" hole in your new project.
hee hee, not likely. I don't think they care much for treated lumber. Also, aren't carpenter bees smaller, like the size of hornets? This one is a big, fat bubmle bee.--------------------------------------------------------
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Here in Alabama, the carpenter bees look like bumblebees on steroids. Don't let the salesman fool you about them not liking treated lumber, if it's the only thing around, they'll go for it. Had a couple of holes in a treated 4X4 porch post - then we went to plastic.
The carpenter bees here in West Virginia are big and fat too. I think some are bigger than bumble bees. They do buzz around their holes I guess in defence of them.
Bumble bees have a furry black rump. and carpenter bees have a shiny black rump. Also I don't think carpenter bees sting. From your description of its behavior it sounds like a carp' bee.
Look around for its hole up in cornice. on the underside of wood. Sometimes if its quiet, you can here them chewing.
I have had a couple in a custom built mailbox I made. Webby
Have several of those big old bees around here. About this time of the year they start chasing each other like crazy...must be spring and being territorial.
About 5 times a day one will crash into the picture window in the kitchen - you can hear the smack all through the house. Never hurts 'em, though, they just do it again!
If they get too annoying I have had a pretty high success rate with a badminton racquet.
He (she?) didn't annoy me at all. I don't bother him and he doesn't bother me. But reading these replies I am a little concerned about my customer's home. I don't want to create a costly scare but if they have carpenter bees I feel obliged to tell them about it. I'll take a closer look, maybe a close-up photo if I get a chance, and find out what it is before I create a stir.
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Edited 5/3/2008 8:26 pm by Ted W.
Pressure treated lumber or anything in a sunlit area more so than the shade.
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i can see that to include hearing the little boink sound they would make on contact...
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Every Spring/Summer theres a discussion about carpenter bees.
That one in the picture is a guard or sentry.... "he" (really a drone) will chase off anything that comes by. You can have some fun with them by tossing objects near him, spit at him, etc etc. He'll dive right at them. Even seen them react to birds flying 100 feet above him.
As kids we chased them with water pistols and badmitton raquets.
You can practice fly casting by flickin your line at them. Just tie a double knot at the end of the line. Contact usually slices them in half.
Besides the holes in the trim boards from the bees, woodpeckers around here will tear right into the trim boards to get to the bees. Much worse damage from Woody.
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I got 4 carp bees yesterday with my BB gun. Missed twice. Big ones here too.
Edited 5/4/2008 9:24 am ET by VaTom
Funny you say that. I was just at a job last week where the HO was shooting them with .22 shot shells..funnay as hell to see all the little splatters from bee guts and the shot on his fascia boards on his garage.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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Don't know about 'worse' tho'.
Saw some honeycombed 2x redwood trim once that might have been saved if woody had arrived on the scene early enough.
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They’re good pollinators so I just leave them alone. I lived in an old farmhouse for 25 years and there was maybe one carpenter bee hole on each side of the house that they kept re-using. Male carpenter bees work their big bee-butts off harassing other bees and pretty much everything else that gets near the female bee’s hole, so it’s a rare thing to see 2 bee-holes within 20 feet.
That old house was built around 1920 with rough pine framing, clapboard siding out, plain board siding in and no insulation... just hollow walls, which were perfect for honey bees. There was always at least one hive in there and once there were four. My local bee keeper harvested a lot of wild colonies out of that house, either by opening up the siding or coming over when I called him in on a swarm.
The last wall hive died off about ten years ago. I don’t know if it was varroa mites or what, but the hive was in my bedroom wall and when it got really hot that summer, with no bees left to ventilate the hive, all the beeswax in the honeycomb melted and honey started leaking in thru the wall.