May 6, 2011
what if bees are still flying around eaves after vinyl siding has already been put on?
If you read our CARPENTERBEE CONTROL ARTICLE, you’ll learn this bee will “over winter” or live in nests when it gets cold. Every spring they’ll want to emerge. If you covered any nests with the vinyl and failed to treat these nests, it’s quite likely there are bees emerging that are now able to move in and out of the vinyl and continue to use the siding underneath the vinyl as a nest location. This could have happened whether you put the siding up after they were hibernating or even if you put it up in the middle of the summer. You see, even in the summer there could have been some developing stages that have taken this long to finally mature and emerge.
Another reason they could be hanging around is because by design, this bee is drawn to decaying wood. They can smell it. So even though you have the vinyl up, underneath is what the bees can still detect and this will no doubt continue to draw them if left untreated.
Another reason they could be hanging around is that the vinyl is a certain color which is attracting male bees to hang around. I’ve also seen where certain plants can attract both males and females so it could be plants close, maybe up close to the house siding, so in fact it’s not the siding that’s doing the attracting.
Regardless of what is attracting them, all you need to do is treat with some DEMISE up under the siding all the way around the house. I would say to do this every spring and fall and you will no doubt keep away all the bees along with any other pests that vinyl siding tends to attract. Wasps, roaches, ants and many other pests like to get up under vinyl and the Demise is ideally designed for this area. The main reason is that it lasts so long. But the other big reason is because it’s applied in a form that’s a lot like smoke so it will penetrate the voids and spaces under the vinyl really well. This is critical for getting control of any nests that might be there.
Here are links to the article and the dust:
Carpenter Bee Control: https://www.carpenterbees.com/carpenter-bee-control
Demise: https://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/dust/drione-dust
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