CARPENTER BEES
Edwin P. Cutler
Carpenter Bees are active twice a year. First in April and then in August.
During the other months they crawl into their holes and hibernate.
You will only see them in April and August.
The summer batch hatches in August and the females drill and lay eggs for the winter batch.
Young adult female and male bees hibernate in the tunnels during the winter and summer.
They mate in the spring and set about to clean out and
enlarge the old tunnels or to excavate new ones as brood chambers for their young.
Each chamber is provisioned with a portion of "bee bread",
which is a mixture of pollen and regurgitated nectar, that serves as food for the larvae.
An egg is deposited on the food supply and each chamber is sealed off.
The larvae that hatch from the eggs complete their development and like butterflys emerge as bees.
Newly developed adult carpenter bees emerge in August to
search for nectar and lay eggs in preparation to hibernate over the winter.
I bought some wooden traps.
The females crawl into pre-drilled holes and drop into a glass jar where they writhe for two days then die.
More females will crawl into a trap with dead bees already in the glass jar.
Do not spray the trap as the next female bees will avoid it.
I trapped 19 female carpenter bees the 2016 spring who will NOT drill holes in my house or sheds.
REMEMBER, only the females matter.
Do not waste time trying to kill the black males.
They crawl into the holes and hibernate with the females.
Traps can be obtained by calling 800-842-7296 and cost
$15.00. I suggest you order two to be ready for August and next Spring.