Will Trapping Carpenter Bees Keep Them Away?

If you have started noticing carpenter bees around your property, chances are you have started searching for ways to rid yourself of these buzzing nuisances. If you do any quick search of carpenter bees, you will stumble upon ways to trap them. 

There are various types of traps that you can buy or make to trap those buzzing pests that are burrowing their way into the wood around your house. But do they actually work? 

We are here to give you all the information on trapping carpenter bees so you don’t have to waste time or money on unnecessary procedures!

Why are Carpenter Bees a Threat? 

You see the word bee and think that they must be a threat because they are going to want to sting you and your entire family right? Wrong! Carpenter bees are non-social bees, meaning they do not have a hive to protect and are not out looking to sting anyone. 

So, you don’t have to worry about them during a summer picnic flying about stinging you. But still, the idea of a big bee flying around is pretty scary. And carpenter bees are fairly large bees, so oftentimes that fear is reason enough to have them exterminated. 

However, they can cause damage when it comes to untreated wood around your property. They don’t cause deeper structural damage, but they do cause some pretty serious cosmetic damage. We know you all work so hard to make your homes look so beautiful, we would hate to see these carpenter bees drill their holes around your home.  

Areas such as playsets, fences, sheds, barns, and anywhere that may have untreated wood are going to be prime targets for carpenter bees. Reducing the amount of untreated wood around your home is going to protect you against carpenter bees. 

However,  if you own a cedar home, that is a HUGE target and it will be impossible for you to reduce the amount of wood. So treating carpenter bees is going to be necessary so you don’t experience damage to your home.  If you don’t mind the damage – again not structural- there is no real reason to treat for carpenter bees. 

Do Traps Actually Work? 

So, you’ve seen carpenter bees around your home and you don’t want any of the damage to your home or areas around it. You think the obvious next step is to trap those carpenter bees! If they are trapped, they can’t be flying around causing damage around your property, right? Kinda. 

There are various types of traps you may have seen around. You can either buy a pre-made trap at a big-box store or you can make your own DIY carpenter bee trap. The basics of these are a wooden block on top of a mason jar-type setup.

The main idea behind both of these traps is that they copy the bee’s nest. The carpenter bees will crawl into the pre-drilled holes in a wooden block but once inside, they can’t find where the holes were drilled from. They go towards the source of light which is the mason jar at the bottom. However, they will not be able to make it back out. 

These traps seem like a perfect solution, right? You don’t have to do much, just set them up and the bees do their thing. However, you have to realize that you can’t catch them all. If the trap keeps catching them there is a reason why. This happens with a lot of pests. You have a carpenter bee problem and you need to figure out a solution. If you don’t actually treat the problem, then they will just keep coming back. 

A trap will catch pests never prevent them from returning and bees can fly. They are not limited to your yard and/or home-like other pests. 

Treating for Carpenter Bees  

Trapping carpenter bees can be helpful when it is used alongside prevention treatments. We don’t discourage people at all from using either a store-bought trap or their own DIY traps. 

But prevention treatment is always going to be best to keep carpenter bees away from your home and any un-treated wood around your property. Treating with your local pest control company will rid you of your carpenter bee problem quickly and efficiently. 

Once a carpenter bee problem is determined, treating for carpenter bees requires dusting your property, and the bees drilling holes with a product that will rid your property of the buzzing pests. After the bees have been dealt with, the holes they have left behind can be sealed and re-painted. Leaving you with no evidence that you had wood burrowing little creatures around. 

Call us for Help 

If you start to see carpenter bees flying around your yard, you can always give us a call. We want to make sure that we are there to help you keep those buzzing creatures from causing any damage to your home and surrounding areas. 

We offer free phone consultations for any questions that you may have for any pests that may be bugging you!