Carpenter Bees
Carpenter Bee Control in Orlando, Florida
Carpenter bees look like big bumble bees, but the abdomen is shiny black and hairless instead of fuzzy. In Central Florida the two you will run into are Xylocopa virginica and the smaller, metallic-looking Xylocopa micans. Activity picks up in spring, and the males are the ones that hover in your face at the door. They cannot sting. The females can, but rarely do.
The hole they drill is unmistakable: a clean, round entry about half an inch across, as if someone went at the board with a spade bit. Just inside, the tunnel turns ninety degrees and runs with the grain, sometimes several feet in a board that has been used for years.
Where they go on an Orlando house
Bare, unpainted or lightly stained softwood. On Central Florida homes that means fascia and soffit trim, pergolas and arbors, wooden play sets, dock and deck framing, the underside of railings, exposed rafter tails on a lanai, and cypress or cedar siding and shutters. Pressure-treated pine is not immune, and a well-finished, painted surface is the one thing that reliably puts them off.
Why you should not just leave them
One season of one bee is cosmetic. The problem is that females return to the same wood year after year and extend the existing galleries, and that woodpeckers learn what the sound of larvae means. A lot of the real damage on a carpenter bee job is the fascia a woodpecker opened up chasing the grubs.
How we treat them
The galleries get treated directly so the adults and the developing larvae inside are dealt with, then the holes get sealed once activity has stopped, not before. Plugging a live gallery just makes the bee cut a new exit. After that, the durable fix is finish: paint or a solid stain on the exposed wood, and where the same board keeps getting hit, aluminum or vinyl trim over it.
Carpenter bees are one of several wood-destroying insects we deal with in Central Florida, alongside subterranean and drywood termites, carpenter ants and powderpost beetles. If you are seeing damage and are not certain what caused it, we will identify it before we quote anything.
Call 407-580-7124.
Satisfaction Guaranteed
We treat the galleries, tell you which boards need finishing, and leave the pollinators that are not damaging your house alone.
