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
[...] Ellen presents How To Get Rid of Those Large Black Bees Hovering Around Your Deck posted at [...]
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
August 24th, 2009 at 3:40 am
An aggressive one of those giant bees kept landing and flying onto my 11 month old daughter today, I swatted it off of her and then it landed on her face and stung or bit her below the eye. It was a terrifying experience. The area is red and swollen, but thankfully she is ok. I too have had those hovering bees around for years and had never before seen one so aggressive. My poor baby girl. I had to grab it off of her and kill it with a towel.
March 10th, 2010 at 8:25 am
“stingers in the front” ? no such thing!
These bees are HARMLESS! they may be annoying but they arent going to harm YOU!
They do have “stingers” but are extremely reluctant to sting.. because they will die if they do!
“these bees don’t live in bee hives like other bees”
The vast majority of bees DO NOT live in hives! European honey bees do, and not too many others.
POLLINATOR CRISIS- look it up. Learn to live with nature, stop fighting it, you rely on it in the long run!
March 18th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Bengal spray is expensive but works for months. The gold is even better. spray
it and they die. if they walk thru it they die with in a few feet. I have used it for years with pets and children with no adverse affect on anyone but the insects. I just nuked the black bee s trying to build a nest in the wood around my porch sliding glass doors. They did not like it at all.
April 1st, 2010 at 11:30 pm
I only have one bee that begins hovering over my deck every spring. He has been there all day long, just hovering around. He will be there for several more days. Looks like he might be “saving the place” for some reason. Why doesn’t he get tired? I feel sorry for him. (There were a couple of wasps around the deck earlier, but they have gone away.) Why do I always have just one bee, and why does he just hover all day long over several days without other bees coming?
April 6th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Wow…I thought I was going crazy until I found this site; bees in front of my door fighting…crashing repeatedly into the glass in fact! Well at least I know I am not insane…lol…they are scary but glad to know they aren’t as aggressive as they seem. I have SEVERE bee allergies and I have been seemingly chased indoors. Essentially they should pay the mortgage b/c they have the run of the front yard, chasing me and my company away! I have an overhang on my porch, I have seen the holes so now I a plan of attack…Thanks for your info..I NOW HAVE HOPE!!!
April 9th, 2010 at 12:53 am
I live in the heart of the heart of Silicon Valley, and large bees, most of them black, with a hovering kind of flight and not aggressive to the sole occupant of the home — me, invaded in a big way a few weeks ago when the rainy season waned. I have seen a few equally large, sluggish, black-and-yellow striped bees among them.
Since bee scarcity stories abound, I searched the Web and got contact data for a bee research center at UC Davis. Even though these bees are almost undoubtedly carpenter or wood bees — They Do Play An Important Role In Pollination, I was told. Indeed, my back patio is full of flowering shrubs and that’s what these bees do every day: they hover and sample the flowers. I am loathe to kill them, but I would like to send them packing in some environmentally/humane way so that I can fully enjoy the patio again, without them buzzing and hovering overhead.
April 11th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
I have a large terrace with lots of plants and have the hovering bees. They have drilled 4 holes in a pc of wood that is part of my sliding glass door. The hover a lot but that’s about it. Around 4PM it looks light Kennedy Airport as they seems to all come home. They will poke their head in one of the holes they fly away only to come right back then enter the hole.I saw a couple of dead ones on my deck who must have died on their own.
I heard the guy who lived here before me sprayed and got rid of them so they must have come back.
Are they the same bees that return each night? or do these holes serve as some type of share home with different bees spending the night all the time?
I have heard that they can travel up to 5 miles looking for food to bring back. I wonder how and why they would make such a long journey back home….
April 12th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Thanks for the information. I have been chased back to the house because they are hanging around my clothes line (with old wooden posts) and an old wooden deck. Now I can get rid of them and do laundry in peace!
Thanks!
April 14th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Is there anyway to get rid to these bees without using a bug spray? I have a dog in my yard and I am afraid to use anything that may harm the dog. I’ve been chasing them with an electric zapper paddle. When I get one, they seem stunned for only a second and then fly away. Soon they are back.
April 15th, 2010 at 4:33 am
What Do You Suppose
What do you suppose?
A bee sat on my nose.
Then what do you think?
He gave me a wink.
And said, “I beg your pardon,
I thought you were a garden.”
April 21st, 2010 at 4:16 pm
I live in a pier and beam home made out of cedar and these bees are all around my home. I saw one of the holes you were talking about while looking out of my kitchen window. I am going to try your technique and see what happens. Thanks
April 30th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
I am glad to hear that I’m not the only one. I was just having a race with one and I finally made it back in the house after several minutes of shear terror. I swear this is the very same 1 from last year and he flies from yard to yard back and forth all day. He is humungous and this yard ain’t big enough for the both of us
I live in West Chester Ohio and have a wood fence surrounding the back patio of my condo.
