The wisteria is in full bloom by the back deck. It is absolutely gorgeous and smells phenomenal! It is truly a sight to behold and a pleasure to be near except for...the bees! Don't get me wrong, I like bees. I would even go so far as to say..I love bees! I love honeybees and bumblebees. These are productive citizens of a garden. They both pollinate the fruits, vegetables and flowers thus fulfilling their duty and earning the right to be a part of the garden community. Today, however, as I was enjoying a leisurely walk through the arbor, I was pummeled..literally headbutted..by a mass of carpenter bees. It is time for these bees to mate and lay eggs so I am quite sure this attack was merely a territorial thing. I was a threat and the males, being the bullies they are, tried to scare me away from this area. I was pelted repeatedly by these little billygoats of the apian world. They were not stinging me as these were males and they do not have stingers but still it was a bit unnerving to be bombarded by a barrage of bees..assaulted by antagonists of the apiary..violated by vicious villians..ok, ok..so I was merely smacked by non-stinging bees. It still was a a tad disconcerting to have the carpenter bees getting tangled in my hair and buzzing about my ears. This I can do without!
And need I mention the damage that these critters can do to decks, fences and gates. While the males are busy smacking any intruder in their space, the female is chewing her way into the wood to make a nice nursery chamber for her little ones. Any unfinished wood is fair game for her. She will drill a most perfectly round tunnel deep into any piece of wood that is at least two inches thick. Some of her tunnels can go well into the wood weakening any structure. Here she will lay her eggs and supply the future larvae with "bee bread". Bee bread is merely pollen and regurgitated nectar..YUM!..definitely sounds delicious..and I am being sarcastic there! The eggs hatch, larvae eat their yummy meal and crawl out of the hole to start the whole process over again.
The good side of carpenter bees??? They are some of the best pollinators of open-faced flowers. The bad side of carpenter bees??? They will ruin your deck or other wooden structure by drilling it full of holes and they can stain siding or deck with an ugly yellow mess as they defecate. Another downside..once they find a suitable nesting sight, they return each year. ALL OF THEM!!! The adults that started the whole colony and each offspring will always nest in the same spot as long as it remains in suitable condition. So paint! Stain! Do something to that wood! I do not mind the bees being in my yard..just not weakening my deck and wooden steps. The tunnels are already there so the best thing I can do is replace boards and stain the deck. I do not use chemical pesticides so manual labor is the route I have to take. Or..I could round up a few young lads to pick up where my sons left off years ago. Both boys used to take plastic baseball bats and have batting practice with the bees. Seems a mite cruel but it is actually a very effective method! I am not sure it even killed the bees but made them think twice about the porch being conducive to baby bee raising!
Note..the pictures of the carpenter bees in flight were taken by Son! Good job!
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