Carpenter Bees Hole Cedar Siding

How to deal with carpenter bees.

Carpenter bees hole cedar siding. After filling the holes completely paint over them. The nest is used by the female carpenter bees to lay their eggs until hatch. Carpenter bees have 4 life cycles. If you read through our carpenter bee control article you ll learn these bees will readily crawl under siding and facia boards to drill nests which will then effectively be hidden and secure.

Often these holes go through the siding and into the insulation. These are most likely the beginnings of roosting or nesting holes. Make sure to cover all the points using the marks you used as a reminder. We have tried filling the holes with caulk silicone and the bees rebuilt their hole.

A contractor said that he had a cedar sided home and had to take the siding off and replace with brick. If the bees are already at work on your home. If the entry point is close to the ground squirt some powder on the ground. When the bees are sleeping squirt the powdered insecticide from the bottle at the entrance and exit points on the siding.

Instead they burrow into soft woods such as the siding of a house to live in and lay larvae. The adult will bore a hole just under inch round into unpainted unfinished and untreated wooden porches fences and fascia boards to lay eggs. There are carpenter bee holes in the cedar swing the trees and any other exposed wood even painted stained. Fall is the absolute best time to plug any carpenter bee nests in order to prevent young carpenter bees from emerging and continuing their wood burrowing ways.

One known method is applying wood putty at a nest s entrance hole. When carpenter bees emerge in spring and again in fall fill holes with a bit of steel wool a wad of aluminum foil a dowel and wood glue or even caulk. In either event it is an also ran in my opinion. Their hole is commonly very neat.

They like to make a hole in the decks siding porches doors fences wooden lawn furniture and other wooden things around your living space. She creates a perfect hole half an inch wide in the wood. Spray the powder in the opening of the siding. There is a bit of a debate on how to successfully plug up a carpenter bee nest.

They are egg larva pupal and adult stages. When you caulk holes this large the caulk either shrinks and leaves a depression or it droops from the hole after you get down from the ladder. I prefer to use wood dowel rods and or latex wood filler. The holes that the bees produce are often 1 2 inch or so in diameter.

Holes larger then two inches in diameter may be drilled by the woodpecker into the siding usually between the seam of the two clapboards figure 1. This takes a lot of work so sometimes they will use existing holes from years past. The symmetry of the circle is amazing especially given they are making this hole with their mouths.