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How To Recognize The Damage That Carpenter Bees Inflict To A Home’s Structural And Cosmetic Wood Components

A variety of wood-infesting insect pests can be found throughout the United States, including carpenter ants, powderpost beetles, old house borers, carpenter bees, and of course, termites. Unfortunately for Louisiana residents, several wood-infesting insect pest species are well represented in the state, but some are more destructive than others. It should not come as a surprise to learn that termites are far and away the most economically costly wood-infesting pests in the country, particularly in Louisiana where eight termite species regularly inflict damage to homes. While termites are well known for both nesting within, and consuming structural wood, not all wood-infesting pests eat and digest wood. For example, carpenter ants and carpenter bees excavate galleries within structural lumber for nesting purposes only, while numerous insect species, such as bark beetles, only infest natural wood sources. Although they do not get much attention as wood-infesting pests, carpenter bees can inflict serious and costly damage to homes by tunneling through structural and cosmetic wood sources.

Seven carpenter bee species have been documented in the US, but the most destructive species is commonly known as the eastern carpenter bee, which can be found in Louisiana. Carpenter bees are sometimes referred to as “living drills” due to the female’s habit of excavating long nesting galleries within indoor structural wood and both painted and unpainted wood located on the exterior of homes, particularly siding. Rather than consuming wood, carpenter bees nest, raise their young and hibernate in finished wood sources. Some infestation cases have seen carpenter bees excavate tunnels as long as 10 feet into structural and cosmetic wood sources. In addition to the wood components that make up houses, carpenter bees have been known to damage wooden lawn furniture, garden tools, fences and dead tree branches. Homeowners usually first notice carpenter bee infestations when encountering sawdust that the bees discard while tunneling through finished wood. The holes that the bees excavate in order to nest within wood are around half an inch in diameter and all holes found on a home are identical in size. The bees plow 4 to 6 inches into wood before making right turns in order to continue excavating against the grain. Carpenter bees hibernate in structural and cosmetic wood during the winter before emerging in the spring in order to feed on nectar.

Have you ever encountered carpenter bee damage to your home?

Essential Aspects Of Bee Safety

Bees are an essential part of any ecosystem they inhabit because they help with the pollination of plants. In this article, we’re going to cover everything you need to know about these insects and how to safely interact with them if they are somewhere in your environment.

Why bees pose a threat

Bee stings can be painful, and they can be very dangerous to individuals who are allergic to bee venom, but a single bee can only sting once, so most stings are uncomfortable, but ultimately harmless. However, when a bee hive is threatened, then the bees will swarm and a very large amount of venom will be injected into the intruder. Bee stings can also be dangerous if they happen in the neck area, which will cause edema, filling the neck tissues with fluid and making it difficult or impossible to breathe. Another issue may come up if you are stung while operating a vehicle or some form or machinery or tool, and the sting startles you.

Precautions to take against bees

The best way to avoid getting stung is to be aware of your surroundings and avoid any bees or hives that you may notice. To start, do not go into areas that are known to have a lot of bees. These areas usually have a lot of flowers during spring, where the bees will be collecting nectar and helping with pollination.

If you do have to go into one of these areas, make sure that you either wear or have on you some long sleeve shirts, long pants, and closed-toed shoes. So for example, if you are going camping during the spring, you want to have these clothes in your backpack even if it’s too hot outside to wear them. If you did not take these precautions, and you suddenly find yourself in an area that has bees in it, you can avoid getting stung by making sure not to startle or swat at the bees. Most bees will only sting in self-defense, or in defense of their nests.

What to do if there is a nest near your home

Bees may set up a nest in your backyard, and in these situations, you will need the help of a pro to safely get rid of it. Contact us today if you have such a nest on your property, or if you have any questions about the bee control process.

Are People With Venom Allergies The Only Victims Of Fatal Bee, Wasp And Ant Stings?

While there exists plenty of arthropod species that can inflict painful bites or stings to humans, very few arthropod species are considered medically significant. Almost all medical professionals agree that black widows and recluse spiders are the only spiders in the US that are medically significant, but most people who have sustained a bite from one of these spiders recovered without professional medical intervention. However, a little more than 100 people die from arthropod-related injuries every year in the US, and most of these fatalities result from honey bee and yellow jacket envenomations. But is venom really the culprit in these fatalities? After all, the exact cause of death in the vast majority of fatal wasp and bee envenomation incidents is anaphylactic shock, which is not technically death by venom toxicity.

Anaphylactic shock is an extreme allergic response to a foreign material, and this condition is fatal unless proper medical treatment is administered in time. Those with an allergy to Hymenoptera venom (bees, wasps and ants) are at high risk of experiencing anaphylaxis following one or a few stings. It is often assumed that most people are not allergic to arthropod venom, and therefore, most people are not at risk of anaphylaxis following bee or wasp stings, but this is not exactly the case. While some people are born with a sensitivity to certain arthropod venoms, those who are not can develop a sensitivity to venom in response to repeated stings, but others may become less sensitive with each sting sustained. It is not known why repeated stings cause some people to develop an allergy to venom while others become more tolerant of it, but those who have experienced a progressive worsening of envenomation symptoms with each successive Hymenoptera sting should visit an allergy specialist or immunologist for proper testing.

