What is the best way to minimize the damage of carpenter bees in a F.L. Wright-style house with cedar siding?
They are doing damage to the fascia and the spraying by pest control people doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot of good.
If you read through our CARPENTER BEE CONTROL ARTICLE, you’ll learn these bees will readily crawl under siding and facia boards to drill nests which will then effectively be hidden and secure. It sounds like this might be happening at your house. For these situations, it’s imperative the DEMISE DUST get applied up under the siding where you see bees foraging. If you’re not sure where exactly they’re crawling up, treat as much as you can. As shown in the Demise video, the dust is light and airy and when applied every 2-3 feet under the siding, it will permeate around effectively treating the entire space. And believe it or not, it only takes 2-3 squirts which takes all of 1-2 seconds and then you move on. In other words, dusting is easy and fast yet very effective. When done 1-2 a year, Demise dusting is about the best form of treatment that can be done on any building including homes.
The same application should be done under the facia boards around the roof line. The Demise will float up to any nests and holes and will kill any bees that attempt to crawl over the treatment. I also recommend dusting behind gutters and where shingles hang over gutters as these are all likely points of access for invasive pests. Lastly, a good spraying with the MAXXTHOR will help stop new nests from being drilled. But as our article says, spraying alone will not work on the existing nests which might be why your current service isn’t proving effective. I suspect they haven’t dusted yet because without dusting the existing nests, no spray will keep them away. Either get the Demise applied by them or do it yourself if you wish to minimize the damage and nesting because the problem will tend to get worse and worse year after year if left untreated.
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
Carpenter Bee Article: www.carpenterbees.com
Demise: https://bugspray.com/catalog/insecticide/dust/drione-demise-dust-6-oz
Crusader Duster: bugspray.com/equipment/dusters/crusader
Maxxthor: bugspray.com/catalog/insecticide/liquid/maxxthor-ec
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