What comes to your mind when we talk about factors that can harm wooden furniture in your home? At the top of our heads, we can list rot, moisture, and pest-like termites. However, if you live in a forested area, your wooden furniture has to confront unexpected intruders: Carpenter bees. These bees have their eyes on eaves, rafters, fascia boards, siding, wood shake roofs, decks, and outdoor furniture. Carpenter bees are fond of weathered softwood like redwood, cedar, cypress, and pine. Therefore, any furniture that matches this description has to witness nature’s finest craftsmanship at play.
Carpenter Bees’ Love For Wood:
Of all places, why would a carpenter bee bore in wood? Just like this peculiar habit, they are unique themselves. They are solitary creatures, with a hairless shiny abdomen and a diet of pollen and nectar. Consequently, bees often buzz around flowers, collecting nectar and pollinating them. Although vital pollinators, they can be a nuisance to humans during the spring season. Spring is the time for mating and brooding, and what’s a better place to raise their young other than wood? Therefore, they keep themselves busy by constantly digging into the wood.
Interestingly, they dig a perfectly round hole, about the size of your finger. After boring a short distance, they dig multiple paths along the length of the wooden surface. Each alley will lodge an egg. The bee then stores plenty of pollen alongside the egg to provide for the larvae. After all that labor, they plug the entrance to the egg chamber with wood pulp.
These bees are solitary creatures. Therefore, each female bee will have a nest of her own, which means you can expect several holes in the wood. Repeated brooding seasons in the same wood hollows the wood, comprising its structural strength and leaving it susceptible to rot and moisture penetration.
Protecting Your Wooden Furniture:
Spraying insecticides and setting traps can help you eliminate intruding carpenter bees. You may need to spray insecticide in the holes with an extended nozzle spray can. Leave the holes open for a few days to allow the insecticide to spread. Later on, seal the holes with a suitable sealant.
Another way to stop carpenter bees is to trick them using traps. In early spring, suspend the traps from eaves and overhangs at the corners of the house, porch, deck, shed, barn, etc. Bees looking for a site to nest will fall into the trap. However, painting is the easiest way to deter bees from nesting in your wooden furniture. Bees prefer raw wood to nest, so wood paint or varnish can keep them at bay. In addition, you can also improve the furniture’s appearance and durability with this option.
In conclusion, paint and varnish can act as bee repellents, preventing a housing attempt. For all your painting needs, you can rely on TX Home Works. You can call us at (281) 841 6146 to learn more about how we can help.