People who do not have a venom allergy can die in response to numerous stings inflicted by swarming wasps and bees. Wasp swarms are particularly dangerous, as each individual wasp inflicts stings repeatedly. Some experts believe that the rate of annual arthropod-related fatalities in the US may be higher than reported. For example, a small number of deaths that have officially been attributed to heat stroke or heart attacks may have been caused by arthropod envenomations, and some fatal car accidents may occur in response to drivers sustaining arthropod stings.

Have you ever sustained a painful spider bite?

Wood Damage Resulting From Carpenter Bee Infestations Is Often Far More Extensive Than It Appears

Everyone worries about their home being infested by termites, and the kind of extensive and often expensive damage they can cause to the structural wood of a home. Carpenter bees, however, don’t generally cross people’s minds when they consider insect infestations that can cause serious damage to their home. A recent nationwide survey of pest management professionals revealed that carpenter bees were actually the third most commonly controlled wood-damaging insect pests on residential properties during the 2016 year. With the exception of eastern subterranean termites, carpenter bees were controlled more frequently than all termite pest species within and around US homes during 2016. In fact, an infestation of carpenter bees can frequently lead to much more costly and extensive damage of a home’s wood components than people realize, particularly if it goes unnoticed for a long period of time and is infested by multiple generations that have gone unnoticed by homeowners. Since they build their nests within wood, this can happen easily since it helps hide them, and without a visible hive for people to connect to any bees they might see around their home, they are prone to ignoring their presence and think nothing of it.

Carpenter bees look like your generic picture of a large black and yellow bee, although they have a hairless abdomen. People mostly see them during the spring months, and they tend to hover around wooden decks, under the eaves of houses, near porch rails, and deck furniture. They do not consume wood, only excavating tunnels to be used as nesting sites. They do this with their incredibly strong teeth, leaving behind a ½ inch round hole and a bit of sawdust as evidence. Exposed wood such as that making up wooden decks are their main targets. While one specific nesting tunnel may not cause too much damage to the wood, with larval galleries generally being 6 to 7 inches long, but can be as long as a foot. When more than one bee uses the initial entrance hole, branching off of the main tunnel to excavate their individual larval gallery. If this continues for years unnoticed, those tunnels can grow pretty extensive, extending several feet into the wood and decimating the inside of what may appear to be healthy, whole wood. When those new larvae develop into adults and emerge in late summer, they will often begin cleaning out their tunnel to use as an overwintering site.

Have you ever found structural wood from your home that had been infested and damaged by carpenter bees?

Do Africanized Honey Bees AKA “Killer Bees” Exist Within Louisiana

Many people are familiar with Africanized honey bees, but just about everyone has heard the term “killer bees” numerous times. The Africanized honey bee is an extremely aggressive non-native honey bee in North America, and due to their aggressive swarming behavior around humans, which sometimes results in fatalities, the species has become known as the “killer bee”. Africanized honey bees (AHB) are native to Africa, but a scientist brought the species to a laboratory in Brazil in order to breed the species with other species in an effort to increase honey yields. Shortly after beginning his interbreeding program, the AHB escaped and slowly migrated north, eventually arriving in Texas in 1990. Shortly thereafter, the AHB began to interbreed with common European honey bees in New Mexico and Arizona. By 2001, AHB arrived in Louisiana for the first time at Caddo Parish. In 2005, officials with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry determined that Caddo, Calcasieu and Cameron parish had become infested with the aggressive non-native bees. By 2007, the AHB arrived in New Orleans, and today, officials are attempting to reduce their populations with traps located in various areas of the state.

Africanized honey bees are not as resilient to cold weather and bouts of rainfall as their European counterparts, which helps keep the bees under control in rainy Louisiana. This also explains why AHB pose the greatest public health risk in Arizona compared to all other states where the bees have established hives. The dry Sonoran desert is an ideal habitat for AHB, making attacks in Louisiana more rare.

It is not easy to tell the difference between common European honey bees and AHB, as both species appear nearly identical, only European honey bees are slightly larger in body size than AHB. Behavioral differences between the two species are more pronounced, although both species become aggressive when their hives are approached or disturbed by humans. Of course, AHB are far more aggressive than European honey bees, and AHB are known for pursuing humans over greater distances than European honey bees. While both species are often found nesting within homes, particularly within wall voids, it is exceptionally rare for and AHB colony to establish a nest within a Louisiana home.

Have you ever been pursued by an angry honey bee swarm?

Archive for the ‘bees’ Category

How To Recognize The Damage That Carpenter Bees Inflict To A Home’s Structural And Cosmetic Wood Components

Essential Aspects Of Bee Safety

Are People With Venom Allergies The Only Victims Of Fatal Bee, Wasp And Ant Stings?

Wood Damage Resulting From Carpenter Bee Infestations Is Often Far More Extensive Than It Appears

Do Africanized Honey Bees AKA “Killer Bees” Exist Within Louisiana

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