How to protect wood from carpenter bees step 1.
Carpenter bees in pressure treated wood. Any carpenter bee holes you can reach should be treated and plugged since existing holes. Maintain all painted surfaces making sure to pre fill nail holes and cracks with caulk 3. If practical remove severely damaged wood and it replace with chemical pressure treated wood to deter nest construction. Wood stains provide little repelling action.
The chemicals in cca prevented rot and insect damage. This is probably due to the fact that pressure treated lumber tends to be more dense. You need 5 pieces of wood to build the box. If your exposed wood has an exterior wood stain but is not sealed with polyurethane or some.
To avoid bee damage to newly built wooden decks and porches people relied on pressure treated lumber containing cca chromated copper arsenate. I happened to have some old barn wood that wasn t good for anything else and it made for some nice rustic boxes. How to prevent and treat for carpenter bees carpenter bees. You can use any wood you like for the box as long as it s unfinished and not pressure treated.
When carpenter bee. Carpenter bees are big black solitary bees that look similar to bumble bees but have bare shiny backs. Third if the wood is subject to a lot of moisture mold and fungus it will increase the odds of it becoming a nest site. Carpenter bees genus xylocopa are solitary bees that burrow into wood.
They find it easier to make holes in unpolished or unpainted wooden objects such as doors window sills and railings. Sometimes it is necessary to control carpenter bees causing damage. You can differentiate the two by examining the dorsal upper side of the abdomen. Carpenter bees typically avoided stained or painted wood and still do though they may still attack it.
Treating carpenter bee holes. You can differentiate the two by examining the dorsal upper side of the abdomen. Carpenter bees don t like finished or pressure treated wood. If your wood is covered with a thick coat of exterior wood paint you will probably not.
Carpenter bees don t eat wood they only drill holes through them to build their nests and lay eggs. Remove and replace damaged wood with pressure treated or chemically treated lumber 2. That being said in my experience it would seem that in general most carpenter bees prefer untreated wood over pressure treated lumber.