Carpenter Bees Hole Cedar Siding

It sounds like this might be happening at your house.

Carpenter bees hole cedar siding.

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. They like to make a hole in the decks siding porches doors fences wooden lawn furniture and other wooden things around your living space. I prefer to use wood dowel rods and or latex wood filler. They are egg larva pupal and adult stages.

A contractor said that he had a cedar sided home and had to take the siding off and replace with brick. She creates a perfect hole half an inch wide in the wood. The holes that the bees produce are often 1 2 inch or so in diameter. The female carpenter bee is the one who makes the hole by chewing through the wood.

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. There are carpenter bee holes in the cedar swing the trees and any other exposed wood even painted stained. 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. Carpenter bees have 4 life cycles.

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. The adult will bore a hole just under inch round into unpainted unfinished and untreated wooden porches fences and fascia boards to lay eggs. Often these holes go through the siding and into the insulation. This takes a lot of work so sometimes they will use existing holes from years past.

Thank you for your time. After filling the holes completely paint over them. If the bees are already at work on your home. These are most likely the beginnings of roosting or nesting holes.

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. Make sure to cover all the points using the marks you used as a reminder. If the entry point is close to the ground squirt some powder on the ground. One known method is applying wood putty at a nest s entrance hole.

The nest is used by the female carpenter bees to lay their eggs until hatch. The symmetry of the circle is amazing especially given they are making this hole with their mouths. Instead they burrow into soft woods such as the siding of a house to live in and lay larvae. Spray the powder in the opening of the siding.

How to deal with carpenter bees. There is a bit of a debate on how to successfully plug up a carpenter bee nest. Their hole is commonly very neat.