Carpenter Bees Pollen Siding
As it is their primary food source you can also detect the sign by it.
Carpenter bees pollen siding. Redwood pine cypress and cedar seem to be their favorite wood species. The carpenter bee is so called because of where it chooses to make it s home. Carpenter bees prefer to excavate their nests in soft unpainted wood such as the back side of fascia boards siding window trim and porch ceilings. The small holes that you see in your siding soffits window frames etc.
They make holes in siding soffits decks posts and the painted or bare wood of barns and sheds especially when the paint is old hottel says. The carpenter bees will excess feces and leave yellow stain. They also bore into decks outdoor furniture fence posts and swing sets. This system of chambers containing eggs may extend 2 or more feet through the wood parallel to the grain.
Common carpenter bee nesting sites include eaves rafters fascia boards siding wooden shake roofs decks and outdoor furniture. It sounds to me like you have an infestation of carpenter bees. They are doing damage to the fascia and the spraying by pest control people doesn t seem to be doing a whole lot of good. The female carpenter bee is the one who makes the hole by chewing through the wood.
Carpenter bees also can left pollen crumb around your furniture. Carpenter bees xylocpa spp are quite different from the garden bumblebees bombus spp and common honeybees apis spp that are so important for plant pollination carpenter bees are so named for their nesting behavior which involves burrowing into dead wood material which can include the structural wood in homes and other buildings. They are solitary bees and are not part of a larger hive community. Sound undecayed wood without paint or bark is usually selected for nests.
The nests weaken structural wood and leave unsightly holes and stains on building surfaces. If you wonder the yellow stains around your living space it might be another sign of carpenter bees infestation. Carpenter bees crawl between cracks in siding and roofing where they bore holes about 1 2 inch wide and 1 or 2 inches long. Instead they burrow into soft woods such as the siding of a house to live in and lay larvae.
Not all bee species are beneficial however. This becomes a chamber where the female lays eggs leaves a food ball of pollen and then seals the chamber. Painted or pressure treated wood is much less susceptible to attack. Carpenter bees cause damage to wooden structures by boring into timbers and siding to construct nests.
These bees love to drill into bare or unpainted softwoods. They have even been found making holes in wooden.