How To Get Rid of Those Large Black Bees Hovering Around Your Deck
As their name suggests, these bees don’t live in bee hives like other bees, instead they bore their homes into the bottom of your deck and live there. So let me tell you some interesting facts about these bees. First, the ones flying around your head and fighting with one another are the male bees. Believe it or not, as aggressive as they are the male bees are harmless. They don’t seem to do much all day except fight with eachother. The one that does all the work is the female bee and she’s the one you want to stay away from. The problem is, she’s the one you need to get rid of. It’s the female carpenter bee that bores the hole in your deck for all the bees to live.
Carpenter bees prefer dried out weather worn wood to build their homes. If your deck is brand new then chances are the bees wont be interested. But if your deck is at least three or four years old and hasn’t been weather protected then your deck may be a target. Staining your deck wont help keep these bees away.
So what should you look for? The first thing you might notice are the male bees themselves. This is a good indicator that there might be a female bee boring a hole in your deck. Carpenter bees prefer to make their homes in the 2 by 8 inch joist (support) boards of your deck boring the holes up from the bottom. They dig the holes up vertically for a few inches before they continue the hole for a couple more inches horizontally at a 90 degree angle. This type of home helps to keep the hive dry and secure.
Here is what the holes look like:
When I realized that I might have a Carpenter bee problem at home I decided to call a pest control company to see how to get rid of them. After they told me it would cost at least $100 to take care of the problem I decided that maybe I could deal with it myself.
So here’s what my neighbors and I did to get rid of these bees. The first thing we did was buy some type of bee killing spray. The kind that shoot from a good six to ten feet away. Since our goal was to keep the bees away instead of killing them it didn’t really matter if they didn’t die. Then we went around the deck looking for the holes shown above and simply sprayed them with the pesticide. If there was a bee there boring out the hole then we would spray it as well from a distance. The bee would just pull its head out of the hole and fly away. Then everyday we would go back outside and spray the holes. One website suggested plugging up the holes with whatever but I found it sufficient just to spray the hole or holes every other day or so. After a week of spraying the bees went away.
June 4th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Your initial few lines of your experience with the bees left me laughing out loud i.e. the “beegebees”. You write very well and elicit emotion from your readers: whether happy, sad, agreement, or frustration. Good job!
June 4th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Hi mo,
Thanks for the compliment. I should continue to have wonderful readers as yourself.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Thank you so much, you have come in the nick of time with this info. My situation started about 2 weeks ago, I cannot go on my balcony without being chased back inside by these monster bees. I live in an apt. and an exterminator was called, who informed me that these bees only hover, and since he could not see a hive, he couldn’t help me. I have already gone through one can of the bee/wasp spray (kind of expensive) but I will try your method and continue using it. I hope it works, I would like to enjoy my balcony again
fmd
April 25th, 2008 at 4:34 am
thanks for the feedback. I am happy I could help. Keep us posted. I would like to hear if this method worked for you.
May 26th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Hey this worked great for my big black bees. Thanks for the tip of looking for the holes. I found another site that said to use WD-40. This worked but since it doesn’t spray that far it kind of made a mess. The long shooting hornet killer stuff was quick, not too messy and worked immediately. The female bee dropped right out, and like in a classic movie death scene started flailing feet-up on the deck.
The only problem is that there are a couple more bees up on the top of the house, about 25 feet up. Maybe I can get my painters to spray into the holes for me when they arrive next week or so.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:41 am
glad to hear it worked. I forgot about those bees until I saw them just yesterday. I guess I got to go looking for those holes again.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Thank you!!!! It took me a while, but finally someone’s story matches mine. I can’t wait to get rid of these and start enjoying my balcony again!
June 6th, 2008 at 4:36 am
You’re welcome. And when I first wrote this post I thought I was the only one suffering with these bees. Glad i could help.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:44 am
I should add that the bees do seem to come back to the same holes. I guess the male goes out on the town and brings back a female to do some more drilling on my house. I sprayed the holes again on two different days and killed them. I don’t know if they will get the idea or not.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:01 am
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June 10th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
my husband smacks them around with a tennis racket. they dont sting (or so he says) so it doesn’t worry me.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
that’s hysterical. I bet they wish they had stingers in this case.
