Controlling carpenter bees

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. If you have carpenter bees boring into wooden areas of your house, here are some tips. The females prefer unpainted wood, so get out your paintbrush. A stained finish won’t work. And although we like to protect our pollinators, you may have to resort to using carpenter bee traps. If you just search "carpenter bee traps, site: e d u," you’ll find directions on how to make one. The educational sites also tell you how to safely poison the young already laid in galleries. If you aren’t a handyman, look for traps for sale. You do have to empty out the traps the carpenter bees fall into; there are tips on how to safely do that – putting the container in the freezer is simple and doesn’t require pesticides.