May 4th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
I work on my hobby car in the garage and noticed these bees always hanging out in front of the doors. I’ll now start looking for holes as that will really aggrevate me and likely start the bee war. I usually grab my can of carb cleaner aerosol and spray the bee, then within seconds follow up with my lighter and spray the flying critter but add a flame to the aerosol for the dramatic big fireball 10feet into the air. The bee usually spirals out of control with leaving a smoke trail and small flame. Occasionally the crash landing burns a small hole in the nearby grass. I’ll try the badminton racket as that sounds like safe family fun for all with the kids.
May 5th, 2010 at 1:45 am
Thanks for the info. Apparently these things are everywhere. I live in Tokyo & they seem to patrol back & forth over any open spaces that exist. I assumed they were hunting other insects - like hornets will do. Live & learn. I know what to look for & do now.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
HOLY CRAP I LOVE YOU!!!
I rent an apt and am upstairs w a balcony which I use basically all the live-long-day. I tan there, drink there, read there-basically, I should rent a balcony w closet and bath.
As a child, my devil cousin tortured me by holding me over a bee-infested bush for periods of time so I kind of have an issue with insects. All my life my family has given me grief about my seemingly ridiculous behaviour when encountering some bug. Cannot tell you how relieved I feel to know I’m not the only one running back inside. Also, I scream and shout insults at these stalkers.
The bees seem to have become progressively more brave. They used to be out around 15:00. Then 12:30. Yesterday it was 10:40. Kill me. Sitting on my balcony made me beyond hyper-vigilent. It must look crazy. I honestly feel like what I imagine a crackhead to be. With every falling leaf, I jump. Should the neighbours in the building behind me be watching, I imagine they find me worthy of institutionalization.
I called them “stalkers” because SERIOUSLY they seem like they are. Last week, one actually came up to my screen only seconds after I had spotted it and jumped inside. It circled 3 times and came back-right up to the screen seemingly initiating “show down.” Don’t think I didn’t have my finger on spray ready to shoot but WHAT THE…?!
It is 14:14 right now and I have yet to go outside. They seem not to be around UNTIL I am out. I’m sure you’ll ear me screaming if I encounter 1.
May 16th, 2010 at 2:52 am
Am I the only person whose horse is being bitten and terrorized by these things? They definitely like old barn wood, and are all over the eaves of the horse barn. They just hit their stride in the last week or so, although their sound proceeded them. I’m frantic as one or two (the females?) get on the horses back and must bite him because he becomes something out of a rodeo, bucking and running. So whoever said they are reluctant to sting or bite don’t know what they’re talking about. They seem to present like horse flies, the males are off doing their thing, fighting and buzzing around, and the females must need blood to reproduce. I don’t know but I’ve got hundreds so for those of you who think they’re kinda interesting and only have a few, give me your address and I’ll start an adoption program.
May 22nd, 2010 at 8:08 pm
I have had a big problem with carpenter bees for years. Much of the wood outside of my house (been in this house for 55 years) and over my deck has been riddled with their holes and several beams have been completely destroyed. I have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, so cannot use any kind of pesticide. The last thing I tried, which works only for a few months, evidently, is a borate spray. Occasionally I manage to hit one with a fly swatter and then kill it. I HATE to kill anything, but when it’s eating my food or clothes or house, it’s WAR! From what I’ve read thru the years, it’s only the females that sting, and that only rarely and if you’re harming them. Good luck to all.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Thank you! I thought I was crazy but apparently, these bees like to “bug” people for fun. I was out laying mulch, doing chores and one kept messing with me the whole time. Hovering, then taking off. Hovering real close with a friend, then off again. The next day on the deck, instead of relaxing, we kept getting interrupted as they would hover real close, take off and fight, then come back. Good to know they are not big stingers. Just pests.
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:13 pm
use carburetter or starting fluid…drops them like…ughh DEAD
June 6th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Oddly we’ve got what appears to be only one that hovers around our deck. We’ve affectionately named him Darth Bee!
June 11th, 2010 at 3:21 am
thank you, ive looked for simple information like this and so grateful im not the only one out there who’s trying to deal with them. But ive tried spraying them with bee spray, roach spray etc and even had pest control company spray them and nothing seems to kill them. and instead of a deck they are in this really large bush. other than removing the bush anyone got any good ideas? Im tired of making a run for my front door cause of them. they may not bite but i still cant get pass the whole flying big black bug coming at me thing. (Kids think its halirious.)
June 14th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Thanks for clearing this up! I heard her first about 2 weeks ago and then found 2 more in my Honey suckle bush yesterday. We have just completed a 50 covered deck with wood top rails so these seemingly harmless noisy HUGE black bees must go! No holes in our deck!!
