How To Tell If You Have Carpenter Bees

Theyre both large bees with black and yellow hairs which gives them a fat fuzzy appearance.

How to tell if you have carpenter bees. They are also generally harmless unless they feel provoked. 1 Telltale signs of carpenter bee activity include sawdust piles on the ground and excrement stains on the wood below their holes. You might spot sawdust by the holes where a bee has been boring.

While bumblebees nest underground carpenter bees build their nests in trees and wood structures such as your house and deck. They dont have the normal yellow and black stripes. The most obvious signs that you may have a carpenter bee problem are holes that are bored into the wood around the exterior of your home.

In addition to the holes you might also notice. One of the most obvious differences that carpenter bees have to the standard bumble bee is their color. Sometimes you can hear the tunnels being made in the wood too.

Other signs that you have carpenter bees include whether or not you see coarse sawdust at the opening. This sound can be quite disconcerting especially if you know that it is coming from the tunnels of wood-boring insects. If its shiny and hairless its a carpenter bee.

The first thing you can tell is that bumblebee abdomens have yellow markings while the abdomen of a carpenter bee has no hair which makes it shiny. This means in many cases you can simply leave the bees. Most people dont even know they exist because they do not sting humans.

If you get within 8 feet of a carpenter bee you should be able to tell it apart from a bumblebee. Unlike termites carpenter bees do not eat wood. They often go unnoticed until homeowners notice sawdust around the home or holes in the siding where these bees have bored into the wood to lay eggs and raise their young.