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Welcome to another episode of Peskies Pest Control podcast here in Birmingham Alabama with Michael and Travis. We do this podcast as a community service for Birmingham, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Helena, Pelham and all other surrounding areas!
Travis McGowin
Hey, so it is that time of the year again, where we are receiving phone calls, or we’re going out to do services on customer’s property. And we have been receiving those complaints and concerns about a wood destroying insect that shows up in the spring in the summertime, does damage to your wooden structures at your home and then also inadvertently brings other creatures that do damage to your wood structures of your home. And that is the carpenter bee. So Michael, tell us a little bit about the carpenter bee.
Michael Wienecke
Well, I’m just gonna start off saying I really dislike carpenter bees. Oh, they’re probably probably my least favorite insect and I really can’t think of much benefit
Travis McGowin
that next to a mosquito.
Michael Wienecke
Yeah, yeah. I can’t think of much benefit. I mean, I know they are pollinators to an extent but yeah, they can wreak havoc on on wood. I mean, we see it you know, wood wood siding, where it’s just I call mole holes running through, you know, wood siding, and you see all these these just gouges in the wood and holes. But really, you know, the, the carpenter bee, the best way to prevent the carpenter bee from destroying your deck is is always or any wood structure is always going to be restating repainting. Really, what I say is once a year, I have a brand new deck that is that was being looked at by carpenter bees. And very quickly I got on, you know, re staining or staining that new decks, I won’t have that problem this year, and they haven’t been an issue. So so really, that’s the number one way to control carpenter bees around your home is just either new wood, and if you do get new wood, staining or painting that new wood,
Travis McGowin
I’ll tell you, backhoe this has been a couple of years ago, my wife had went to the store and was shopping and bought me a brand new shovel with a wooden handle. Remember, we took it out in the yard against the house and I believe it was the next day I came outside to grab that handle looked and there was a perfectly round hole right on the backside of the handle of that shovel where a carpenter bee had already taken the opportunity to bore a hole in it. So you do got to give them a little bit of credit though, and the craftsmanship. It’s very impressive that all their holes are completely circular. I mean, it’s like they’re almost just perfect circles. You know, and not only do they damage the wood with their little perfect circle holes, but they also you know, leave their trails behind beneath it and on different surfaces right up underneath. It looks like a splatter on the side of your house or on the side of your deck. It just looks unsightly, it looks nasty. And then as you know, in my introduction, as I mentioned, you can get rid of the carpenter bees, but by the time that they lay their larva up inside the wood, then you’re going to attract a whole another issue such as the woodpecker.
Michael Wienecke
Yes. I actually didn’t even think about that. Yeah, so it really like like Travis said, if you see a bunch of sawdust around your walkway, in front of your house, it’s almost 100% carpenter bees. And again, the biggest thing about carpenter bees is they reinvest once a year so if you don’t take care of the problem, you know that first year then they’re just going to keep on coming back and I’ve seen a woodpecker can can wreak havoc havoc on a home just like a carpenter bee can because they’re going to make an even larger hole in your siding and just it’s not a good thing.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
