Carpenter Bees? I think we may have a problem ...

[Toba]

For the past two or three weeks, my son has been scared away from his new wooden swingset by a carpenter bee. We just thought it was a little unpleasantness by Mother Nature. And we thought that because it's a red cedar swingset, there was no problem.

Today we went out there and as soon as my son got on the "deck" of his swingset, a carpenter bee hovered around him the whole time he was up there ... obviously, freaking the crap out of him.

I did a little research, and found that this behavior is indicitive of a "nest" in the vicinity. Since it only bothers him when he's on the deck and the house is at least 30 feet away, I'm wondering if there's a nest there. No way am I going out to look, but I will send my husband out when he gets home. For now, they've/it's (I can't really tell if it's more than one) done their/it's job and scared my son away from his swingset. :(

I've read at least six websites, and no where does it say whether these things bore into red cedar (I found that it can bore into cedar, but not specifically red cedar). If it is boring a nest in his swingset, I don't know what to do. I'm totally afraid to use pesticides on something he is in direct contact with, plus I'm afraid of another carpenter bee seeing the potential that the last one did.

Does anybody have any experience with this kind of thing? I know what to tell my husband to look for (bore holes), but I'm unsure how to proceed from there with something that's child safe. And I'm unsure how to get my son to like his swingset again ... this morning was a particularly scary encounter for him and he refuses to even go near it anymore, and if you knew how much he LOVED his swingset before (especially the slide), you'd know what a huge deal this is. :(


~Kimberly Anne~
Noah Nevan, March 12, 2004
*the light of my life*

[chiqanita]

OMG, poor little fella I totally understand how he feels because bees freak me out!

Have you called the swing maker? Maybe they can help.

Sorry, I have no experience with this but am looking into purchasing a cedar swing set for DSx2. Please share when you find a solution.

Good luck!

BTW, just in case, I heard that meat tenderizer is good for bee stings and using a card to scrape out the stinger....not sure if this is true, saw it somewhere.

[Jo..]

UGH. I HATE these things. I never saw such giant bees before we moved here...They are bigger than my dogs! ;)

Now the good news. They are really passive and SLOW. They are easy to kill. We had some nesting in the soffit of our house. They bore little 1/4" or so diameter holes. Watch where they go. Now take a broomstick and bang right under the hole as hard as you can. It may take awhile to really get them worked up. As they fly out, swat them to the ground with the broom and kill them. There were only 6 or 7 in our house. No more bees :D

ETA: Our house is cedar and brick. I guess cedar is yummy to bees.

[missym]

Here is some useful info on carpenter bees. This might make you feel a little better: "The presence of carpenter bees around buildings and wooden structures can be annoying or even frightening; however, males cannot sting and females rarely attack."

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7417.html

They've started boring holes in our new swingset too (not cedar). It doesn't bother me because I've been exposed to carpenter bees all my life and never been attacked/stung, but the sawdust is annoying.

Missy, mom to Gwen 03/03 and Rebecca 09/05

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[jayali]

We have had them every summer since we bought this house (until we sided it). They LOVE any kind of wood. As previous post indicates they, while huge and gross, are not aggressive nor do they sting. If your husband does find holes then I would do what previous post says and kill them. I hate to tell you this but they will probably come back again and again. Even though we have had siding for two years now, they keep hovering around their old haunt in our soffit. You should call the manufacturere and see if they can recommend something. We have had an exterminator deal with ours, but that was before kids.

I am so sorry you have to deal with this. I remember how unglued I was when we first found ours. I felt like I was going to lose it.

Hope that you can get rid of them and enjoy your swings.

[writermama]

Bummer. As PPs said, they're not aggressive, though. We have one boring into our deck (pressure treated wood!) and my dad recommended having someone go out at night and fill the hole with a dowel, trapping the bees inside and filling the hole at the same time. I don't know if this is the best approach (haven't tried it yet) but it's something to consider.

[kimbe]

OMG! I am DEATHLY afraid of bees and pretty much all flying insects. (I really need therapy!) I can't even imagine banging a nest with a broomstick and then swatting and killing them. (I am sick just thinking about it! :) )

You are my hero for doing that.

I would probably just sell the house and move away! LOL!

[janeybwild]

This is something similar to what my DH does with our playset. At night, he squirts some bee stuff in there, then fills the hole. Seems to have worked so far.

[mamamayi]

The carpenter bees love the cedar because it is soft. We have a cedar deck and they were boring/nest in it. I found a hole and sprayed wasp and hornet spray just in the hole. Three bees fell out of the hole. I was really surprised because I thought there was only one in there. That was it. No more this year.

I don't think you'd have to worry a lot about pesticide residue if you just sprayed into the hole. It's probably a good idea to make sure the bees are in there before you spray so you get direct contact with them. They fall right out with the wasp and hornet spray, and since that sprays from 20 feet away, you can do it from a distance.