September 1st, 2008 at 2:19 am
I am looking for a good residual insecticide product to spray these carpenter bees. Also I understand there is a powder called Drione that works to control the larva.
I got some pest control people over but I am concerned that these bees may return and want to get the right product. I life in Toronto Canada.
Any ideas?
Thanks
September 6th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I’m pretty sure that these bees are hanging out with us, only they seem to only be in the front of the house where there is a large rhodie, the side of the house is clappard so I am afraid that they are drilling in the side of the house, possible?
I don’t want to kill them, they serve a purpose I am sure. Is it sufficient to find the nesting hole maybe in the winter when they have died and fill it in so no more come around?
September 7th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
To tell you the truth I am not sure if filling the hole is sufficient. That is why I am looking to get this solution referred to as a “powder”. Two products are available in the US - “Drione” and “Duststick Dust” and I cann’t seem to find it here in Canada. The other thing is to get a residual insecticide that works and can be bought in here as well.
If you hear of any products that can be bought locally please let me know.
Good Luck
Mo
April 5th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
What do you do if your deck is ground level and you are unable to get under it to see where the holes are?
April 24th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Hilarious! My twin 8 yr old boys ran in, panicked, with almost the same word for word description of their experience. That led us to an internet search, which lead us to the much needed laughing fit -watching them nod their heads, in fear stricken agreement, until they came to the “harmless” part and their jaws dropped…
they didn’t believe it (no pics of the bees:), but further research revealed they don’t even have stingers!
April 27th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
IDC how harmless they are…these buggers terrorize me all day at work, hovering around my windows, taunting me! They know that I’m petrified of bees…they’re doing it on purpose…hehe
I have a wooden flower box out front of my office and apparently that’s not good enough for them because they come around the back of the building to hover/buzz/terrify every time I step out the door!
Thankfully I have not seen any at home as of yet (knock on wood!) but if I do see them, thanks to all of you here I now ways to deal with them…first stop…Wal-Mart for some badmitten rackets!
April 27th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
had the same problem hoping to rid of them first with the spray
May 9th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Well, we have tried everything to make these bothersome pests disappear. They have been eating away at the trusses on our cabin for 3 years now. It looks like someone has used our house as target practice! We keep plugging the holes with silicone after we spray. We have tried the stain…expensive…only to notice that they’ve moved to the back of the house or elsewhere on the front and started new holes!! ARGH!! We have been told NOT to plug the hole with the bee in it or it will tunnel out the other side. We can try this method and hope for the best. Thanks!
May 9th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Well, we have tried everything to make these bothersome pests disappear. They have been eating away at the trusses on our cabin for 3 years now. It looks like someone has used our house as target practice! We keep plugging the holes with silicone after we spray. We have tried the stain…expensive…only to notice that they’ve moved to the back of the house or elsewhere on the front and started new holes!! ARGH!! We have been told NOT to plug the hole with the bee in it or it will tunnel out the other side. We can try this method and hope for the best. Thanks!
May 28th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Thank you for your post. Followed your advice. Hated to kill them, but if they keep up their work habits we will be - a pass through and a deck. Just so all will know this message comes from the Oregon Mountains. They must be everywhere.
May 28th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
I have these bees living in my Canary Palm Tree in my back yard in Las Vegas. I’ve sprayed and killed them, but they keep coming back. I’ve heard that they don’t have stingers, but I’ve examined the dead ones, and they do have stingers in the front. Continuing to spray is expensive, so I will research the powder/dust.
May 31st, 2009 at 12:48 pm
You want to catch these sooner than later. We didn’t realize what they were and they got a good start in the top railing of our deck. Now they are everywhere. I’m going to try the spray again. We also have found a badminton racket to do the trick to stun them and then step on them. But our long term idea is to replace the spindles and top railing with metal. Luckily the base of our deck is fake wood. They seem to have a definite preference for the soft wood and don’t bother the denser wood of the supports.
June 5th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
We have them here in Hawaii also-lots and the buggers wake me up at 5:30AM buzzing and dilling!!!. I go out in my nightgown with the spray, but they come back again within an hour. I did manage to douse one of them enough to have it land upside down, but there are more to replace it!!! We’ve sprayed and filled the holes just to have them make new ones the next day!!!Grrrr. Thanks for your delightful information. Aloha