Carpenter Bee Control and Damage Repair

Carpenter bees (sometimes called "wood bees" or "borer bees") are stocky bees that look a lot like bumblebees at first glance. But there's a difference. If you look closely, the abdomen of a carpenter bee is smooth and shiny, whereas the abdomen of a bumble bee is covered with fine hairs.

Carpenter bees scare a lot of people when they chase each other around at breakneck speeds during their mating rituals. They're stocky insects and their aggressive flight generates an audible buzz, so they can can appear very intimidating and menacing. Because of this, a lot of people are afraid of carpenter bees. But it's all just a show.

In reality, carpenter bees aren't very dangerous at all. Male carpenter bees commonly show off by dive-bombing people at full-throttle like kamikaze pilots, but it's all just carpenter bee braggadocio. The truth is that male carpenter bees don't even have stingers! Most carpenter bee exterminators don't even wear bee suits when removing carpenter bees. The worst a male carpenter bee can do is annoy you by bouncing off your forehead.

Female carpenter bees do have stingers, but they rarely sting unless you practically sit on them or are rude enough to stick your finger in their nests. (And frankly, who can blame them for that? We'd be pretty annoyed, too, if some giant creature tried to poke its finger through our front door.)

Carpenter bees are also pollinators and, in that regard, are beneficial insects. Like all true bees, they travel from flower to flower gathering nectar and distributing pollen. Although they're not truly "social bees," unrelated carpenter bees do tend to build nests close together. Whether this is because of some developing social tendencies or simply because unrelated carpenter bees are attracted to the same piece of suitable wood, no one knows for sure (except for the carpenter bees, of course—and they ain't telling).

Carpenter Bee Damage

All things considered, carpenter bees are pretty likeable as stinging insects go. They're relatively peaceful, they're industrious pollinators, and they help adults and children lose weight chasing them around the yard with badminton rackets. But alas, carpenter bees have one very annoying and expensive habit:

Carpenter bees drill holes.

Carpenter bees drill precise, perfectly round holes in any piece of suitable wood they can find, looking for a place to nest. Once they find one, they make a quick turn inside of the wood and drill long tunnels in the same direction as the grain of the wood, and then lay eggs in the tunnels.

Over time, carpenter bees can cause extensive damage to the wooden trim of houses, as well as to other wooden items such as wooden decks, lawn furniture, playground equipment, and wooden fences, often necessitating costly repairs.

Carpenter bee problems can be especially serious in Georgia because of our many fine, old, historic wooden buildings. In historic cities like Columbus, Marietta, Peachtree City, and Atlanta, carpenter bee control takes on special importance because the bees are rudely drilling holes in part of our Georgia history and heritage.

Even when the structural damage caused by carpenter bees is minor, carpenter bees create unsightly stains when wax and carpenter bee by-products drip from the holes. These ugly stains can be very difficult to remove and may necessitate replacing the damaged wood for aesthetic reasons.

Repairing even minor carpenter bee damage can be very costly, especially because carpenter bees often drill holes in soffits, roof fascia boards, and other areas that are high up and require ladders or scaffolding.

That's one reason we also offer carpenter bee damage repair. We have the equipment and the know-how, so when we perform your carpenter bee control, you won't need to hire a second contractor to come in after us to repair the damage the carpenter bees caused.

Carpenter Bee Control

Adcock's Rid-A-Critter provides professional carpenter bee control in Northern and Central Georgia, no matter where on your property the bees are nesting.

Unlike smaller companies, we have the equipment and know-how to safely control carpenter bees, even in hard-to-reach areas like roof soffits and fascia boards. No matter how big or how small, we can handle any carpenter bee control job.

Once the carpenter bees are removed, we also repair the damage they caused. Our highly-trained technicians have the needed skills and work with the best equipment to assure that the carpenter bee damage repairs are done right. We are fully insured for this work, and we stand behind our workmanship.

For a prompt, professional carpenter bee removal estimate by one of our highly trained technicians, please contact us today.

Carpenter Bee Gallery

Here are some pictures of carpenter bees and carpenter bee removal jobs we've done. (More to come: Stay tuned!)

For help with carpenter bee removal or any pest control problem, please call us today.