One interesting thing about carpenter bees is that they seem
to lay eggs on pollen(?) inside the holes they bore, and the woodpeckers have
hammered some of the logs on a neighbors log house, looking for the larvae, I
presume. Not wanting to cover a log house with siding, what can be done to
keep them away? Hector Black zone 6 middle TN
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 7:06
PM
Subject: [NAFEX] More on Carpenter
bees
Carpenter bees have been here on our farm at least as far back as 1840 -
while they do bore a few holes here and there, the unpainted 1870 barn, the
unpainted 1890 corn crib, and the house (unpainted until 1910) show no
problems, other than a few bore holes that give the buildings character.
The males, who establish and vigorously defend temporary territories, have no
stinger. The female does have a stinger, but she is either boring a hole
or foraging for food and never bothers anyone. The number of holes per
year are minimal. The bees are around for a few weeks in mid-Spring and
are then gone until next year.
For photos of bees, see http://www.pollinator.com/identify/whatsbuzzin.htm
For more info on Carpenter Bees, see http://www.desertusa.com/mag07/mar07/bees.html
Jim
Nottke
-----Original
Message----- From: Ginda Fisher Sent: Apr 25, 2010
7:46 PM To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Carpenter bees as
pollinators
On Apr 25, 2010, at 8:21 AM, Alan Haigh wrote:
The thing is that the entire population seems to
be derived from just about 20 feet of 8" by 1" boards that are cosmetic
trim on the south side of my stucco cement block house.
Other orchards I manage nearby don't have a single carpenter bee
working their trees and I'm thinking I could encourage them by creating
nesting sites. http://www.ehow.com/how_5099006_build-nest-carpenter-bees.html
I'd advise you against building nesting sites for them on your clients'
property. Aren't most of your clients basically homeowners who like
having some fruit trees on the property? Anyhow, carpenter bees might
be fine for commercial orchards, but they have two real problems for home
use:
1) They are really big and scary looking. They don't look
soft and fluffy like a bumblebee. A friend had carpenter bees, and his
whole family was terrified of them and wouldn't go outside until they
exterminator took care of the problem.
2) They will dig holes in your house. You may not mind
sacrificing one board of trim to the bees, but lots of people would, and if
you have nests of them around, they might start a new nest and get into
structural wood. (And even if that's not very likely, homeowners will
worry about it.)
Besides, commercial orchards and massive monoculture agriculture might
need to specially raise or import pollinators, but I don't think pollination
is generally a problem for the hobbyist or home orchardist unless he sprays
to kill insects or something. I know that I don't do anything special
to encourage pollinators, but I seem to have 3-4 species of bumble bee,
something that looks like a small black honey bee (with a slightly oddly
shaped torso) various wasp-y things, and lots of little flies that seem to
buzz around whatever's in bloom. And all of my fruits seem to have
pretty decent pollination, except possibly the cornus mas that flowers too
early in the spring.
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