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.