June 16th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Thanks for the info on these monster carpenter bees. Once they found my flowers, they took over and I don’t see honey bees anymore - I would rather have them. Are they getting bullied?? My deck is synthetic wood so they must be coming from a neighboring yard.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:01 am
Thanks so much now me and my parents can work on taking down the bee. One of my parents plugged the hole with a paper towel.THE bee might come again but we will be ready.the bee is so huge, i thought it would not even fit into the hole.I will take you and your friends advice.THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:16 am
o.m.g. i have a female bee or whatever living in my deck. poor honeybees i dont see them flying around anymore i see them dead on the ground!!!!even jane dosen’t see them?do thes bees sting? and what bee killing spray did you use? help me.i scared.
June 23rd, 2010 at 1:53 am
i found a hole in my deck and it is so far about 4.1/2 inches. holey wacomole oh crap and its a female diggin that. well i will take care of it.
June 23rd, 2010 at 9:32 pm
please don’t kill them. there is a shortage of bees in the world and its becoming a crises. Carpenter bees are amongst the biggest pollinators. please dont kill them.
June 30th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
I have black bees that are living in a corner of our grass. There is a cement retaining wall on the on one side and there are small holes all along the retaining wall. I have only read about them living in wood. Do they burrow down in dirt also?
July 6th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
I was out cutting low branches off one of the trees lining our driveway today. My husband and I see these big black carpenter bees checking us out when we are outside, being agressive and dive-bombing us but not trying to sting. Today was a different story. Apparently I intruded on their territory! I was careflully going from tree to tree cutting off small, low branches, making sure their were no bee hives or swarming bees, when I was suddenly attacked by three of these big black things, not only diving at me, but either biting or stinging my let arm! I started screaming and swinging my cutting tool at the bees, swiping my hat at them with the other hand, hit my arm with the blade of the limb cutter and trying to run from them. All three pursued me into my garage before they decided to leave. In this process of trying to get away, I managed to kill one of them. Immediately I put a bakig soda paste on my arm and a glue bandage on my cut. Th stinging has mostly stopped now, and I certainly have a healthy respect for these big black things! Male or female, I don’t know, but I’m done cutting in my yard for the day. Have a great day, ya’all!
July 11th, 2010 at 4:06 am
Ummm…Don’t believe anyone who tells you these bees are “harmless”. Those people just haven’t been attacked. My mom and I were attacked by three of them…all were HUGE. They went straight for our faces. Stung me on my upper lip twice. I grabbed it with four fingers and threw it into a rock. My mom got stung on her nose. We all ran. I’m convinced that it was a sting and not a bite b/c my lip felt like someone injected hot acid into it. It was swollen for hours. It was a terrible experience…and get this—-it happened when i was 12. I’m 35 now and I STILL remember it like it was yesterday.
July 11th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
i live in tn and in apartment building and i tell you that im scared beyond words of these wasps and humoungus bees. they are all over the place. not one but 20 or so .im afraid to go out my front door .what can i do. i so wish i stayed in california. this is not good for my mental stability .. help.
July 13th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Rebecca, I’m in California and they’re just as bad here!
July 25th, 2010 at 2:06 am
It’s just a bee. Leave it alone or back into your bubble.
July 26th, 2010 at 1:06 am
far too many people, can’t tell the difference
between bees and other insects like yellow jackets,
most bees are harmless unless you mess with them
they have better things to do
only bees i worry about is a hive of AHB
July 30th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
We have been dealing with carpenter bees for years. The best and most energetic way to get rid of them is to hit the males with baseball bats, tennis rackets or books. They don’t sting. The females are drilling holes under the overhang, into clapboard on our house. You can also locate them by watching sawdust fly out of your home………lovely. It’s a yearly thing we deal with. Watch out for whitefaced hornets though. I’ve noticed that they will attempt to get in to kill (eat?) the queen or larve? They are NOT fun!
August 6th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
All natural bee repellent. Drives them away does not kill anything. Results guaranteed
August 11th, 2010 at 12:53 am
We have always had these hovering bees under our garage and my grandchildren have always been scared of them, especially when they hover right in front of their faces. I told them that they think they are flowers and if they will just stand still, as soon as they (the bees) smell them they will realize that they are not flowers and buzz away. Has worked until last Sunday. Came home from church and they attacked my dog and stung her on her backside and then proceed ed to sting my husband twice and me once on my shoulder. Stung really bad and left a bruise on my sting area. The “flowers” have declared war and are working on exterminating the pests!
August 31st, 2010 at 2:52 pm
’save the bees’ is nice and all (been a vegetarian a long time now, I get it). But for people who carry around Epipens (look up anaphylaxis), and don’t live close to an E.R… well humans want to live too. Even if the males are harmless, the female isn’t. And if you’ve got 10 or 15 minutes to get help, why take the chance. Instead of preaching save the bees, offer up suggestions as to how to lure them away from homes with something they really like or need most. Don’t just finger wag. There’s too much of that on the internet already. Offer real solutions, or at least ideas. And, btw, this post is not for the author of the nicely written article. It’s for the preachers posters who probably still chomp on cows at the drive thru, just kidding.