Carpenter Bees

New Jersey Carpenter Bee Control - As a rule, bees and wasps are beneficial insects unmindful of the activities of man, as long as man makes it a point to disregard them. At times the nests of these insects may be built in such close proximity to the home, or even in the home, as to make the area too confining for both insect and man. Although the stings of bees and wasps are usually a painful experience, for some the consequences may result in a severe reaction or even death.

Carpenter Bees - These are large, attractive-looking bees with a blue-black, green or purple metallic sheen. They often burrow into the exposed dry wood of buildings, fence post and telephone poles. The burrow of one bee may be more than 12 inches long and since the bees often colonize in the same piece of wood, the damage may be quite extensive. They often attack such objects as window sills, wooden siding, eaves, outdoor furniture and fences.

Carpenter bees are so named because they excavate galleries in wood to create nest sites.

They do not consume wood. Rather, they feed on pollen and nectar.

Carpenter bees are important pollinators of flowers and trees. Carpenter bees typically are just nuisance pests that cause cosmetic rather than structural damage to wood.

Nonetheless, considerable wood damage can result from many generations of carpenter bees enlarging existing galleries in wood.

Carpenter bees somewhat resemble bumble bees, except bumble bees have dense yellow hairs on the abdomen and large pollen baskets on the hind legs. Various species of bumble bees and carpenter bees are similar in size.

Bumble bees typically nest in the ground whereas carpenter bees nest in wood.

Carpenter Bees are natures pruners by infesting dead tree limbs over time the tree limb falls to the ground.

A carpenter bee infestation is often first detected by finding large amounts of sawdust on the ground below the area being drilled.

The order Hymenotera consists of sawflies, horntails, wasps, ants and bees. There are some 113,000 known species in this order and more than 17,000 are found in North America.

Common Bees / Wasps:
• Mud Daubers
• Digger or Scoliid Wasps
• Yellow Jackets and Hornets
• Paper-nest Wasp
• Bald-faced Hornet
• Honeybee
• Bumblebee
• Carpenter bee