The warm weather is historically a sign that spring has sprung, that summer is on its way. It’s a time of renewal…and mating, which can be a particular nuisance to log home owners when carpenter bees seek shelter for their eggs.
Carpenter bees tunnel into wood to keep their eggs safe, so log home owners sometimes notice a buzz of activity around their homes in the spring and summer. The good news is that male carpenter bees do not have stingers, and the females rarely sting unless they are handled or upset in some way. So, if you can keep your distance, you’re pretty safe.
That said, you have to get close if you’re going to eliminate the problem. The very best solution, as in most things, is prevention. If you can seal up any cracks or potential holes (even the small ones!), you can keep carpenter bees from settling down in your log home’s exterior.
If you have a newer log home, you probably have a bit of an edge, since you still have time to “prevent” carpenter bee nesting. If, however, your log home is a little older, you may already have had carpenter bee roommates. Many carpenter bees go back to the same location where they were born, so if they were born in the cracks of your log home’s exterior, chances are, they’re going to try having their babies there. What’s worse is that a single nest has the potential to expand when bees drill new nests (so one nest can become two, three, four, etc.).
This drilling obviously has an adverse affect on your log home; you could have any number, even hundreds, of tiny holes in your log home’s exterior if the problem goes untreated. If there are enough bees, the carpenter bees will become noisy and attract woodpeckers, another detriment to wood structures. So, you can see how one, tiny problem can quickly balloon!
The good news for log home owners is that carpenter bees will always choose the path of least resistance, so bare and untreated wood is attractive while logs that have been painted or sealed with a protective stain aren’t nearly as appealing. So, doing something as simple as staining your home, which you should do anyway for routine maintenance, can keep carpenter bees away.
You can also spray insecticides, though those usually need to be reapplied more frequently (every couple weeks).